Head Hunter: Hi, I'm looking for a software engineer to fill a vacancy in one of our client's teams. Can you tell me how many years of experience you have with JavaScript?
Engineer: Hi! I have been working with JavaScript for eight years.
I just hate this type of conversation, where the number of years is the only thing that gives value to your experience, it could be eight years of mindless copy+paste from Stack overflow or two years of pure hard work and carefully reading documentation.
Using years of experience as a metric to measure a skill or domain of a language or technology is often not an accurate measure of a developer's proficiency or expertise.
Why not? You may ask, here are four reasons why:
The number of years of experience does not always correlate with the quality of that experience. Someone may have been working with technology for several years but not have developed a deep understanding of it or may have developed poor habits or practices that they continue to follow.
The rate of change in the technology landscape is such that experience in a technology five years ago may not be very relevant today. For instance, a developer who has ten years of experience with a certain programming language may be much less proficient than another developer with only two years of experience, but who has worked with the latest version of that language.
The scope of work done by developers with the same amount of experience may vary greatly. Some may have worked on large, complex projects, while others may have only worked on small, straightforward projects. This makes it difficult to compare their skill levels based solely on their years of experience.
Different developers learn and grow at different rates. A developer who has worked with a certain technology for five years may be less knowledgeable than someone who has only been working with it for two years but has actively pursued learning and professional development opportunities.
Ultimately, the best way to measure a developer's skill level is through objective metrics, such as code quality, efficiency, and successful project completion. Years of experience can be a useful data point if you have a portfolio generated during this period, but it should not be the sole factor considered when assessing a developer's proficiency in a particular technology or domain.
In conclusion, while the number of years of experience is one factor to consider when assessing the experience of a software engineer, it should not be the only metric. Many other factors can influence a developer's proficiency and expertise, including the quality of their experience, the types of projects they have worked on, and their commitment to ongoing learning and professional development. To truly understand a developer's experience and skill level, recruiters and hiring managers should look beyond years of experience and consider more objective metrics, such as code quality, project outcomes, and the ability to solve complex technical problems.
Top comments (1)
I like to think (for most of us) we're riding bikes since we're little kids, but it doesn't make us professional cyclists