How can I properly describe my years of experience on my resume?

Question

I have in total:

• 3 month contract at one employer
• 2 years, 6 months at anther employer ( mobile applications )

In total this is 2 years and 9 months of paid programming experience. It's not exactly 3 years but pretty close. I think saying 2 and 3/4 years is kind of odd.

That also doesn't include the practicum projects I've worked on.

On my resume I've said:

Software Developer with 3 years of experience programming applications in XYZ for mobile devices.

Could this be interpreted as a lie? I hope not. I don't want to come across that way.

How could I describe my experience better?

Answer 1

Don't complicate your life: two years and nine months round up to three years, so you're not lying. What you did during those 2 years and 9 months are far more important and relevant to a prospective employer.

It's going to take at least several weeks at the earliest before you get another job, throw in a couple of weeks for your resignation notice and before you know it, you'll be so close to the actual 3 calendar years it's not going to be funny (to you).

I wouldn't sweat the 3 months you spend working for that other employer. For one thing, you may have learned some skills during those 3 months that are transferable to mobile programming. For another thing, given what we know about you through your multiple posts, you probably pulled in enough overtime in the 2 years and 6 months you spent working for your second employer to make it effectively 2 years and 9 months' worth of mobile programming. Make sure to say in your job description for your second employer that you put in say 50 hours a week.

Answer 2

On my resume I've said:

"Software Developer with 3 years of experience programming applications in XYZ for mobile devices."

Could this be interpreted as a lie? I hope not. I don't want to come across that way.

How could I describe my experience better?

I suppose it could be interpreted as a lie, since you don't actually have 3 years of experience quite yet. I don't think most hiring managers would worry about it, but a few might.

To be sure, I'd probably prefer something like this for now: "Software Developer with nearly 3 years of experience programming applications in XYZ for mobile devices."

In a few months you can truthfully change it to: "Software Developer with over 3 years of experience programming applications in XYZ for mobile devices."