Job offers are asking for n
years of experience. I'm currently finishing my master's degree at university and asking myself how to determine "my n
".
I started coding in my mid-teens and have had a job as a software developer (more or less) since 2011. The first jobs were less than a half-time job, as I was just a school kid, but I sometimes worked on and finished projects (websites for customers) all by myself. I also used to code in my free time, and bring this knowledge to my workplace and even introduced a new framework, that is now used there.
Since starting to study at university I had on and off-times with working as a developer, but at this moment I have a half time job in a software development team. I feel like I can keep up with the skills of the more experienced (by years) colleagues. Most of them don't have a degree and judging from talks with my principal, about infrastructure planning, I seem to have more insights and understanding on broader topics, than my co-developers.
I read the answer to this question to get more insights about my situation.
I think the two factors that matter for determining experience in this case are
- Obviously the hours/days working paid (
Σ years in job * (working hours per week / full-time week hours)
) - The time since I started coding: Technology passes by and I have seen and learned more than someone with equal work hours, whostarted later than me.
How do I weigh and quantify these factors? Should I just put (1) on my CV? How would I explain and justify this kind of experience in an interview?