how good do you have to be to claim you have X amount of experience with X language/platform/skill

Question

sometimes i see job requirements saying you need 5 years of LAMP experience or resumes listing years of experience for each language....

what would you need to prove you have 5 years of experience at something ?

i mean what if you rested for a while from coding ? what if you were actually "learning" during the first few years ?

i feel no confidence at all and although i have been learning web programming (lamp) since 4 years ago, i am uncertain whether my skills qualify as to those of someone who has "5 years of LAMP" experience, and how would i be able to find out ?

i've written several web apps....but they haven't taken off as i hoped.

Answer 1

In general I would say that it means that you've had 5 years of employment working with the technology. If you're self-employed, that would mean that it has been your primary source of income during that time, i.e., it really was your job, not something you've just been dabbling in. When we add up years of experience (we have to for our HR department), we come up with three different numbers -- years of education, years of technology-related employment and years of direct experience with the technology. The first would include years learning a technology in either a formal or informal setting. It would not be included in the years of direct experience unless you were actually using the technology to earn a living. Jobs held as a student may or may not qualify, or may be given partial credit, i.e., if you worked 3 years as a student programmer, our experience with our student programmers indicates that you may have been a reasonably independent programmer for half that time.

Answer 2

Programming is a very vast knowledge. u cant know every thing. If u were a historian or other profession. tht is it. Once u read z history it is just enough. But u come to programming it is very huge. there r different language, there r new technologies everyday but keep in mind tht once u know have z base of programming. u dont care what z languages or technologies. U just fit in it.................