Stop Using Years of Experience to Measure Software Devs

Jun 11

I’ve realized something quite profound. If more of us recognized this we could perhaps change the industry.

Unfortunately that means understanding a problem fully, and doing something about it (which isn’t something that software developers are always good at.

Here is what I’ve realized.

Years of experience can be the same year repeated over and over.
Therefore experience should not be used as a shorthand for developer competency.

I’m serious that I’ve recognized this, and I’m serious that this could change everything. Because we aren’t able to differentiate the quality of experience we rely on the quantity of experience. Recruiters look at the time somebody has worked and derive the quality of the candidate, but that’s a poor measure of a candidate.

So I say

Please stop using years of experience to rate people and in job adverts

The Problems With A Years Yardstick

Years of experience have been used for as long as I remember to rate and compare developers.

Sure there is some correlation between years of experience and what a developer can deliver, but the link is not as strong as you might believe.

The idea that a developer is better with 5 years of experience against one with 3 years is a poor assumption, and based on presumptions that verge on myths.

Here are those presumptions.

All Years Are Equal

One year of experience != one year of experience.

They’re all different. We know this, during some seasons of your life you learn so much at such pace. Other times…not so much.

A great recruiter once said to me

“Your experience is only interesting to me if you are learning something. A developer with fewer years of experience can be more skilled than one with more years depending on what tech and challenge they have been exposed to.”

I think that is true. Whether we are talking about programming skills or soft skills we want software developers to level up. (I know, soft skills are seldom valued in software development yet Lack of soft skills even got my colleague fired).

This is a revolution

The tech industry evolves so quickly meaning what was relevant five years ago might be obsolete today.

If a software developer is unable to use AI in 2025 they’re simply behind. Not reading blogs? Not keeping up to date with the latest technology? It doesn’t necessarily matter how many years you’ve worked in software development, what matters is what you’ve done with that time.

I just raised a PR to solve a threading issue because the developer doesn’t understand the API they’re using. Sure, it’s 4 years old but a ‘senior’ developer at our place hasn’t kept up to date and that is introducing real-world bugs into our codebase. Yet if you look at their years of experience you see a competent developer with 15 years of experience.

That’s why I have a strong opinion on this one. Your competency is not about miles on the clock, it’s actually about what you’re learning.

The importance of soft skills

Focusing solely on years of experience can overlook crucial soft skills like adaptability, problem-solving, and teamwork.

My colleague at work got fired for their lack of soft skills. These skills are so important that people get hired, and get fired because of how they behave and interact with others at work.

So why aren’t we looking at the behaviors and talent of software engineering candidates and instead focus on the faulty metric of years of experience?

Introducing Bias

Larger organizations talk about the advantage of transparent processes and try to remove bias from their recruitment process.

Yet they’re invariably using years of experience as a benchmark, and this can work against the young in the job market. Talent with a couple of years of experience can bring fresh, innovative ideas to a project.

We all know that some older developers are presumed to be too expensive because of the number of years they have had in the industry, or just won’t fit in that mid-level role.

It’s almost as if tech companies favor homogenized workforces. It’s almost as if they are not interested in a diverse workforce and don’t want successful software development. Yeah, that, although the evidence is clear a homogenized workforce does not help software development.

What We Should Do

I have already created an idealized recruitment framework. So we should follow that.

But overall I think this is all about attitude and expectations. When we see a developer with many years of experience we often doff our cap to them. We see a “newbie” and assume their code will suck. These assumptions lead to a poor approach to recruitment.

Ignore the cliches. Years of experience has a weak correlation with competency in software development. Have an open mind and you’re likely to see people for who they are, make better recruitment choices and actually pay attention to what is happening in front of you. And doesn’t that sound good?

Conclusion

Tech firms seem to like simple solutions. Should it be a surprise that rating developers on their years of experience are widely used?

Tech firms short term and lazy? Where have I heard that one before?

The Secret Developer