Wait, are people not listing their hobbies and side projects on their resumes? Just list everything you want highlight. You can even put a long-term side-project right in with your career experience (just stop calling it "job" experience).
If you've been programming for 5 years, then it's 5 years experience. I don't care whether that was paid or hobby work.
However, I do value experience. If you read my article I'm proud to be a programmer you'll see the extent of experience a good programmer needs. This isn't something you can just magically have -- you need to actively work on projects where you'll get it.
But you're absolutely correct that just accumulating "job" years indicates nothing. I consider the years a prerequisite, but not a satisfying condition. Actually, when I do interviews it's often easiest to discover bad programmers with lots of questionable "experience". They tend not to be able to answer difficult programming questions, which they should be able to with that level of experience.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
Wait, are people not listing their hobbies and side projects on their resumes? Just list everything you want highlight. You can even put a long-term side-project right in with your career experience (just stop calling it "job" experience).
If you've been programming for 5 years, then it's 5 years experience. I don't care whether that was paid or hobby work.
However, I do value experience. If you read my article I'm proud to be a programmer you'll see the extent of experience a good programmer needs. This isn't something you can just magically have -- you need to actively work on projects where you'll get it.
But you're absolutely correct that just accumulating "job" years indicates nothing. I consider the years a prerequisite, but not a satisfying condition. Actually, when I do interviews it's often easiest to discover bad programmers with lots of questionable "experience". They tend not to be able to answer difficult programming questions, which they should be able to with that level of experience.