It fucking pisses me off when people compare experience as a benchmark of his performance or knowledge while hiring for job and even salaries depend on that. How do you know that, that guy has jerked around while the younger guy with less years of experienco would work better and harder.
What is your experience with people like that?

I've always thought about that. If you've spent 5 years using the same framework and language while doing the same thing repeatedly, how much is that experience really worth?

@jirehstudios exactly that's what i had experienced too. One guy comes in with 10 years of experience with very little diversity in knowledge. What's the point if don't explore new stuff or even get better at more stuff.

@rjcrystal "I have 10 years of experience adding routes to a web app." Lol!

@jirehstudios haha or "i can use git but I'd suggest we have two different repositories rather than have fuckin separate branches because i know of no such thing'

Amen!!

Honestly I came strait out of school into a cooperate at 16 with next to no experience, 3 years of hard work and I've found myself in management. Funny how these things work!

A good point. I have lots of lots of experience myself, but find myself constantly in awe of much younger colleagues who have far less experience but whose depth and breadth of knowledge and ability is just amazing!

You all have very good points and by no means should you ever get in a rut and stop learning new things, but if you look at this from an employer's perspective, experience is a thinly veiled front that usually shows a measure of loyalty. It's much more effective for them to hire someone that shows a history of staying with an employer for a long time rather than a less seasoned applicant. In our industry there are a lot of contractors and employment turnover so you can expect this to remain an unfortunate part of hiring talent.

@lquessenberry that is a very valid point.

It's not just about knowledge, employers who ask for experience are also asking for someone who is more likely to have faced and resolved a wider range of setbacks, issues. Also more experienced in project/time management, estimation, people skills etc.

Asking for more years of experience is a simple way of filtering applicants. I'm not saying that approach will get you the best person for the job but otherwise it'd be harder to rule people out and it's too much time and effort to interview everyone.