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tamhas
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I've never thought mere years of experience meant a lot. It can ... I think mine does ... but I've met a good share of folks who have been doing it for a long time that I wouldn't let do anything without close supervision. And, I've met ones with very modest experience base that I quickly trust to work on their own.
I was reading a mystery recently which caused me to think about the police force ... how there were some who were 20+ year veterans and still mere officers or constables while others were rising through the ranks. Same thing really...
I was reading a mystery recently which caused me to think about the police force ... how there were some who were 20+ year veterans and still mere officers or constables while others were rising through the ranks. Same thing really...
tamhas
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Employers ask for a lot of silly things in ads, including 7 years experience in a technology that is only 4 years old!
Unless the employer is a complete idiot ... which certainly is the case sometimes ... that request for years of experience is more an indication of the maturity of the programmer than it is an actual requirement. E.g., some years back I hired a guy who had been programming for about 10 years, 5 of it in main frame 4GL database applications, 0 of it in ABL. Naturally, he did fine and was productive in no time at all. Turned out he had some other bad habits which were a problem, but I don't know how I would have detected that at time of hiring.
I know I'm not helping to answer your question, but I suspect that if you had good data you would find the answer highly variable ... especially relative to the N years experience requirement because that is just a vague screen. Expertise in certain technologies, proven track record, good job relevant skills like communication or leadership, etc. are the kind of thing that is going to swing the value of the person to the organization and thus the salary meter.
Many, many years ago when I was last looking for a job, I worked with a very interesting recruiter who said a couple of interesting things about resumes. First, he was a big fan of ignoring the 1 page rule about resumes in favor of making contact independent of the resume. Doesn't work, of course, in environments where they are dumping 1000 resumes into an automated filter, but fortunately that isn't very typical in the ABL market. If one makes contact with somebody and gets them interested by forming a connection between what they need and who you are, then they won't mind at all reading a couple of pages of resume ... in fact, they will like it because it tells them more about you. His other big point was that a resume should speak to accomplishments. If one cites a job title and dates and then provides description of duties which anyone could guess at from the job title, one has communicated nothing beyond the job title. If one says what one did in that position that was above and beyond the expected, then one is providing real information. E.g., if one worked as a DBA for three years, during which one did one really innovative thing for 2 weeks that saved money or recovered from trouble or whatever, talk about the 2 weeks, not the rest of it.
Unless the employer is a complete idiot ... which certainly is the case sometimes ... that request for years of experience is more an indication of the maturity of the programmer than it is an actual requirement. E.g., some years back I hired a guy who had been programming for about 10 years, 5 of it in main frame 4GL database applications, 0 of it in ABL. Naturally, he did fine and was productive in no time at all. Turned out he had some other bad habits which were a problem, but I don't know how I would have detected that at time of hiring.
I know I'm not helping to answer your question, but I suspect that if you had good data you would find the answer highly variable ... especially relative to the N years experience requirement because that is just a vague screen. Expertise in certain technologies, proven track record, good job relevant skills like communication or leadership, etc. are the kind of thing that is going to swing the value of the person to the organization and thus the salary meter.
Many, many years ago when I was last looking for a job, I worked with a very interesting recruiter who said a couple of interesting things about resumes. First, he was a big fan of ignoring the 1 page rule about resumes in favor of making contact independent of the resume. Doesn't work, of course, in environments where they are dumping 1000 resumes into an automated filter, but fortunately that isn't very typical in the ABL market. If one makes contact with somebody and gets them interested by forming a connection between what they need and who you are, then they won't mind at all reading a couple of pages of resume ... in fact, they will like it because it tells them more about you. His other big point was that a resume should speak to accomplishments. If one cites a job title and dates and then provides description of duties which anyone could guess at from the job title, one has communicated nothing beyond the job title. If one says what one did in that position that was above and beyond the expected, then one is providing real information. E.g., if one worked as a DBA for three years, during which one did one really innovative thing for 2 weeks that saved money or recovered from trouble or whatever, talk about the 2 weeks, not the rest of it.
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