I'm exploring the job market in Chicago, and I always dread these questions from recruiters: "How many years of XYZ do you have?". Because nobody defines what a year of experience is, and they backpedal and stumble if I ask what they mean.
What is a year of C++ (or SQL or OpenGL)?
Physically writing code every working day for a year? If I write a line of code every day for a week, is that more experience than writing 300 lines in one day?
If I work on a 1-year project using C++ and SQL, do you have a year of both or 6 mos of both? And how many days of coding in a year does it take to count as a year of experience?