> That's all it means (to any reasonable employer). There's the rub. Early in my career when I had little working experience this CONSTANTLY bit me. It didn't

> That's all it means (to any reasonable employer). There's the rub. Early in my career when I had little working experience this CONSTANTLY bit me. It didn't matter that I did consulting on the side or that I worked with the technology or even that I went to school and used the technology there. In my experience almost all of non-tech companies and maybe half-ish of the tech companies would require the experience be on the job at a company. Now I don't know how indicative my experience is. I don't know if this type of information is tracked anywhere. As an aside I'll never forget the one company I applied for who was looking for a developer with 5+ years experience in using .Net Framework... in 2003.