Signed up on Freelancer as a soft engg. graduate with quite a lot of projects in Android and web services. A guy inboxes me regarding an applied bid and once everything's clear and mutually agreed upon with, he presents me with this one God damn question - "how many years of experience have you got?"
With truth said, all I get in response is, "looking for people with more exp. thanks for your time".
Yeah I'm sure he was born with 5+ y experience right off the bat. 😠

Send him an invoice for your time setting up a contract and answering his stupid emails for nothing.

@Intronout I hope he doesn't have another set of T&Cs for that!

As someone with less than 6 months professional experience and 2 years hobby experience, I can relate. I'm likely to gain more experience at home coding all day, every day, than I am in an office writing something like validation logic for a retail site. That said, if they can find someone with more experience for the same price (which they probably can on freelancer), more power to them really.

@Braed it's again subjective. More experience on paper doesn't always imply more practical knowledge. It's quite possible that he's just been assisting the developer in his work but again, nothing stops him from recording that as experience!

@theGeekyLad exactly! I think I know more than the average junior dev with a year of experience so I tend to tell people that I have a year of experience.

Dont give up! I was in your position a few months ago. A client contacted me, showed interest, explained his project, took an interview on phone. And in the end he said the same line, "We're looking for someone with more experience"

But i didn't give up there. A month later I got my biggest offer ever for the same gig! I used Fiverr instead of freelancer but the moral of the story is - be patient. Keep experimenting with different strategies, ideas, platforms, but don't expect immediate results or you'd be left frustrated

Fake it 'til you make it. When I was 16, I found myself with an opportunity to build an advanced site for two different companies that each required an elaborate CMS. I wanted the job, I wanted the experience, but I only previously had worked with HTML doing static pages. I pitched it as completely doable and sounded very knowledgeable. They gave me the opportunity.

I straightaway hauled ass to the nearest Barnes & Noble bookstore (this was early 2000's) and bought a PHP book and inhaled it. I worked around the clock reading it and working on their sites until I had completed each of them. They were happy clients because I delivered.

My point is, they want to be happy clients but they mistakenly associate that with a long resume. What they really want is a great final product.

So, fake it, and then bust ass to build them a thing of beauty. Then you'll have "made it".

Another tip, if you're trying to land a job at the beginning, cumulatively add up all your time working on various projects. Maybe you've spent a year simultaneously working across four different projects. Tell them you have four years.

Each project gave you different challenges and increased your experience in a unique way.

And, the point remains, if you know you can do what they're asking for, work hard and prove it. Really, that's all that matters.

@Braed yes and doesn't seem wrong saying so too!

@samsepiol wow! That's a great piece of advice. I'll keep up the spirit and maybe try out Fiverr! Cheers!

@duckWit one of the best comments I've read on this app. You're absolutely right.

@duckWit "fake it till ya' make it" - that's like the motto of the moment, now for me too! That's some sheer hard work with the PHP thing man. Maybe it's only because of this project that you gave PHP a kickstart and spent hours learning it. So the bottom line is that the success is transitively dependent on the little lie at the beginning which in your case actually paid off - noted!