I’m going to rant.
Take a look at the first two paragraphs and bullet list here: http://www.peteonsoftware.com/index.php/2011/08/23/programming-language-skills/
Which part of programming is as simple as using a hammer, a manual saw, a table saw, a router, a clamp?
I’d argue that these are fundamentals. If you want to compare, compare them to programmer fundamentals.
- using the if statement – 20 years experience
- using the for statement – 20 years experience
- using recursion – 20 years experience
- writing functions – 20 years experience
- using variable assignment – 20 years experience
- using math operators – 20 years experience
- doing string manipulation – 20 years experience
Just as the Programming Language “Skiills” post says, you never really need to put this on your resume.
You can have many years of carpentry experience and just as in programming, maybe you have repeated the same one year many times, or maybe you have done something new every year.
A quick search for Cabinet Maker at monster.com shows a job posting: http://jobview.monster.com/Cabinet-Maker-Job-Rome-GA-101712507.aspx
Notice how the requirements are nothing like “we want 20 years experience using a hammer’” ?
Its because metaphor does not work.
Can we as programmers please stop using this metaphor?