“Experience” is like Tuan Jim’s Ability in the abstract–it is the facility of learning from success. (Think about it, there are many more potential ways of failing than succeeding.) But that facility has to be one of extending and adapting success to analogous problems, not of riding a one-trick pony.

The former can be nurtured at the individual level (to a greater extent), while the latter is primarily learned though exposure. Leading others (with open eyes) will smack you in the face with what you don’t know.

In my opinion, a good developer has a healthy dose of both, with the bottle tipped towards the technical.

I agree 100% that “years” are not a good metric of “experience”. Yes, time is an important factor, but everyone gains experience at a different rate, depending on responsibilities, motivation, etc. I have no doubt that I’ll be a better developer in a year, but the person that has been in a certain line of work a year longer than me won’t necessarily have more experience.

I was a pretty cocky SOB when i first began working professionally…hell, even while I was still in school since I was doing things at a high enough level that my work was getting noticed by “real” firms and clients. And while I still maintain I had the ability to back it up at the time, I didn’t really know squat.

I was fortunate to be influenced by several great individuals throughout my career, and continue to learn today. A year from now, I’ll be even better. A year after that, even more.

The early opportunities I received to lead absolutely helped build experience faster and definitely contributed to what I consider to be a pretty fast rise, but there’s no way I can say now, looking back, that I couldn’t have been more effective in my previous roles if I were doing them again with the experience I now have.