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...And yet two of the adverts on the front page specify years of experience.

"5-7 years of development experience in a working environment" http://hackerjobs.co.uk/jobs/2013/3/25/the-amazings-lead-rai...

"a PHP Developer, with at least 2 years commercial experience." http://hackerjobs.co.uk/jobs/2013/3/25/dxi-limited-php-devel...

FWIW, I agree with the legislation. I want someone with a track record of success - not a set number of years grinding away.

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You're absolutely right. We don't tell employers how to word their adverts but we do try and provide guidance. The majority of roles on our site (and pretty much every other IT job board in the UK) have that stipulation somewhere in the job spec.

Instead of asking for 2 years of commercial experience, it'd be better to ask for demonstrable proof of experience with the kinds of situations you'd find after 2 years of working commercially.

Knowing how to rebase in git would spring to mind as a useful skill. Or knowing how to run a code review session.

It's an entirely valid point. I know some devs who are 10 years younger than me, and far better in terms of their rails skills.

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