Should one Consider Periods in “Year of Experience” while actually not Coding on regular basis

Question

Sorry if the title sounds a bit clumsy.

The scenario I am trying to describe is during my academic years I have mostly coded in C/C++. Few small projects were done but no large scale work was done. From there on, after entering industry, I rarely code in C++ but whenever I do, I use its features as deep as my understanding. Now, should I even consider myself a C++ programmer and count every year since I first started coding as my number of years in C++.

Answer 1

You've just described why "years of experience" is a virtually useless measure of anything.

If you can code C++, then of course do mention that in your CV. If you've done some working software, you're probably better than quite a few of the "C/C++ programmers" out there. But instead of "years of experience", consider writing short summaries of the projects that you've actually done. That's useful information to the recruiter.