Ask HN: How do you fix “one/few years of experience repeated multiple times”?
Fixing it is hard.  The biggest hurdle is just admitting to yourself where you&#x27;re at and how you got there.  As much as you can blame your previous employer for your situation, it&#x27;s ultimately your responsibility and you need to own that.<p>From a hiring manager perspective, I wouldn&#x27;t say that it&#x27;s game over, however.  I&#x27;ve had plenty of devs get to the interview stage that have an experience vs skill mismatch, maybe 5 years instead of 10, but I consider them for maintenance work or our QA team that&#x27;s less code heavy.  For someone in this position, those roles might be a better fit or the candidate would have a place to prove themselves.  Of course, you&#x27;d have to take a pay cut and take a mid-level or possibly a junior position.  If I offered someone with 5 years of experience a junior position, it would probably be communicated that a bump could happen in 6 months to a mid-level role.  A trial period of sorts.<p>The key is to be upfront.  I&#x27;ve had devs try to bullshit their experience into something it obviously wasn&#x27;t and it never works.  I&#x27;d be blown away if a candidate came in, acknowledged their deficiencies, and said &quot;I&#x27;m doing XYZ to figure it out and I really just need a chance to prove myself&quot;.  Don&#x27;t underestimate the importance of attitude and industry experience.<p>&gt; What companies are most willing to give the &quot;one year experience over many years&quot; worker a fighting chance and get them up to speed?<p>Something about this question rubs me the wrong way.  If you&#x27;ve fallen into the 1x10 pattern, no company is responsible for giving you a fighting chance.  The burden is now on you.  The advice I can give you is the same as any other dev, but probably more important, find a way to show me your skills and that you&#x27;re working on improving.  Open source work, code tests, side projects, anything and be able to discuss them.<p>The 1x10 devs that I already have are the ones who reject the opportunities given to them, who don&#x27;t want extra responsibilities, and who aren&#x27;t interested in learning new things.  You need to give me confidence that that isn&#x27;t you.