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The years that count, not the years you've had

You'll know which years of your track record to mention for each job, and you'll have the line written that puts them on your profile or website.

By Yodai · Published on September 6, 2026 · Updated on October 12, 2026

You've been doing this for fifteen years. You sit down to write the line that says who you are, and out comes "fifteen years of experience." It takes up one line, sounds nice, and answers nothing.

Because the question on the reader's mind isn't how many years you've been alive in this trade. It's whether you know how to do exactly what they're asking for, and since when. Google asks something similar of anyone writing a website, in its guide to creating helpful content: whether what you're sharing is based on firsthand experience, like someone who's actually used a product or service.

Some jobs come with questions about you before questions about price. When that happens, the first thing to work out is which piece of your track record to share, and which to leave out even if it's true.

The year that matters isn't the year you started working

Picture a plumber with eighteen years in the trade. The new boilers he installs today have to meet a standard that didn't exist when he started: the European Union's ecodesign regulation for boilers, which has required a minimum efficiency rating since September 26, 2015. He's spent nine years specializing in condensing boilers. If he writes "eighteen years of experience," whoever's boiler just broke down has no way of knowing whether that includes theirs.

What settles the question is the smaller number: nine years installing condensing boilers. It's fewer years, but it carries more weight, because it answers the exact question the reader has in front of them.

Here's the rule: count from when you started doing this specific thing, not from when you started working. The rest of your track record can stay out of that sentence, even if it's true and even if you're proud of it.

Here's where the temptation creeps in: if you've got twenty years, why not list all of them, just in case they add up? They don't add up. A study by Kimberlee Weaver, Stephen Garcia, and Norbert Schwarz, published in 2012 in the Journal of Consumer Research, rests on a well-documented effect: people judging you tend to average out what they read, so tacking on a mildly good point next to a very good one leaves a worse impression, not a better one. Their experiments weren't about years on the job, mostly about offers, like a product bundle with a small freebie thrown in, but the idea fits here too. Someone looking for wedding photos isn't helped by knowing you've been doing photography for twenty years if the first twelve were news photojournalism. That part doesn't answer their question, and it also makes them do the math themselves to get to what actually matters to them.

Listing all twenty years is the easy way out: it's simpler to copy the full total than to stop and think about which part of your history actually answers today's question. Across their seven experiments, people presenting something tended to pile on everything favorable they had, without seeing that effect coming. But what's convenient for you is extra work for the reader, and the reader doesn't owe you that.

Leaving out those twelve years doesn't hide anything. It just puts the information in order so what really matters shows up first. The same goes for an English teacher who's been teaching for ten years and prepping students for the First Certificate exam over video calls for two. If someone's looking for exactly that, those two years are the detail that decides. The eight years before that, teaching in-person conversation classes to adults, aren't.

If you don't have those years, don't make them up

The opposite happens too: someone asks for something you've only been doing a short time, even if you've mastered the underlying trade for years. An electrician with twelve years of general experience starts installing electric vehicle chargers this year. They've put in six so far.

Writing "twelve years of experience" on that profile can be misleading, even if no single fact in it is false: it implies a track record installing EV charging stations that doesn't actually exist. Spain's Unfair Competition Act takes the same stance: information is also considered misleading when, even if truthful, its content or presentation is likely to mislead and change the decision of the person receiving it, and that extends to what you say about your qualifications. Hiding the fact that you just started doesn't work either, because if the client asks, the answer comes out anyway, just without the trust.

What's extra, even if it's a big deal

If something impressive in your track record has nothing to do with the job, leave it out, even if it's what you're proudest of. Having worked ten years for a well-known brand doesn't help someone who needs a website for their bakery next week. Save it for when someone asks about it in conversation, not in your profile.

With that settled, you already have the rule for any job that comes your way: which year matters, and which part of your story stays out this time. Next is who on your team you teach this to, for when you're not the only one who has to answer.

Yodai builds the site from what you tell it, with a store, bookings or quote requests depending on what you do. See what the website for your business looks like.