> I'd say a minimum of 7 years experience in general business and maybe 2-3 years experience in a specific field could make you a good developer.
>Programming and Developing are very different and are often confused.
>

I have encountered many programmers who have been producing database apps for 10+ years that can't program their way out of a DOS prompt.

I have served as consultant for a half dozen of these types whose projects were in serious trouble because of bad design practices, severely misjudged requirements, and often, arrogance.

On the other hand, I have met a lot of very young guys with one or two years of experience that I would love to have on my team, because I know that they could be good in a matter of weeks. One of my best friends is a router technician who has exactly 19 months of experience with routers, but his ambition, intuition, and general intelligence pole-vaulted him past hundreds of other "techs" with many years of experience, and landed him a position on a tiny elite team that designs, troubleshoots, and implements some of largest and most advanced global networks in the world. I have no doubt that he was the right man for the job.

I have less than 3 years in the real world programming, and I am laying out entire business strategies for several organizations, taking the business software through the entire SDLC. I hope these organizations' trust in me is not misguided because I don't qualify as a "developer".

Basing any judgement of a programmer's worthiness of your "developer" title on years of experience is a horrendous folly. Any job opening that requires n-years experience has an inexperienced person writing the requirements. It is a over-simplified and ineffective way to judge proficiency.