Do internships count as work experience?

Some employers count them in full, others at half weight or not at all. Enter the internship in a job field only if you plan to claim it in full; otherwise leave it out or halve the months yourself.

What if I had more than four jobs?

Add the durations of your earliest jobs together and put the total into one of the four fields, since the arithmetic is just a sum either way.

How do I handle a career break?

Leave it out of every job field. A break is time that does not count toward experience, not a stint to add in.

Why does the overlap field exist?

Simply adding job durations double counts any month you held two roles at once, most commonly a freelance or contract gig running alongside full-time work. The overlap field removes that double count.

Total work experience calculator

Recruiters and application forms usually want one number: total years of relevant experience. Getting there by memory is easy to get wrong once you have had more than two jobs, especially if a freelance gig ran alongside a full-time one.

This adds the months from up to four stints and then removes any months you know overlapped, so a side project you were doing at the same time as your day job only gets counted once.

Total experience

3 years, 6 months

42 months across every stint, overlaps removed

Raw months added up: 42
Less: overlapping months: - 0
Total months: 42
Total years (rounded down): 3

Everything above is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or saved anywhere.

How this is worked out

Enter the duration of each job in months, not years, so a stint like "2 years 3 months" becomes 27.
If two stints overlapped, such as freelancing while employed, enter the overlapping months separately rather than in either job field.
The overlap is subtracted once from the sum of all four durations.
The result is floored to whole years plus the leftover months, the way most application forms ask for it.

What this does not cover

This does not know your job titles, so it cannot tell you how much of that time counts as "relevant" experience for a specific role.
Unpaid leave or a career break inside a single job is not separated out automatically. Shorten that job field yourself if you want it excluded.
Internships are your call to include or leave out. Many recruiters count them at half weight, this tool counts every month you enter as full weight.

Questions people ask

Do internships count as work experience?: Some employers count them in full, others at half weight or not at all. Enter the internship in a job field only if you plan to claim it in full; otherwise leave it out or halve the months yourself.
What if I had more than four jobs?: Add the durations of your earliest jobs together and put the total into one of the four fields, since the arithmetic is just a sum either way.
How do I handle a career break?: Leave it out of every job field. A break is time that does not count toward experience, not a stint to add in.
Why does the overlap field exist?: Simply adding job durations double counts any month you held two roles at once, most commonly a freelance or contract gig running alongside full-time work. The overlap field removes that double count.

Where these figures come from

Rates and rules on this page were last checked against the source on 31 August 2026. Tax law changes; check the source before you rely on a number for a decision.

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