I dont believe there is anyway you can really quantify or qualify experience (even with a very broad brush). It means so many different things. Some of my most helpful experience comes from working with the Helpdesk (believe it or not). HelpDesk can teach you alot about customer service and internals of IT that you cannot pick up from any other area. In fact, people laugh when they see helpdesk on my resume from 13 years ago, but I tell you that experience was far more valuable than some of the other positions I worked.
Another example is a IT Administratior job I had for a medical company with 200 employees. The job was not ideal to put it nicely. It is kind of how I picture Hell. I was the SINGLE IT employee for the company, the bosses sucked hard (they didnt listen to anything that was industry best practice), the employees sucked, and I had zero money for budget. I left after only a few months because it was terrible! On paper if I stayed for 3-4 years it would look like EXCELLENT experience. I mean the only IT administrator for a company of 200 employees, it must mean this guy can do everything, right? No in reality I was doing mostly desktop support for complete idiots.
@Emad-R also brings up a good point about the 2-4 year tenure. You will find that most of hungry, motivated IT people are acustomed to doing this. As it gives the best reward to experience ratio. I like @Emad-R have proven this time and time again in my career. So what happens is you get 2-4 years in a specific area before you move up to a different area and/or higher position.
TLDR: This isnt black and white and will never be black and white. There is no reason to even try to make it black and white.
