How to make up for System Administration "experience"

I am in a position that hires people.

Did you speak to the people who interviewed you and they were the ones that told you you "lacked experience"? A part-time admin for 5 years translates into roughly 2 years of full-time experience. That isn't a LOT of experience and you may never get a "real" reason since it seems that too many people are afraid of getting sued, but I digress.

Do you have any letters of reference? We have no idea what your resume looks like. Are you dressing appropriately for interviews? Are you attentive during interviews and asking questions? There are so many variables that could be coming into play here.

Just keep plugging away at your skill set. When I hire people, several things are extremely important to me. Ambition, drive, motivation, problem solving abilities, people skills, a sense of humor, and attitude. VERY seldom is number of years of experience an important factor to me.

I cannot emphasize this enough either....dress like you want the job.

It probably just means that while you were in the top 5 of the people they were interviewing, some other guy was just as good, but had 5 or 10 years experience.

When the economy is down, you'll be competing with a lot of people like that. That's just the way it goes.