Sort of. From an individual perspective we're not interchangeable the way two ears of corn or two apples might be. Even two programmers with identical technica

Sort of. From an individual perspective we're not interchangeable the way two ears of corn or two apples might be. Even two programmers with identical technical skills are going to have different personalities and values that make them good or poor fits for different workplaces. From a whole-market perspective, programmers are commodities to a large degree. There's a market with supply and demand. In the long term a junior programmer can be hired and shaped into the mid-level programmer a company needs, and so forth. Even apples have different varieties and some that are objectively (fewer worms) or subjectively (more tart or sweeter) better than others or better suited for different purposes. Large companies are more likely to (and can generally afford to) treat programmers as commodities than small companies. Small companies tend to be more concerned about fit and someone being productive right off the bat. Larger companies can afford to invest more in training and have departments large enough that everyone has to interact anyway with people who might not be their first choice of collaborator, so "fit" matters less.