After all those humdrum job interviews, skill tests, certification badgering; what I experienced is writing code that generates a sql query to the parameters th

After all those humdrum job interviews, skill tests, certification badgering; what I experienced is writing code that generates a sql query to the parameters that's taken from the frontend which had NOTHING to do with interview questions or the skills demanded by the employer. Back in the mid to late 2000s, I recall seeing and hearing management say, "we just need a few Google-quality engineers". There was this pervasive sentiment that if they could just find good enough software engineers, it would somehow make up for the fact that the company had no leadership or direction. That, combined with the competitive nerd gene, zero objective basis for interview techniques, and an attitude of "any reason to boot this person" rather than "how can this person contribute to our company?" has gotten us to where we are in this toxic industry.