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I think the crux of the matter is that for almost all other such professions (MD, Engineers, Lawyers, etc.), there is a more formal type of gatekeeping when it

I think the crux of the matter is that for almost all other such professions (MD, Engineers, Lawyers, etc.), there is a more formal type of gatekeeping when it comes to recruiting. Education, licenses, and similar - often in combination. The world of software development is MUCH more open to people that necessarily don't have the correct formalities, because there's a common knowledge that there are tons of talented people that never studied CS / Software Engineering / etc. That, combined with high pay, of course attracts a lot of incompetent people. So what would the solution be, to require all "professional" developers to have a degree and/or some professional license? I mean, yes, it could work - just look at the Cisco certification system. Some of those are quite rigorous, so the networking industry knows that if you hire someone that hold certain certs, they're probably competent. But, then again, most the certifications boom of the 90s kinda died out. That's why we're stuck with the grinding leetcode + technical interviews + side projects situation today.

wreath 5y ago
Id rather grind leetcode and system design problems and get credentials for it and dont have to again. Wait.. thats what my university degree was for..
- TrackerFF 5y ago
  Yes - but for some reason, there's this extreme (irrational?) fear that imposers might have coasted through Uni., and you get these infamous blogs and articles stating that "comp. sci graduates can't code anymore! candidate failed fizzbuzz!", and everyone seems to have their own anecdote about that one co-worker that couldn't code themselves out of a wet paper bag. It seems like we're in a situation where companies would rather pass on 10 competent devs, rather than hire 1 incompetent dev. Personally, I think most of the above boils down to bias. You only remember the best and the worst coders you meet in your life, as far as work quality goes. And those are outliers. Coding interviews are stressing, so you can end up with competent candidates completely blocking due to the stress, and thus failing trivial problems. Anecdotes seem to be the gold standard, as far as evidence goes.

wreath 5y ago

Id rather grind leetcode and system design problems and get credentials for it and dont have to again. Wait.. thats what my university degree was for..

TrackerFF 5y ago
Yes - but for some reason, there's this extreme (irrational?) fear that imposers might have coasted through Uni., and you get these infamous blogs and articles stating that "comp. sci graduates can't code anymore! candidate failed fizzbuzz!", and everyone seems to have their own anecdote about that one co-worker that couldn't code themselves out of a wet paper bag. It seems like we're in a situation where companies would rather pass on 10 competent devs, rather than hire 1 incompetent dev. Personally, I think most of the above boils down to bias. You only remember the best and the worst coders you meet in your life, as far as work quality goes. And those are outliers. Coding interviews are stressing, so you can end up with competent candidates completely blocking due to the stress, and thus failing trivial problems. Anecdotes seem to be the gold standard, as far as evidence goes.