Perhaps this is because for some programmers, their career path takes them from writing code to a broader leadership path (mentoring, management, tracking probl

Perhaps this is because for some programmers, their career path takes them from writing code to a broader leadership path (mentoring, management, tracking problems, organizing consensus between groups, etc), and they may have stopped actually being a programmer years ago without necessarily even noticing. Unused skills atrophy, so it wouldn't surprise me to see candidates who are experienced mentors and leaders but can no longer write code on a whiteboard (although failing to fizzbuzz is a bit extreme). Of course, maybe I'm rationalizing and it's just that candidates who aren't fresh out of college need to claim some leadership credentials, and they don't want to lie and say they've formally led or managed anybody, so they just make vague statements about mentoring in the hopes that you check the right box on the hiring rubric.