> We do the dance when we swap jobs, other professions do the dance as their licenses / certifications expire periodically.
The huge advantage to the latter is that it decouples the license exam from changing jobs. This helps for two reasons:
First, it means that the friction of the recertification doesn't coincide with the friction of switching jobs. It's a lot harder to leave a bad job when you know you'll need to review for the "recertification" for a month before you can start interviewing.
Second, in these other fields your employer has a vested interest in keeping you certified, because you can't keep working if you aren't. This should mean that they're incentivized to help with the process, rather than it being something you have to take full responsibility for and do on your free time. In software, not only do your employer and coworkers not help you study for "recertification", you have to actively keep it a secret that you're grinding leetcode lest you tip them off that you're looking to switch jobs.
If the bigcos had any interest in this, they'd have created such a cert/license. At the very least, they wouldn't make candidates who'd previously passed their interviews, and perhaps those of similar companies, multiple times, do it again.
Since they haven't created a cert, and they do make people re-test, they're clearly doing it for purposes that aren't served by those actions.
For one thing, I don't think they'd be happy about any change that makes it easier to leave. Imagine what'd happen to comp at these companies if you didn't have to do yet another goddamn leetcode gauntlet every time you switched.
I'm not disputing that what we do as an industry can't be improved. I'm primarily against the idea that our profession is unique, and people should take us at face value when we claim expertise. Validation by employers is looked at as an undue burden. We have perks in this industry: For the most part no one cares about your education background and often not even your experience as long as you pass the interview. It's hard to have both those perks, and expect some of these hoops to disappear.
Should the hoops be a take home assignment? White boarding? Pair programming? A new governing body that offers a license? Not sure, but something will exist, and your anxiety and need to prepare likely won't disappear.
The huge advantage to the latter is that it decouples the license exam from changing jobs. This helps for two reasons:
First, it means that the friction of the recertification doesn't coincide with the friction of switching jobs. It's a lot harder to leave a bad job when you know you'll need to review for the "recertification" for a month before you can start interviewing.
Second, in these other fields your employer has a vested interest in keeping you certified, because you can't keep working if you aren't. This should mean that they're incentivized to help with the process, rather than it being something you have to take full responsibility for and do on your free time. In software, not only do your employer and coworkers not help you study for "recertification", you have to actively keep it a secret that you're grinding leetcode lest you tip them off that you're looking to switch jobs.