My theory is that many other technical fields have high barriers of entry where a newcomer has to really prove her chops, usually with a certification exam, before being allowed to practice the profession; but once she starts, fellow professionals treat her with respect and take it as understood some minimum capability.
In programming, almost anyone can start on the job - but we play out the hazing ritual throughout entire careers. Every time a programmer has to change jobs, she has to face a barrage of pointless trivia questions from megalomaniacs. Of course, many of them then grumble that they can't find competent programmers.
Well, back when I was at Amazon, we did (and they undoubtedly still do) a LOT of soul-searching about this exact problem. We eventually concluded that every
single employee E at Amazon has at least one "Interview Anti-Loop": a set of other employees S who would not hire E.
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My theory is that many other technical fields have high barriers of entry where a newcomer has to really prove her chops, usually with a certification exam, before being allowed to practice the profession; but once she starts, fellow professionals treat her with respect and take it as understood some minimum capability.
In programming, almost anyone can start on the job - but we play out the hazing ritual throughout entire careers. Every time a programmer has to change jobs, she has to face a barrage of pointless trivia questions from megalomaniacs. Of course, many of them then grumble that they can't find competent programmers.
Also, I think that the interviewer anti-loop that Steve Yegge mentions (http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-goog...) is real.
Well, back when I was at Amazon, we did (and they undoubtedly still do) a LOT of soul-searching about this exact problem. We eventually concluded that every single employee E at Amazon has at least one "Interview Anti-Loop": a set of other employees S who would not hire E.