Community Certification Process
Just a thought. From a cs and econ double major (2022) at a T20 uni who graduated with an actual job offer in SWE but declined it cause I hated the line of work and how docile the community of professionals already were which in turned forced the individual dev to be also such a cuck to get into the game. Like you are constantly training and improving yourself at your craft which is admirable but so sad that you accept being treated like absolute shit.
Did a master and now I am teaching economics at a community college and also doing research with papers published on the side. You could call me a loser or whatever for making peanuts but my life satisfaction is through the roof. I am actually happy.
Now, I have been carefully watching the “AI apocalypse” situation and not surprised that the minute management decided they could do away with devs they have done so with so much pomp and ease. You do realize the reason this works is because how unregulated the field is. If the ball goes back into your court with the rise of prices for AI dev, I hope you understand how build software engineering into a protected profession.
Each of you experienced devs who refuse to participate in a established certification are screwing yourself over in real time. If you had a rigorous certification (4-5 in-depth exams on algorithms, data structures, scalability, discrete mathematics, etc.) that everyone studied 6-12 months for (like an actuary then you can ask to only contribute to code bases / approve PRs of those who also have those certifications. Think of how easy your life could be.
It will start of slow. First, you get all the devs in your company to take these exams for fun. Build the culture of having these exams done and on your LinkedIn. Then slowly transition to asking new hires to also take these exams or give them exemptions from technical interviews if they have these licenses already. That’s it. You could enforce these licenses in a North American / European / geographical setting to ensure you only work with other devs with similar qualifications.
Y’all need to build a spine man. It’s so sad how you collectively accept being treated like dirt for your entire life because you don’t accept short term pain. Hope someone reads this and gets inspired lol. Trying to start a movement. Maybe this could be on your side projects lmao. Stop paying into LeetCode’s money making trap. It’s designed to be an infinite loop so that you keep working on puzzles on the platform and making them money forever ever ever!
By establishing a community of licenses professionals who you are more inclined to work with and trust more to get the PR’s merged faster (wink wink) and trust their design decisions more (wink wink) you get control over how you spend your time for the rest of your life and can actually gatekeep in your company itself even against the new contract hires who don’t have the license.