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A comment on Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering Role. Parent comment

Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by ryandrake on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @12:35PM (#16914128)
It's such a weird hiring market. 1. There are a lot of imposters out there applying for programming jobs who can't program, and 2. There are a lot of very talented programmers out there who are being rejected by overly picky companies. Both can be true, and I'd argue that both are true. I don't know what the solution is. Current interviewing methods don't seem to be solving the problem.

I'd suggest a widely-accepted professional certification could help a lot, like doctors and lawyers have with the medical board exam or the bar exam. Easier said than done, but what we have today, where the candidate pool is overflowing with impostors with great resumes is not working.

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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @04:23PM (#16916189)
That might solve half of the problem. But then we need certifications for employers - something that says, "Yes, I have a real job opening; I'm not just wasting your time." It needs to have real penalties if an employer violates it, too.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by irundebian on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @04:39PM (#16916343)
I'm not sure this is working, since employers not only search for general software developers but maybe also developers with domain-specific knowledge. It would be very time consuming develop a certification for every domain.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @06:43PM (#16917322)
Hey, I said it was needed. I never said it would work, or that it was workable. But if you're going to certify workers, so that they don't waste the employer's time with interviews that are going nowhere, well, we need something to do the same in the other direction...
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by sigstoat on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @01:45PM (#16914784)
> I'd suggest a widely-accepted professional certification could help a lot, like doctors and lawyers have with the medical board exam or the bar exam.

"i passed the bar exam!" and nothing else doesn't get you a legal job you want.

and your medical boards, if i recall correctly, just mean you're qualified to go be a slave, er, uh, resident, some place for a few years.

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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by ThrustVectoring on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @03:47PM (#16915934)
On the other hand, passing actuarial exams does get you in on the ground floor of that career.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by luch on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @01:01PM (#16914410)
certifications are plentiful in the infosec sector. They absolutely do not solve the hiring problem.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by ryandrake on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @01:40PM (#16914745)
Maybe because they are plentiful? I'm not familiar with infosec but if the bar for getting certified is "I can take a class and pay $XX to get this certificate" then of course they're worthless.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by irundebian on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @04:37PM (#16916318)
I agree, but in theory that can mean that we haven't found good certifications yet.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by bradknowles on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @04:04AM (#16919432)
There are very few certifications that are worth the paper they are printed on.

Find me good certifications that are actually meaningful and relevant to my career, and I’ll do the study work and get them.

I have yet to find any.

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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by warrenm on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @12:54PM (#16914330)
And don't forget people being asked to do coding exercises for non-development jobs :|

(I've had that happen several places)

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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by stevenwoo on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @12:40PM (#16914190)
One problem with viewing the certification thing as a solution is people can then question - how do you know if you got the person who graduated at the top of their class versus someone who barely graduated? How are lawyers/doctors vetted beyond their certifications?
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by ryandrake on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @12:52PM (#16914311)
Make the bar for passing high enough such that even a person who scores the lowest passing score has demonstrated that he/she can at least code. A standard exam doesn't solve all problems with hiring, but it could at least help solve the very first "can this person even code at all?" screen that weeds out the total phonies.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by lostcolony on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @01:22PM (#16914598)
Oftentimes this is the "CS degree from a good school" stick. But we don't have an easy way to check those claims, nor to evaluate what constitutes a 'good school'.
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Re:Things I Learned from a Job Hunt for a Senior Engineering... by thegayngler on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @02:33PM (#16915307)
Id say recertification is an option as time passes. It keeps people up to date and on their toes.
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