> There's no overarching professional organization or boards, therefore incompetents aren't de-certified and national lobbying isn't coherent.
Incompetents are rarely de-certified in professions that have what are effectively guilds. How nutty do you have to be to appreciate a holdover from the middle ages?
In fact, it is usually the incompetents who seek the protection of guilds and unions. Without them, where would the air of competence come from?
They might actually be asked ... gasp ... to perform some task to prove their competence! When was the last time you asked your lawyer to perform a "legal test"? We get asked to do small code tests and projects to prove our competence all the time.
> There's no test - all you have to do to be a software developer is declare yourself to be one.
Really? No tests? Because there is no bullshit-institutionalized-social-proof crap, we are asked to take a test and prove our mettle before being hired for every job. A genuine filter to get rid of the incompetents. I am thankful every day that I'm not part of a regulated industry.
Lawyers, doctors, and engineers are all required to pass tests before they can practice. They prove their competence before they can even begin working in the field. Furthermore, they are required to take continuing education classes for the duration of their professional careers. Finally, and probably most importantly, professional are subject to fiduciary obligations to their clients that require a minimum standard of professional conduct--if they mess up, they can (and do) get sued for malpractice.
OTOH, apparently programmers can call themselves programmers after a 6 week course in [any random language] even if they only have the barest understanding of what they're doing. Programmers aren't responsible for their mistakes--if they mess up, the client's option is to pay for someone to fix it with no option for recompense.
> Lawyers, doctors, and engineers are all required to pass tests before they can practice. They prove their competence before they can even begin working in the field.
Because performance on a multiple-choice exam equates to competence in the field? Nice one.
> Finally, and probably most importantly, professional are subject to fiduciary obligations to their clients that require a minimum standard of professional conduct--if they mess up, they can (and do) get sued for malpractice.
I have an equal obligation to my clients and can just as easily get sued if I engineer crap.
> OTOH, apparently programmers can call themselves programmers after a 6 week course
I can call myself a surgeon after dissecting a frog, it doesn't make me into one. People call themselves things all the time. So what?
> Programmers aren't responsible for their mistakes--if they mess up, the client's option is to pay for someone to fix it with no option for recompense.
Err... what? My clients pay me by credit card. If the thingie I made doesn't do what it's supposed to, they can and will get a refund from the credit card company.
Try getting a refund from a doctor or a hospital for poor service. I dare you.
> Lawyers, doctors, and engineers are all required to pass tests before they can practice.
Nitpick: Until they can practice on their own. They need to practice under supervision for a certain period of time before they can even take the final tests or otherwise receive final certification.
Also, engineers have the "industrial exemption". In most cases, if you work for a company (and thus do not provide services directly to the public) you do not require a license.
> Finally, and probably most importantly, professional are subject to fiduciary obligations to their clients that require a minimum standard of professional conduct--if they mess up, they can (and do) get sued for malpractice.
This I have an issue with; are you claiming that no one who works for a company is a professional? That to be considered a professional you must offer your services directly to the public?
I don't know what you do for a living, but as a programmer, I meet incompetents who should be expelled from the profession all of the time. Aside from incompetence, I don't want to share a profession with programmers who would help create a surveillance state for the NSA, any more than the medical profession should tolerate doctors who work for torturers.
The question is about programmers being considered professionals, though, not what I'd prefer. I'm happy with my check and my title.
My point wasn't that there are no incompetent programmers.
There are plenty.
My point was that in our profession, and it is a profession, it is much more difficult to be incompetent. As a consequence, there are fewer incompetents than in other professions.
In regulated professions, once you get through the door and get certified/licensed/whatever you can then use that as a badge of competency to get work. You can't do that with software development. Nobody cares what certification or degree you have. They want to know if you can code. How wonderful is that?
>there are fewer incompetents than in other professions.
My point is that I don't buy this. I would trust the average doctor's opinion on a medical subject far more than I would trust the average programmers opinion on a technical subject.
The fact that I am a programmer might have something to do with this, though.
Incompetents are rarely de-certified in professions that have what are effectively guilds. How nutty do you have to be to appreciate a holdover from the middle ages?
In fact, it is usually the incompetents who seek the protection of guilds and unions. Without them, where would the air of competence come from?
They might actually be asked ... gasp ... to perform some task to prove their competence! When was the last time you asked your lawyer to perform a "legal test"? We get asked to do small code tests and projects to prove our competence all the time.
> There's no test - all you have to do to be a software developer is declare yourself to be one.
Really? No tests? Because there is no bullshit-institutionalized-social-proof crap, we are asked to take a test and prove our mettle before being hired for every job. A genuine filter to get rid of the incompetents. I am thankful every day that I'm not part of a regulated industry.