Comment by rockemsockem
2 years ago
Every time I see someone post this line of reasoning they talk like this, as if other engineering disciplines all have some cert that is the god-tier cert.
While this is true for some engineering fields it's mostly not true and I think that's a good thing because credentialism is bad actually.
Also, architects are not even engineers.
Credentialism is good. It provides both a trustworthy reference point and a method for punishment.
If I want someone to do work, I want them to be licensed/certified. If they are flagrantly unsafe, I want a licensing board or similar to be able to strip that person of their ability to practice that profession. This raises public perception of the profession as a while, avoids a market for lemons, and gives some baseline.
There are too many decisions in life to be able to spend an hour (or more) researching every option. Credentials allow a framework of trust - I don't have to decide if I trust every single engineer; if they have passed their PE exam and not had their certification taken away that is a starting point.
Credentialism creates a false basis of trust and an arbitrary reference point.
You're just arguing that you want to outsource your own decision making. You actually should interview your candidates before hiring them, whatever credential they have, because it actually is your job to ensure you work with high quality individuals.
Credentialism basically allows the sort of low effort that you're describing and causes many places to rely solely on the credentials, which are obviously never sufficient to find high quality individuals.
What are the jobs you're day dreaming about that require PE exams? I'd bet that requirement is much less common than you think.
Credentialism is for more than employers. When I need an electrician or other tradesperson to work on my house, credentials are beneficial. When plans are drawn up for a deck or extension to my house, credentials are beneficial when getting an engineering signoff. Knowing that the local medical facilties employ credentialed doctors is great when I need something done. Etc., etc.
2 replies →
Isn't the reality of things that credentials are a low bar. Yes, even with the legal bar exam, or the PE engineer, etc? When you are hiring, are you really hiring JUST based on that low bar? No! That wouldn't make sense! For example if you have a specific problem, most of the time you are looking for a lawyer who has already worked for a while in THAT specific field. The bar exame is not enough! I feel that's usually the case. And that makes sense. Why just specify "PE engineer"? When there are lots of them who have at least some specialization in the direction you want?
It would have zero value in every process of vetting someone. People don’t care about years of verification in the form of degrees, who do you think will care about some “license to fucking code” given for reading some garbage pdf