this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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An interesting read. The advocated actions have many similarities with the guild system.
I think we'd have fewer security problems if we had a tech guild. It would keep unqualified people from becoming sysadmins, for one.
If you think Guilds would solve security problems instead of just propping up security theater, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Like locksmiths who have produced locks with the same flawed design for six millennia now, and instead of fixing it, they're still keeping the act and even went after whistleblowers before.
"How did you get in here?"
"I'm a locksmith, and I'm a locksmith. The unstated part of this joke is that us locksmiths make locks super easy to crack, we just don't share the details with everybody."
A lock is just a suggestion. A determined thief will find a way beyond it.
I've seen too many systems left wide open for me not to think we need some way of having actual experts vet people's resumes and not a bunch of HR people.
I don't disagree, but a "guild" is not it. Engineers in other disciplines have to actually have "engineering" credentials. Software engineers do not, but it sounds like they probably should considering other engineers are held to standards. The States have their own engineering boards to give out and monitor engineer license status. Why isn't there one for software engineering? There needs to be, but it need not be a guild.
There used to be one! It was discontinued (a) for lack of interest since no jobs or regulations require it, and (b) because being eligible to sit for the Professional Engineer (P.E.) exam requires having spent X years (X=4 or more, depending on circumstances) working under the supervision of a licensed P.E., and not many software engineers worked under licensed P.E.s.
(I'm a software engineer with a civil EIT license and worked in the software industry under a civil P.E., so think I would've actually been one of the weirdos in a position to be licensed as a software P.E. Unfortunately, they did away with it before I got the chance.)
That last bit makes a lot of sense, actually, about not having enough licensed P.E. to work under for four years or more. That's kind of a bummer, because the person I was responding to isn't wrong, we're handing the reigns of sysadmin duties to a lot of relatively under-trained folks.
However, on the flip side, the fact that we don't have such a thing is part of what makes the internet so open. Literally anyone is allowed to make their own website.
Because unlike developers, engineers from poor countries can't build stuff remotely.
In case there's requirement to hire only software engineers with licence then companies will just outsource as much as they can.
When did the people in the outsourcing countries suddenly get a state endorsed software engineering license? I would think the opposite would happen, it would restrict outsourcing until other countries had similar licenses for software engineers.
Oh you sound so naive my dude.
These corporations would just 'buy' products or services from third parties.
What is the US government going to do? Stop Bank of America from getting service from Infosys or some other vendor?