Absolutely not. I'm not sure why programming is the one field people make a joke of. It doesn't happen in any other field that I'm aware of. Hear me out.
Do you ever see ads for 'become a doctor in 6 weeks, land a job'? Or plumber? Or electrician? Or anything else? No, but you do for programming.
Do you ever see people whining that being a medical doctor is too hard and confusing, and demand that everyone should just have a handheld with webmd?
Programming as a field requires many years to really understand. And even when you understand, it's just some niche, not -everything-. Nobody knows everything. And that's not completely dissimilar from other trades/professions.
I'm not trying to gatekeep here. I encourage everyone to learn to program, -if- they take the time to learn. If they don't, they do not belong doing it as a profession for others. Just as people can toy around with wood in their garage, so long as they don't call themselves a professional carpenter. That's how you end up with glaring security and privacy problems that we read about nearly daily. Imagine if anyone could call themselves a doctor, and constantly read stories of people dying from horribly botched practices.
I think the only real solution here is for the profession to be certified somehow, as other countries do.
God I would hate to have this type of behavior as coworkers. I can't imagine what a "certification for programming" would even look like. Programming is a completely different field than others - it's exactly that type of difference that has made programming far more welcoming than others.
No one is denying that you're not going to be the best developer in a few days. But I welcome everyone learning the way they want to and how they want to, and for others in the industry helping them learn.
And for your example, I'd much rather hire someone who has worked in their garage with wood for a decade than someone who just got a certification to call themselves a professional carpenter right out of trade school.
And yes, you are literally trying to gatekeep because you're realizing the thing you've spent thousands of hours learning is actually not that difficult and is getting easier and easier every day.
Do you ever see ads for 'become a doctor in 6 weeks, land a job'? Or plumber? Or electrician? Or anything else? No, but you do for programming.
Do you ever see people whining that being a medical doctor is too hard and confusing, and demand that everyone should just have a handheld with webmd?
Programming as a field requires many years to really understand. And even when you understand, it's just some niche, not -everything-. Nobody knows everything. And that's not completely dissimilar from other trades/professions.
I'm not trying to gatekeep here. I encourage everyone to learn to program, -if- they take the time to learn. If they don't, they do not belong doing it as a profession for others. Just as people can toy around with wood in their garage, so long as they don't call themselves a professional carpenter. That's how you end up with glaring security and privacy problems that we read about nearly daily. Imagine if anyone could call themselves a doctor, and constantly read stories of people dying from horribly botched practices.
I think the only real solution here is for the profession to be certified somehow, as other countries do.