Isn't there a business opportunity somewhere, providing exams and certificates for software developers? I find it surprising that many rich companies have this problem, and there is no standard solution yet.
How much would it cost e.g. Google to start an independent certification company, with branches in 20 different cities across USA. The top candidates could be also offered a job at Google, but every candidate would get a certificate confirming their skill level that many other companies would probably be happy to accept.
At first, the testing could be done for a symbolic cost, because Google already spends some money to interview its candidates anyway, and this would also serve the purpose. But later, when many companies start accepting the certificate, you could let the candidates pay the full cost.
The first rounds of testing could be done at a computer (provided by the testing company), you would just make sure the candidates are not cheating. Only those who achieve a sufficiently high score would be later interviewed by humans. This would be way more efficient than interviewing everyone individually.
What's curious is that in the US there are many IT trade certifications (e.g. A+) and many engineering certifications (Professional Engineer) but software engineering falls into a weird gap. I think IEEE offers some certificates but they don't seem especially valuable.
How much would it cost e.g. Google to start an independent certification company, with branches in 20 different cities across USA. The top candidates could be also offered a job at Google, but every candidate would get a certificate confirming their skill level that many other companies would probably be happy to accept.
At first, the testing could be done for a symbolic cost, because Google already spends some money to interview its candidates anyway, and this would also serve the purpose. But later, when many companies start accepting the certificate, you could let the candidates pay the full cost.
The first rounds of testing could be done at a computer (provided by the testing company), you would just make sure the candidates are not cheating. Only those who achieve a sufficiently high score would be later interviewed by humans. This would be way more efficient than interviewing everyone individually.