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Comment by snypox | Hacker News Reader

Some people - to say at least - exaggerates in their CV. You can’t trust someone automatically.

Outside of development there are very few jobs that have a competency test as part of the hiring process. Some industries have "continuous testing" through certification, and some have tests of things like physical fitness, but in general it's assumed that if you're applying for a role then you're capable of doing it. The economy isn't collapsing under the weight of corporations hiring the wrong people all the time.

I suspect there are technical tests in developer interviews because there can be rather than because they're actually a useful way to appraise someone.

There’s very few jobs as specialized and desirable as software engineering without any formal credential requirements.

The incentive to bullshit your way in the door is way higher than most other fields. Imagine if you could get hired as a doctor, without having to graduate high school.

Sure you can and you should. You’re not wrong, at least in some cases, but the Nordic countries have a huge level of built in trust in other people.

It also seems weird to lie in your CV, what are you going to do if you actually get the job? You’d fail horribly and get fired.

My point is that in some parts of the world you can actually trust resumes. If companies start making outrages demands, like 15 years of experience in a 10 year old technology, then of cause desperate people will lie.

Performance of developers within the same team and between companies differs hugely. Someone with some years of experience may be considered senior, and list some technologies in their resume that they've actually worked with, but their level of mastery may not be what you hope for. The differences you get by probing this or not during interviews will add up across a team, and be a real competitive advantage or disadvantage for your organization. And that goes for culture (hiring assholes, or even something more benign, like hiring people that are inarticulate) as much as it goes for technical skills.

And I don't think people typically lie on a resume. I do think there's a category of people that makes things look nicer than they are. I do think there's another category of people that just have a different perception of "mastery" than I do.

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