You're Not Interviewing for the Job. You're Auditioning for the Job Title

And most of the steps in the interview process are not even technical (depending on the company), so most of your final score probably comes from your sales presentation^W^Wcommunication skills.

I assume the alternative is that you give some standardized "civil service" exam.

Honestly if it’s an exam you only take once or once every decade it’s an improvement over the current system.

It's almost like software wants to be a real profession when it grows up, like Doctor or Lawyer or Engineer. Doctors generally only take the one MCAT. Lawyers generally only take the one Bar Exam per state they expect to work in. Civil/Mechanical/Chemical Engineers only take the one FEng/PE combo of exams for their discipline.

It's fascinating how many people in the software industry want the title "Engineer" but don't want benefits of the title like standardized tests and ethics boards because they are afraid of standardized tests and ethics boards.