Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it's much easier to get-by faking it as a software engineer compared to a lawyer or doctor. We've all have had these colleagues - and I've seen them jumping to other companies easily.
I don't know if that's true. I'm not saying software engineers don't fake it, but I think many doctors and lawyers are faking it, too, if we're defining faking it as looking up information, or even assisting with your core job responsibilities. I don't consider that faking it, but I think that's what we're talking about, isn't it? One time I asked my optometrist what he was doing when he left me in the examination ro…
In my mind, faking it is learning what to say in interviews to get the job(s) without having the skills and ability to do the work.
That said, when I interview, I'm really looking for can they describe the output of a program before the write the program, and then can they write the program that works as they said it would. Also, the program should have a loop inside a loop, because nested loops happen all the time and there are too many candidates that can't deal with them.
Candidates that can't manage a nested loop or can't write a program that does what they said it would immediately prior to starting to write the program but somehow managed to get into my interview are faking it in my book. Some candidates clearly are just having a bad day, and some are probably having a bad day but not as clearly.
References are hard because a) some people fake those b) fear of litigation means many companies prefer to only provide start and end dates and maybe eligibility for rehire. Also, the modern world means nobody answers their phone so this process becomes very asynchronous.