This is an interesting discussion, and has made me thing of an interesting point.

How many other professions can we think of where people are 'hobbiests' ?

(1) Doctors. Nope.
(2) Lawyers. Nope.
(3) Architects. Unlikely.
(4) Chartered Surveyors. Nope.
(5) Nurses. Possibly, I'd say nope.

Why ? Because to become a true professional in any of these subjects requires you not only to do a degree, but also to do further qualifications which determine the quality of your work.

As I've said before - anyone can be a programmer. Dustbin man one day, programmer the next.

There are no professional bodies to which a programmer must affiliate themselves to be recognised as obtaining a certain level of competency.

This has really hurt the industry in my opinion. I'm sure we've all worked with people who we really don't know how they ever got employed in the first place.

I just find it highly interesting (and a little depressing) that we're having this discussion at all. It just simply wouldn't happen in other professions.

That said, developing software isn't really considered a professional job by most people : it's just considered a job done by nerds for nerds.

A pretty poor state of affairs if you ask me... ho hum.

Darwen.