[11thEarlOfMar]

Perhaps it has to do with the myriad sub-specialties in Computer Science. They are distinct enough that the specific knowledge and experience of one is typically not transferable to another. I am thinking about such distinct specialties as electro-mechanical control systems vs. A.I. You wouldn't expect the controls pro with no A.I. experience to pass an A.I. interview simply on the basis of his general computer science experience. Same for a CICS programmer with no mobile experience interviewing for a Swift programming position.

This fragmentation implies that Computer Science really is too broad an umbrella. For sure, there is a lot of process related general software development knowledge that all of the above should possess. But most projects won't suffer an experienced developer's learning curve on a new sub-specialty, even if it only means a few months.

Do Statistics, Economics, Actuarial Science and Operations Research have a similar attribute?

[o_safadinho]

All of the above do have various sub-specialties. The problem is that even the CS specialties (A.I./Machine Learning/Data Mining) still don't really conform with the other fields that I mentioned. Generalized Linear Modeling is Generalized Linear Modeling; it really doesn't matter whether you are classifying risks for an insurance company or classifying text documents at some tech start up. The math works the same.

In addition to that all of the other fields that I mentioned have sub-specialties as well. An actuary can be a life, health or P&C actuary. They can work in reinsurance or predictive modeling. An economist can work in Financial Economics or Labor markets or Econometrics/Quatitative Methods.

Yet the SOA/CAS are able to come up with and evaluate a set of minimum competencies that insurance companies in most English speaking countries are able to agree on. The American Economics Association is able to bring together major international banks (Various branches of the Fed, The World Bank, Various National Banks, Consulting Companies, Law firms that specialize in Financial/Economics issues) and grad students and it gives them a common format to get to know each other and evaluate job offers regardless of a candidate's/company's specialty.