[perfectfire]

A four year degree is a certification. What would a "real certification" do differently to make it "real"?

> would simplify interviewing and reduce the "whiteboard hazing"

I doubt it. If a certification is too specific it'll exclude an enormous amount of engineers. Make it too broad and then companies will still have to do the same interviews they do now to verify that a person is a good fit for the specific job opening they want to fill.

I'm eager to hear your proposal on a certification method that doesn't exclude wide swaths of existing and future engineers based on your specific definition of what a software engineer is and isn't, but at the same time is specific enough that having the certification actually means something to other people.