[inframouse]

On the one hand, there a significant number of people that can't fizzbuzz applying for the jobs.

On the other hand, there are a significant number of people that can only do the interviews and are not good engineers in general once hired.

This is made even worse by 1) the cottage industry teaching people to crack/break the interview process, and 2) the number of people hyping their personal "brand" via conf talks, standards nonsense, etc. as a way to sidestep more engineering vetting. (Not everyone does this of course -- but there's a significant number of people that do it just for career upside).

Personal anecdote as a hiring manager: I've found that some of the best interviewees but mediocre mid-level engineers are those with a history of low to mid-level jobs at the largest companies.