This is true, at least of developers who lack both experience and impressive credentials. A new grad from, say, UC Berkeley might be fine, a new grad from my own alma mater (which has a direction in its name) will often struggle, and a hobbyist without a CS degree has an even bigger uphill battle.
The reason we didn't talk about it as much in the main post is that our approach to the problem of credentials hasn't changed all that much. We still have quizzes, and someone who is having a hard time getting their foot in the door (a) is likely to be willing to put in the effort to take them and (b) will benefit from doing so. That's not a complete solution to the problem (it helps people with skills get hired, but doesn't in itself help people get skills that you only get on the job), but it's better than the status quo.
We haven't forgotten about people struggling as they look for their first job. (And I certainly never will: to get personal for a sec, my first job search was a miserable multi-year affair that nearly killed me.) We've got some experimental irons in the fire here (e.g. a program that basically highlights people who haven't gotten as much attention as they 'should' based on their skills) that we're not quite ready to talk about in great detail. If they work, you'll hear more about them soon. If they don't, we'll try something else.
> hobbyist without a CS degree has an even bigger uphill battle
This was me when I tried Triplebyte. I wish it had worked out. I don't really blame TB for the failure, but I think there was a lot of optimism on the part of TB that wasn't shared by the companies I interviewed with. TB was just another placement option for every one of them, and I found it challenging to overcome what felt like walking into several onsite interviews completely blind to what was expected of me.
The reason we didn't talk about it as much in the main post is that our approach to the problem of credentials hasn't changed all that much. We still have quizzes, and someone who is having a hard time getting their foot in the door (a) is likely to be willing to put in the effort to take them and (b) will benefit from doing so. That's not a complete solution to the problem (it helps people with skills get hired, but doesn't in itself help people get skills that you only get on the job), but it's better than the status quo.
We haven't forgotten about people struggling as they look for their first job. (And I certainly never will: to get personal for a sec, my first job search was a miserable multi-year affair that nearly killed me.) We've got some experimental irons in the fire here (e.g. a program that basically highlights people who haven't gotten as much attention as they 'should' based on their skills) that we're not quite ready to talk about in great detail. If they work, you'll hear more about them soon. If they don't, we'll try something else.