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Comment by logifail | Hacker News Reader

>> The issue here is probably more that software engineering isn't considered to be engineering in Canada

By whom? Canadian software engineers, other types of Canadian engineers, or by some professional engineering body that's trying to protect their profession?

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By the legislative bodies in the provinces and territories. For instance in BC: http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/9611...

I am actually a Software Engineering Undergraduate Student in Canada. We are real engineers! We get licenced the same way through graduating from an accredited program, getting the 4 years of experience and writing an ethics exam.

In Canada engineer is like lawyer. You can specialize in a certain part of law (e.g. patent, corporate, criminal). just like you specialize in certain fields (e.g. aerospace, mechanical, geomagnetic, biomed). What matters in both cases is being given a license.

I didn't know about that. Is the license legally required to be hired for all programming jobs, or just for jobs related to specific fields and government?

I had assumed by everyone. As an American software engineer, I don't consider software engineering to be engineering because we don't have a professional body or licensing or standards. I didn't know Canada was any different.

> I don't consider software engineering to be engineering because we don't have a professional body or licensing or standards

Why would this be the defining characteristic of engineering?

It's not the defining characteristic, but I've always understood it to be a necessary requirement before a person can be called an engineer.

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