> In Ontario the Professional Engineers (
http://www.peo.on.ca/) crack down on unlicensed use of the "Engineer" word in job titles pretty aggressively.
Yeah well, good for them I guess. I don't think anybody else cares.
> The point is that the public should have confidence in engineers.
Why? "Engineer" is a very broad term used in a variety of occupations for very different things. If you're looking at someone's credentials and you're so uninformed that you can't tell the difference between a licensed engineer in a particular profession and a guy that has "Engineer" written on their business card, you're not qualified to make a decision either way.
> If you still don't see why, "Lawyer" and "Doctor" are "just job titles" but obviously that's a problem. I trust you can see that.
I can see the argument for why a medical doctor or a lawyer should be afforded some amount of protection, because they are directly dealing with laymen. I don't buy the same argument for the word "Engineer", much less "Software Engineer". It just doesn't really mean anything. We already have degrees and certifications for when specifics matter.