Programmer, developer, engineer? What do you call yourself and why?

Engineer. My roles have been very broad and coding has been only a small portion of it, so engineer fits better, IMO.

Honestly, one of the proudest moments of my career was getting promoted into an 'engineer' title. In my mind, engineers solve problems holding society back and although the problems I was solving were relatively mundane I was proud to carry that title.

An utterly useless bikeshed, but one which a broad range of people love talking about, engineered to launch the "Triplebyte community forum" linked in the post. I expect nothing more from these guys.

Depending on how much I'm puffing myself up, I'll say Software Engineer, or programmer (lower case p), or simply "I do code for web stuff"

Never, EVER say coder. That is the language of muggles.

Programmer. I feel like, at least in my country, that "Engineer" is a term used by people that want to feel they have a shinier title. Most of those people don't even have a degree on any form of engineering. I call myself a programmer because this way I feel like I'm not trying to show off a title and it also transmits the message of what I do: work on computer programs.

I’ve found that no one cares except some other programmers, developers, engineers, whatever. I describe my work as computer programming when asked, rather than equate myself with a title. The companies that pay me don’t care, the subject only comes up on HN.

For a long time I was self deprecating about this topic.

When people who weren’t in tech asked me what I did, I told them on a good day I was an internet plumber, and on a bad day, an internet janitor. I take myself a bit more seriously now and just opt for software engineer.

People call themselves developers or software engineers because it sounds a bit more pretentious. However there's no shame in calling oneself a programmer just like in the olden days :)

My original education is physicist and I worked as a scientist back in USSR. Then I immigrated to Canada and since I was not exactly Einstein science did not pay enough. So I've switched to product development since during my science days I've learned how to program computers, design mechanics and electronics for my experiments and many other interesting skills.

End result - been on my own for the last 20 years and develop products for living. From initial idea to successful production stage. Not always software. Sometimes it is also mechanics and electronics. Some I develop for my own company. Some I made for clients. Never had a single f.. up in regards to delivery and have very good references.

I do not get hung up on languages, technologies etc. To me those are just tools. What I am very good at is figuring out the most practical and fastest way to design build and deliver solid product. Sometimes I design and code most of it, sometimes I hire extra subcontractors. I get satisfaction from the end result and the pay of course. I've done just about anything from firmware and real time device control to enterprise systems for Telcos, etc.

So what do I call myself? No frigging idea but by word of mouth I get nice clients here and there.

I'm not an engineer, so I don't like referring to myself as one. Even most actual engineers who are "software engineers" don't do anything remotely engineering-y.

Programmer or coder etc to me sound too mechanical, as if literally (badabish) writing code is all I do, which isn't true.

So software developer feels more accurate to me.

But at the end of the day I'll take whatever title will pay the most for the most enjoyable work.

It always depends on who's asking.

To my friends I'm a programmer, to someone in an official position (like a bank) I'm a software developer and to people I want to help out I'm a problem solver.

I never call myself an engineer as that's too broad to be useful. Some people who consider education to be the most important call me that, since I technically have a degree in civil engineering (civilingenjör in Swedish).

I studied engineering and got a degree in computer science. So I like to call myself a software engineer. At my job I do a lot of things: analysis, design, development, project management.

Calendar Driven YAML Engineer.

I saw somebody else say this somewhere, it felt fitting.

Code artisan

https://www.kbasm.com/blog/reasons-programmer-is-artisan

I can't say I really love any of them. But I think my favorite is "dev" because it is short and pretty unambiguous (afaik). The problem is it isn't a widely used term outside the industry, so when I talk to acquaintances who probably wouldn't know what I mean by "dev", I say "programmer", because most people seem to have some idea of what that is (even if that idea is very different from reality).

Say “developer” to non-IT people and they immediately think “property developer”, so I stick to “computer programmer”.

But for people in the industry, I’ve found “dev” works the best

I do a lot more than just program according to a spec someone else wrote and fulfill tickets on a treadmill.

In addition to programming, I also communicate with clients and stakeholders, architect solutions to problems, build and manage infrastructure, train other developers, and numerous other responsibilities.

So I call myself a software engineer. I deal with and engineer solutions relating to the domain of software.

I dropped out of uni to become a professional developer or programmer. Many friends and coworkers who did similar things call themselves engineers, but personally I find it a bit pretentious since CS / computer engineering education is almost purely theoretical in my country (it's more of a maths degree with a couple of programming subjects).

In German, "Entwickler" (developer) seems to be most common. Avoid everything with "code" particularly if your, say, aunt asks what you do for a living because code sounds like "Kot" which translates to "shit". (Example: "Today, I had to delve deep into someone else's code.")

Application Engineer, on any given day I'm doing non-trivial work in web dev, 3d apis or desktop software.

It's one of those things where you could pick either one but you want someone to ask you to explain more and then proceed to brag about being a generalist, being proficient in n languages and how many stacks you use/know...

Software designer by title, developer by heart.

Work includes full stack development, and some devops + continuous deployment responsibilities.

I feel being called a designer yet actually doing developer stuff sounds a bit deceiving. I'm employed by a small company which lets me do pretty much anything I'm interested in, so what the heck.

DevOps Engineer. It’s the simplest thing I can come up with that seems to make sense to most people I work with.

I’m not a Developer, or a Software Engineer. I can’t code in Java or any other typical programming language.

But I can configure things to work, and do infrastructure as code.

So, DevOps Engineer it is.

Software Developer as per company internal title, although I am a professional engineer inscribed in the Engineering Order of my home country, where it is illegal to pimp up oneself with engineering on the title just because one feels like doing it.

I probably use programmer most often, although my title has been SWE for decades by now. That said, scanning the Wikipedia page for Engineer sounds exactly like my job. I take it from other commenters that is not typical?

Engineer if I'm working on backend/hardware as it's my actual education and experience. Programmer if it's frontend / system admin as I'm really just winging it as required.

Software laborer (or software day laborer if you're a contractor) - without a governing body calling yourself an engineer seems disingenuous, and developers develop film.

Painter. Well. I guess this question isn't for me :D

Doesn't matter what you call yourself or what's in your title. It matters what you do and what others call you.

I have a degree in computer science from an engineering school, but I consider myself a

developer DEVELOPER! DEVELOPER!

Code monkey

Dev.

Shaver of yaks.