Comment by Nicksil | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Nicksil | Hacker News Reader

I've never understood why some people use the term "software engineer" when there are many, more appropriate titles for this profession. Something as simple as "software developer" conveys the same thing and better describes what vast majority of "software engineers" do.

There's also this, from the article:

>“Professional engineers are held to high professional and ethical standards and work in the public interest,” it said. “The public places a high degree of trust in the profession and these layers of accountability and transparency help keep Canadians safe.”

I cannot agree more. Such standards and concerns are found within a minority of software development roles (critical, risk, etc.); the majority of work in this field does not hold to the same account which is fine for the type of work.

Nobody is demanding all software developers be held to the same standards as professional engineers; there is no movement to force everyone wanting to write software be required to go through the same education and development as professional engineers. Again, there are plenty of other, more correct terms to use.

I would like to see a more concerted effort to bring back and/or develop new standards and criteria for genuine professional engineering in software. People who desire such a career will have something to pursue. Everyone else can continue to being software developers ... which is fine. Simple.

Maybe because some of us are really Engineers (with a degree in Engineering) It's not because I specialized in Computer Science at the very end of my studies that I'm not an Engineer.

> Maybe because some of us are really Engineers

Well, yeah. If you're an engineer then call yourself one if you'd like. My comment concerns folks who are not engineers yet refer to themselves as such.

yea and frankly it sounds better in resume thats why most prefer to use it lol

I never understood it either. If you haven't taken a Software Engineering degree, and you haven't passed the requirements of the professional engineering regulatory body in your jurisdiction, then why do you think you should be calling yourself one? If you're a bridge builder, go ahead and say so. But don't call yourself a Civil Engineer just because you build bridges.

I don't understand why Computer Programmer (or just Programmer) went out of fashion.

If I ever get to decide on my professional title at a company I'll go with "code monkey". It's as respectful as the profession deserves.

I’d like to call dibs on “digital plumber” for DevOps Engineers

hell also the term Coder, which hilariously gets misinterpreted as Encoder (a copy paste work), which I kind of prefer just to keep it in the low low

I think the term was used simply to attract talent and give prestige to the role. I saw a video recently where Chamath Palihapitima claimed to have invented the job title Data Scientist to convince a candidate who held a Ph.D to join Facebook.

I’ve also found that people external to the tech org love to refer to everyone in the tech org as engineers, regardless of their role, again to likely add prestige or clout to their role. “Our engineers are working on it”, “I’ll review with engineering”, etc.

I work at LinkedIn and everybody jerks themselves off by calling themselves engineers.

Silicon Valley likes the ego wank of being called engineers.

It’s not really the specific employees making that call. Being a “principle engineer” is the job title in the contract.

>It’s not really the specific employees making that call. Being a “principle engineer” is the job title in the contract.

If it's your job title and you're not working for yourself, then it's likely there's little-to-nothing you can do about. This concerns folks referring to themselves as engineers.

If you are applying for jobs described as opportunities for “software engineers”, and you qualify, it makes total sense to refer to yourself as such.

“Software engineering” is a common globally recognized phrase. Anyone overthinking a popular phrase after decades of use doesn’t understand language.

It is as ridiculous as a medical association getting worked up about PhD grads, a rapper, or the author of “Seuss” books being referred to as “doctor” without a medical license.

You can’t regulate global language trends. (Successfully)

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