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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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