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Comment by phkahler | Hacker News Reader

I know people who put the P.E. on their business cards in the US. Most of them are closer to civil engineering or mechanical. I know one EE who is also a PE. I've never met a software focused person with a PE. In fact I'm not sure a CS curriculum prepares you for the PE test.

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I studied computer engineering. It's not a CS curriculum and it prepares you for the PE test. They also drill into your head that you can only refer to your self professionally as an engineer in Canada if you pass your engineering practice exams. Just to illustrate the difference between a computer engineering workload and a CS workload, I generally had 40 hours of classes, tutorials and lectures per week while my CS friends had about 24.

I don't think you can get a PE in software engineering any longer in the US. Very few people got it, at least latterly. As a mechanical engineer I did start down the path with the Engineer in Training exam because, had I stayed in my role at the time, I'd have eventually needed to start signing off on blueprints etc. for regulators.

There are so many frameworks, systems, and products I’m not sure you can have a broad certification to be able to call yourself a licensed professional in any reasonable sense. I became an engineer in training for electrical engineering but decided to pursue a software career as I enjoyed it more and it was more lucrative.

Not too mention that whatever you build has so many dependencies that would all have to fall under some category of licensed or industrial grade just to be used.

Besides move fast and break things with venture capital is not aligned with the risks that a licensed professional would have.

Isn’t that also true of engineering in the physical world?

I wouldn’t have any problem with there being a licensing body for software engineers. This would encompass safety-critical areas like automotive and aeronautical software systems, military systems, etc.

I don’t feel there is a need for your generic CRUD app developer to be an engineer. And there’s nothing wrong with being “just” a developer.

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