Hacker News Reader

Comment by brational | Hacker News Reader

>I think it's dishonest to call yourself a Software Engineer and not have an engineering degree.

Definitely semantics. For example, I have a BS/MS in applied math from a good engineering school university. I am a software engineer mainly working with ECEs, physics, and other math guys, who are all "software engineers".

I see where you're coming from about being a SW eng without knowing a lot of math - but there are other majors - math/physics/stats etc that will be very math heavy and not "engineering degrees".

View on HN

Right, an engineering degree is a guarantee that you know the important points of what it means to be an engineer. Ethics, engineering process, math, etc. When you get an engineering degree from a certified university, you are an engineer. It's a guarantee that (at one point, at least), you possessed the set of skills and knowledge determined by a board of professionals to be necessary for a career of engineering. Other degrees may overlap, but they're not held to the same standards.

Since we're playing semantics,

>When you get an engineering degree from a certified university, you are an engineer.

That's not true. When you get a degree you have an engineering degree. When you get hired and employed as an engineer, you are an engineer. You have an engineering degree and I have a mathematics degree. Our employers hire people for engineer positions and call them such. If I were a professor of math, i could call myself a professor. If I were a mathematician at the NSA, a Mathematician. But my employer calls me an Engineer. The degree does not do that.

Since we're getting pedantic, once you are employed straight out of uni, you are still not an engineer. You are a graduate, or cadet engineer. Typically its not until you've have several years of experience in an engineering capacity, and have passed your government's regulatory body's requirements, that you are actually an engineer. Usually this involves submitting a number of essays on your work, and then passing an oral review board.

@dsuth - that depends on country. Some employers in the US will take a new hire and call them an engineering intern if they require time and testing to reach PE status. That is not required and other employers will grant an Engineer title immediately.

And I'm not merely referring to software. The above is true for my companies 20+ different engineering positions across all disciplines they hire for (Aerospace, mechanical, electrical, materials, software, etc).

I think one thing that's understated is the amount of time we spend in ethics classes. I felt that there was always a semester where I was in some form of ethics or engineering history class.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com