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Ask HN: Software Developer vs. Software Engineer

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Re: Ask HN: Software Developer vs. Software Engineer

#61

Post by drewcoo »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #19
jstx1 wrote: post #11

There's no difference. Some people think that engineer is a special word because of industry regulations in some countries - if you don't live in one of those countries, this doesn't concern you at all. Developer and engineer mean the same thing when they have the "software" prefix. The whole "a software developer does x but a software engineer does y" smells of snotty gatekeeping.

I'm in Canada so the distinction does matter. I'm not allowed to call myself an engineer because I didn't do an engineering degree. When interviewing candidates, I treat these as interchangeable.

University graduation in applied science or engineering or eligibility for certification as a professional engineer and up to three years of working experience from the graduate level

https://ont-sat-ths.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/procedures/description...

Re: Ask HN: Software Developer vs. Software Engineer

#62

Post by Vanit »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #34

There's no technical difference. Titles are used in corporations to separate pay grades and hierarchy, so a "Software Engineer" might be higher up the food chain, but they do the same work. I keep saying we need a real engineering discipline in software and not the "arts & crafts" it currently is. A real engineer can tell you whether a steel beam will support a given load; a software developer has no clue what load h…

I like this analogy, and it explains all the issues when online services are launched by game developers (I kid).

Re: Ask HN: Software Developer vs. Software Engineer

#63

Post by davidhbolton »

I worked at British Aerospace and my title was software engineer. Compared to previous programming jobs, this was roughly 70% paper work and 30% developing software. It was quite formal how they developed software using the waterfall method. Everything was documented and signed off before any development happened. Formal specs, design specs, acceptance tests (for afterwards) and so on. It felt more engineered than any other software development job I've had since.

Re: Ask HN: Software Developer vs. Software Engineer

#64

Post by flamesofphx »

jstx1 wrote: post #9
flamesofphx wrote: post #2

I would say one just plays, and builds things in pre-existing frameworks (Software Developer)... And Software Engineer, makes new things or new frameworks from scratch. Both are capable of programming though, it's the level at which they operate. As for the title themselves to HR, I don't think it really matters they think you can create "The Next Facebook" in 5 minutes.

> it's the level at which they operate I don't think this is true. From what I've seen the terms are completely interchangeable.

Sorry, Meant level as in low level coding versus high level... Software developer tend to use templates/framework to do most of the work, engineers build the darn frameworks, or more raw low level code. Both are coding, but it's sort of the difference in say crew member dumping out concrete vs the concrete finisher smooth or brooming the finish.
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