Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
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Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#2Don't call yourself an Engineer unless you are licensed to do so. Most states have a professional licensing board to oversee the practice of Engineering. Here's the link to the one in my home state of Indiana.[1]
I've been a programmer, system administrator and a machinist. I've never called myself an engineer, and wouldn't want the criminal liability for doing so.
I wouldn't call myself a "computer doctor" either for similar reasons.
[1] https://www.in.gov/pla/professions/engineering-home/engineer...
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#3Some good advice here, some things are rather dramatic. I do like the encouragement to highlight the value you bring to the company. But "don't call yourself a programmer" is a bit dramatic. Highlighting your ability to program is pretty important.
The way I typically try to highlight my development contributions - if it isn't direct user-facing feature development - is to portray my software as internal "mini salesforce" for niche high value tasks for other employees. For instance at my first internship I automated manual tasks like thumbnail creation, searching and calculating market share of our company, and other tasks. It's fine to call yourself a programmer, just be sure to emphasize "I program X and Y that are crucial for teams A and B".
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#4>You are not defined by your chosen software stack: I recently asked via Twitter what young engineers wanted to know about careers. Many asked how to know what programming language or stack to study. It doesn’t matter. There you go.
I generally agree with this point and many others in the article but when looking for a position the tech stack of a company you're interviewing with matters a whole lot.
Using some older/unfashionable languages or maintenance-only frameworks indicates a lack of investment or interest in technology. It probably also indicates a lot as far as what your colleagues would be like and how much you'd learn from them.
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#5>You are not defined by your chosen software stack: I recently asked via Twitter what young engineers wanted to know about careers. Many asked how to know what programming language or stack to study. It doesn’t matter. There you go. I generally agree with this point and many others in the article but when looking for a position the tech stack of a company you're interviewing with matters a whole lot. Using some older…
> the tech stack of a company you're interviewing with matters
Yes, this blog belongs to a (fairly large) class of "career advice the way the author wishes the world was rather than the way it actually is" blogs.
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#6> Engineers in particular are usually very highly paid Cost Centers, which sets MBA’s optimization antennae to twitching
disagree completely with this.
I view scientists, engineers, programmers, and system administrators as a part of the profit center because they are intrinsically tied to value creation and value amplification.
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#7> Engineers in particular are usually very highly paid Cost Centers, which sets MBA’s optimization antennae to twitching disagree completely with this. I view scientists, engineers, programmers, and system administrators as a part of the profit center because they are intrinsically tied to value creation and value amplification.
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Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#8> Engineers in particular are usually very highly paid Cost Centers, which sets MBA’s optimization antennae to twitching disagree completely with this. I view scientists, engineers, programmers, and system administrators as a part of the profit center because they are intrinsically tied to value creation and value amplification.
Agree with your disagreement! Whether classified as cost center or profit center largely depends on the type of company or organization. For the first half of my career, I would agree with OP: that engineering was viewed as a cost center. However, after transitioning to a software company, me and my teammates were generating revenue.
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#9Don't call yourself an Engineer unless you are licensed to do so. Most states have a professional licensing board to oversee the practice of Engineering. Here's the link to the one in my home state of Indiana.[1] I've been a programmer, system administrator and a machinist. I've never called myself an engineer, and wouldn't want the criminal liability for doing so. I wouldn't call myself a "computer doctor" either fo…
The criminal liability is in lying specifically about having the PE license, for work that requires it. Nobody is going to prison for calling themselves an "engineer" on their resume when they apply for a job that itself is called "engineer" by the recruiter.
Re: Don't call yourself a programmer, and other career advice (2011)
#10>You are not defined by your chosen software stack: I recently asked via Twitter what young engineers wanted to know about careers. Many asked how to know what programming language or stack to study. It doesn’t matter. There you go. I generally agree with this point and many others in the article but when looking for a position the tech stack of a company you're interviewing with matters a whole lot. Using some older…
I see your point, but Facebook had large collection of code written in php(still is?), and they are far from having "lack of investment or interest in technology."