Do call yourself a programmer, and other career advice • Hacker News Board

Re: Do call yourself a programmer, and other career advice

#121

Post by dmoney » Sun, Jul 14, 2013, 7:38 PM UTC

gingerlime wrote: post #97

msellout wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. There are far more non-programmers than programmers. Even with a correlation between being a programmer and hiring programmers, it is plausible that the vast majority of hiring managers are non-programmers. This becomes more plausible if you step back a layer to the budget allocation for headcount rather than specific hiring decision.

Isn't it also plausible that after the first programmer hire (by non-programmer), any subsequent hiring will at least involve this first programmer? I would even go as far as saying that an 'expert opinion' from a programmer would typically be involved in the hiring decision (be it from an external consultant, a friend or what not). Given that the non-programmer would typically realise they don't have themselves the…

> Isn't it also plausible that after the first programmer hire (by non-programmer), any subsequent hiring will at least involve this first programmer?

Definitely. You'll generally have to convince a programmer of your competence. Once you've passed that test, you may also have to negotiate with a non-programmer for your salary. At that second stage is when you want to be able to convince someone of your ability to multiply dollars.

Re: Do call yourself a programmer, and other career advice

#122

Post by nialo » Sun, Jul 14, 2013, 9:49 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #83

gibrown wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless your definition of 'engineer' is someone who drives a train, I don't see how 'engineering' doesn't apply to coding. At least good coding. I was an electrical engineer before being a software engineer. There is a difference in what level of the stack I focus on now, but there is very little difference in how I design solutions and think through problems (though hopefully I've continued to get better). Most of m…

Here is an explanation that I read in a book of Steve McConnell's a decade ago. Certain types of tasks (eg building a bridge) require an engineer to sign off on the work. And the engineer is personally liable should the design of the bridge prove faulty. An engineer is a person whose license allows them to make those representations and have it be accepted. Most software developers lack that license, and cannot legal…

Just one note on this, as someone with a "Mechanical Engineer" job title: The majority of people (including me personally, all my coworkers, my parents, etc.) working with "engineer" in their title, and presumably calling themselves engineers, don't have the Professional Engineer license required to sign off on bridge designs. I personally don't see any problem with Software Engineer as a title, although I'm occasionally sad that just "Engineer" is so often taken to mean software only in some places.

Re: Do call yourself a programmer, and other career advice

#123

Post by zura » Tue, Jul 16, 2013, 10:25 AM UTC

gdy wrote: post #104

zura wrote: post #44

In Georgia, it is the mostly used title - "Programisti". Because, we don't have one single word, the synonym of "Software". So word by word translation of "Software Engineer" in Georgian would be: Computer Program Provisioning Engineer. Nobody uses this title.

Your Georgian language looks exactly like Russian J

Actually no. There can be some particular similarities, as with any other language, but overall, they are quite different.