Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
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Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#2First of all, most titles --but by no means all-- are bullshit. I prefer titles like {Junior, Senior, Lead, Chief} Programmer or Member of Technical Staff (I, II, III, ...}. Although I have been assigned titles like DevOps, Engineer, Developer and so on, my Linked In profile reads 'Programmer'.
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#3"Engineer" can be either degree/qualification or position.
In software business there are no mandatory degrees, only positions. Person without formal education can be in "chief leading senior engineer" position if he has good personal track record.
Personally I like the word programmer more than engineer.
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#4Similarly, an architect friend of mine is particularly annoyed that 'architect' has been almost entirely co-opted by the software industry.
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#5First of all, most titles --but by no means all-- are bullshit. I prefer titles like {Junior, Senior, Lead, Chief} Programmer or Member of Technical Staff (I, II, III, ...}. Although I have been assigned titles like DevOps, Engineer, Developer and so on, my Linked In profile reads 'Programmer'.
I used to think so as well until I realized that some companies pay more for an Engineer than a Programmer.
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#6First of all, most titles --but by no means all-- are bullshit. I prefer titles like {Junior, Senior, Lead, Chief} Programmer or Member of Technical Staff (I, II, III, ...}. Although I have been assigned titles like DevOps, Engineer, Developer and so on, my Linked In profile reads 'Programmer'.
At $job-2 I was at a small company, and I was tired of seeing my colleagues with lofty titles, so I changed my email signature's title from "System Administrator" to "Grand Duke of Information Infrastructure" (I had no client contact, and most external contact was with vendors and rare). I intended to have it thus until I was told otherwise or a max of a week or two when I'd grow bored of it, but it was liked so much that the website was altered to match...
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#7"Engineer" can be either degree/qualification or position. In software business there are no mandatory degrees, only positions. Person without formal education can be in "chief leading senior engineer" position if he has good personal track record. Personally I like the word programmer more than engineer.
As they point out in the article, Engineer as a title is often regulated. I'm in Ontario and it's actually written in law that one the Professional Engineers Ontario regulates the use of the word. Microsoft was actually taken to court for the use of Engineer in MCSE (they lost and were fined). So, they dropped the actual words and left it as just the letters. Before them, Novell had the same issue. Individual people have been fined as well, but it all comes down to reporting. So, if someone is calling themselves a "software engineer" and they aren't accredited they'll get away with it as long as nobody reports them. If that happens, they'll be fined. The University of Waterloo (and I assume some other Canadian universities) has a software engineering program that's accredited and graduates can become licensed engineers. At Waterloo, it's jointly taught by the Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering departments.
I actually have an engineering degree so I do take offence at non-engineers calling themselves engineers. I've done the work to become one, I've passed the requirements including the law and ethics exams while non-engineers haven't. My father worked for his whole career as a technician at Ontario Hydro doing work on nuclear and coal reactors and while there were engineers who did the same work, he never was called an engineer.
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#8First of all, most titles --but by no means all-- are bullshit. I prefer titles like {Junior, Senior, Lead, Chief} Programmer or Member of Technical Staff (I, II, III, ...}. Although I have been assigned titles like DevOps, Engineer, Developer and so on, my Linked In profile reads 'Programmer'.
Agree, although junior vs senior is mostly bullshit too.
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#9Extensive discussion from a few days ago:
Re: Programmers: Stop Calling Yourselves Engineers
#10We could call ourselves artists, gardeners, implementors, analysts, system designers.. All facets and analogies to what we do.