The Picard ManeuverAs someone not in tech, I have no idea how to refer to my tech friends' jobs
Björn
scorpionixNot engineer.
At least here in Germany, engineer is a protected profession. Other than that: All of the above.
InfynisInteresting. In the US, all kinds of jobs are called engineers
omgitsaheadcrabYeah, same in the UK. Really annoyed me that the plumber, electrician… etc were all engineers. In Germany it’s as protected as calling yourself doctor, which ultimately affects how people view the profession and the salaries they command
I mean, it’s a protected term in Canada too but it doesn’t necessarily lead to higher salaries.
My cousin who’s an electrician made about as much as I did as an electrical engineer, and I left electrical engineering to be a software developer because it paid more.
I left aeronautical engineering to become a software “engineer” for similar reasons, salary and work culture. Actual engineering pays quite terribly in the UK, it’s a fair bit better in Germany or the US from what I hear.
US much better than Germany I’ve heard!
Software yes, actual no
Yeah it’s difficult for me to name my title in English 'cause the word doesn’t exist. I went to a technical high school, not university. (Not college!)
It does not only dictate your professional life/status in Germany, being a doctor, your social as well. Someone I know got a postdoc in germany, no luck finding a place to live until they started asking their german collegues to call and saying “doctor so-and-so is looking for an appartment”. So, he gets one. The guy has a very long full name, so the nametag the landlord is gonna put on the postbox is way to long, but if you cut off the part where it says he is a doctor, it would fit. He insists to cut that part away, the landlord just refuses, says fuck your name and person basically, and cuts off part of his last name instead. Saying you are a doctor gets you first in fucking everything (maybe not lufthansa, then they just say ‘senators’ or something). Extremely class divided social society that.
Damn I’m surprised to hear that!
TBF some plumbers and electricians are qualified engineers, just not all.
tsonfeirThere are a few dick engineers working on the corner. Dickvelopers? Cockologists?
I believe job titles specifically are(were?) considered in exempt / non-exempt status for overtime.
Why Administrator is in a lot of titles also.
If you studied a technical science and do coding for that you may be allowed to be called ingenieur.
It is in Canada too but that doesn’t seem to stop companies from using the term
Here in portugal too. But there is a specific engineering field which is informatic engineering? Software engineer essentially
Hmmm. But all the people around me working in software studied multiple years in an Engineering field. In my case, I studied a 5-year industrial engineering and two masters afterwards; I feel very comfortable wearing the “software engineer” or more accurately “robotics engineer” badge.
During the 2008 recession, a lot of Uber drivers had engineering degrees. I guess we should start calling Uber drivers engineers too.
No, that’s precisely the opposite of my point. If you drive an Uber, you’re an Uber driver. People are “CEO” or “Judge” despite nobody having a CEO or Judge degree. Your profession is what you do, not what you happened to study in your teens to get there.
I understand your point now and I agree. Your colleagues that studied engineering became programmers. Why do people treat this as if that’s bad? It’s a beautiful profession.
I don’t think it’s bad, in fact I wonder the same. These are my colleagues because it’s the same path I took - I now work developing self-driving cars (I slowly transitioned from aerospace to manufacturing automation to robotics) and it’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had, and it feels very much like engineering. I don’t care if I’m not a “manufacturing engineer” anymore; I really like my job and I like my title to reflect somewhat accurately what I do, but that’s the extent I care about it.
How come they don’t count? They’re figuring out how the machines should work, for money. That’s engineering, right? (I’m an American mechanical engineer)
In Canada you have to be qualified and licensed to call yourself an engineer. There are people who can use the title “software engineer”, but it’s not the majority of people working in development.
The version protected here is PE - Professional Engineer.
To be a PE you need a degree, to work under a PE, pass competency exams, and get a state license. So that’s the comparable title.
astraeusThey have to protect German engineering at all costs
Softwareingenieur darf man sich nennen, wenn man ein mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliches Fach studiert hat, wo Informatik dazugehört. Somit ist Software Engineer oder Softwareingenieur die korrekte Berufsbezeichnung für alle mit einem Bachelor/Master oder höher in Informatik.
Dann muss man schon auch als solcher tätig sein, sonst nicht.
Sparkling Technologist.
That is not entirely true. It’s a bit more complicated. Yes it is protected since the 1970s but it’s more of academic title. You needed to study something that is “mainly” of technological or scientific nature. Basically befire the Bologna reform every student in Tec. Unis/FHs did get the title Diplom-Ingenieur. So the engineer part was literally part of your degree. This of course also true in case you studied IT. So yes there are many who call themselves IT engineers also in Germany. However it’s more of a philosophical question how much software development is actually engineering or rather craftsmanship.
machine whisperer
Codebender
But everything changed when the file nation attacked
And although his coding skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he deploys anything to production.
Thats rough, buddy.
My first coding project got axed.
teftWhat? Everyone else went on a code learning field trip with Zuko. Now it’s my turn.
Secret tunnel! Through the firewall!
NegativeNullCodesmith
Filerunner
Bugbreaker
Diskbringer
Clouddancer
Docwatcher
Screenweaver
IfElsecaller
'netward
Codesmith
The orders of the Devs Radiant must stand again
Technomancer
this is basically the 2000s “Code Ninja Wizard Monkey Robot” all over again.
spork!
THCDentonh a c k e r
H4x0r
Script kiddy.
whotookkarl“Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?” -Shodan
OpenStars“Job titles are actually a fluid concept - why feel a strong need to label everything?” :-D
My job title has changed 5x more than my actual job. I honestly don’t even know what my current title is.
I wonder how many man-hours (and at what average salary) has been spent deciding on title changes that have literally zero impact at my company. I’m sure every change involves meetings full of highly-paid executives.
“I (want to keep my job and therefore I) AGREE WITH YOU 100%”
They collect the big bucks, the rest of us can suck dirt - barely not able to afford a home, food, medical care, etc. Oh wait, sorry, I meant “YES SIR/MAM!”
bruhduh
Call me magic man
I’m technically an aerospace engineer, but all I do is code most days. I think it depends highly on what you do, since my job also involves doing things not strictly coding related as well, I always slap the engineer title next to it. If you only code, then it’s more appropriate to say software dev, or programmer. But, again its highly dependent on your role.
And as other people have mentioned, seems like outside the U.S. the term engineer is a protected title, so my take really only applies within the U.S.
I would say tho, a lot of programmers in the U.S. do get called software engineers. Just depends on where you go I guess.
I don’t think what you study in your degree is the defining factor. Obviously this is country-specific but I feel you job title isn’t always linked 1:1 to your title.
I studied Industrial Engineering, which in Spain exists as a degree but not as a job position. Position wise, I’ve been a mechanical design engineer, a manufacturer engineer, an automation engineer, robotics engineer, and these days I’m mostly a software engineer. I’m definitely specialised in engineering, regardless of the tools I’m applying to solve the task at hand.
My title technically is aerospace engineer, but yeah I get what you mean.
I’m in tech and “computer programmer” has always sounded to me like a grandma phrase. Like how all gaming consoles are referred to as “the Nintendo” or “the game station”.
Has there been a programmer for anything other than a computer
angry domino logic programmer noises
Do you program domino logic on a electric board or on a computer?
