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A few years ago, a colleague had the title “software craftsman”, because he thought it was utter bullcrap to call our profession “software engineer”.
And yeah, now that I’m part of a project for a few years, I’m definitely feeling “software mechanic”. I might install half a spoiler every so often, but aside from that, it’s mostly just repairs…in Canada it’s illegal to call yourself an engineer unless you have an actual engineering certifications which don’t exist for software development.
it would be akin to calling yourself a software lawyer without having passed the bar to get your law certificates.
In the US you can call yourself nearly anything. Our protected titles are usually very specific:
Medical Doctor, Professional Engineer, Certified Professional Accountant, and so on.
Depends on the state. In some states, using the title of Engineer is considered practicing engineering, so if you use it without having a PE you can be fined.
I’d be surprised if there weren’t carveouts for the “audio engineers” and “software engineers”. But I could be wrong.
Same here in Germany, but only for the German word “Ingenieur”. You can call yourself “engineer”, no problem. 🥴
In the Netherlands, you can call yourself an engineer just fine, but if you want to use the title, you need an actual degree.
The work around is to refer to yourself as software engineering. “senior software engineering 2” or whatever
In Brazil you also need a certification, but you can get one as a software engineer. Universities have special courses that include other subjects just for that test. I.e., chemistry.
I feel like developer got coined in the software industry because people who didn’t program still wanted themselves to be seen as programmers. Stolen valor type title lol
I just realized that I autocorrected that to say “Video Game Developers” and was confused about the point of the post
