• kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 years ago

    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”.

    • T. Hex@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      2 years ago

      That’s funny, plain “programmer” would be my preferred term if it weren’t for the fact that non-tech folks think it sounds like menial work. I’ve landed on “software engineer” because that’s what my employer calls me and other people seem to understand a little bit, too.

      • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Here in Canada you can’t call yourself an engineer unless you are a qualified and licensed engineer. So most people have to call themselves “developer”. When you see someone calling themselves a software engineer it should mean something.

      • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 years ago

        I was hired with the official title “software engineer,” then I was noted in all unofficial org charts as a “SE/DE” (software engineer/data engineer), and recently my boss announced that I have had my title officially changed to “data engineer”. My job functions have not changed the entire time I’ve been here. I write Python, SQL, KQL and Pyspark scripts and have to fuck around with Azure architecture sometimes. So there’s not always clear delineation between these terms, anyway.

        • odium@programming.dev
          0·
          2 years ago

          Lol, are you me? Job application said software engineer. 3 months after I was hired, it changed to data engineer with no changes to the work I do. I wasn’t even notified, just noticed on a random day that the role on my profile on Teams had changed. I also do Python, SQL, and Pyspark scripts, but use AWS instead.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          I was hired as a Developer and a month or two in they changed our titles to Software Engineer because “It sounds better.” I’d have to say I agree!

      • marcos@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        Yes. And, by the way, “computer” was once the name of a profession, carried out by people.

      • small_crow@lemmy.ca
        1·
        2 years ago

        I remember telling my high school guidance counsellor I was planning on becoming a programmer. She looked at me, head tilted like a confused dog and asked what excited me about Event Programming (as in, planning and scheduling large in-person events).

        That was the first time someone didn’t understand what I did for work, and it was about 5 years before I started doing it.

  • scorpionix@feddit.de
    1·
    2 years ago

    Not engineer.

    At least here in Germany, engineer is a protected profession. Other than that: All of the above.

    • explodicle@local106.comEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      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)

      • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        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.

    • Gladaed@feddit.de
      0·
      2 years ago

      If you studied a technical science and do coding for that you may be allowed to be called ingenieur.

    • rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      2 years ago

      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.

    • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
      0·
      2 years ago

      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.

      • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
        0·
        2 years ago

        During the 2008 recession, a lot of Uber drivers had engineering degrees. I guess we should start calling Uber drivers engineers too.

        • Jrockwar@feddit.uk
          0·
          2 years ago

          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.

          • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
            0·
            2 years ago

            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.

    • pwalker@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      2 years ago

      That is not entirely true. It’s a bit more complicated. Yes it is protected since the 1970s but it’s more of an 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.

    • CurbsTickle@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
      0·
      2 years ago

      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.

      • omgitsaheadcrab@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, 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

        • mumblerfish@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 years ago

          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.

        • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          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. Engineering paid more than being an electrical technician / designer, but not by a huge amount.

          • omgitsaheadcrab@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            2 years ago

            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.

      • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        2 years ago

        I believe job titles specifically are(were?) considered in exempt / non-exempt status for overtime.

        Why Administrator is in a lot of titles also.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.eedeleted by creator
        0·
        2 years ago

        There are a few dick engineers working on the corner. Dickvelopers? Cockologists?

  • klisurovi4@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I am partial to “code monkey”

    On a serious note, I usually refer to myself as a developer or a software engineer when I wanna sound a bit more important.

  • pulaskiwasright@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Everyone who works on making software is a developer, even people who don’t program at all. Progress who make art for software work in software development. A “coder” only writes code. It’s more of a task than a job. A software engineer does technical design and probably also codes.

  • Zink@programming.dev
    0·
    2 years ago

    I have always considered myself an engineer because I’m part of a multidisciplinary engineering organization designing a physical product that has embedded software. And “engineer” is the word at the end of my degrees, I guess.

    But if somebody called me by any of those terms in the OP I would answer. And if somebody who works on an app or a video game calls themselves an engineer, it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.

    My only conclusion is that we here, who spend our days specifying exactly what we want computers to do, are not so great specifying ourselves exactly.

  • icedcoffee@lemm.ee
    0·
    2 years ago

    If you call a dev a programmer and they don’t get huffy they are hands down one of the raddest people you’ll ever meet.