Are programmers degrees being called engineers now?

2    04 Jun 2018 19:30 by u/Conspirologist

I am not following the IT developments, but somebody told me that those who were called programmers before, now are being called IT engineers. Is this a real degree name now, or it is just some kind of internal slang between programmers?

13 comments

0 u/Project2501 04 Jun 2018 19:36

There are computer science degrees that have IT professionals, coders, sys admins, etc.

There are also computer/systems/software engineering degrees, that depending on nation, will require accreditation, and "engineer" may or may not be a legally protected title, like doctor, architect, lawyer, etc.

Engineer also sounds better then code money. And with all the mobile programs, and websites, "developer" has lost its appeal.

0 u/MuscularMayor 04 Jun 2018 20:38

No, engineering degrees must be ABET accredited. That dingus must be thinking of computer engineering

0 u/sadvulcan 04 Jun 2018 21:02

A lot of CS degrees are abet accredited

0 u/Psylent 04 Jun 2018 20:45

Software engineering is a term used often. Never heard IT engineer though.

0 u/3dk 04 Jun 2018 22:13

Software engineering is a term used to describe all the planning that goes into developing a software product. Kind of like a rough draft, sketch, recipe, roadmap for the development of a product. It makes sense for big projects. Typically it involves describing all the functions and making class diagrams etc. that fulfill the specified needs of a customer or manager (who are usually also involved in the process).

0 u/DestroyerOfSaturn 04 Jun 2018 22:52

Nope, they're just glorified secretaries from the typing pool. They are of the same rank of custodial technicians. They're basically black people thinking they kangz and stuff.

0 u/psimonster 06 Jun 2018 19:57

I think the terms server engineer and client engineer, referring to programmers, came from the video game industry and bled into network service development in general.

0 u/Omnicis 08 Jun 2018 23:20

I am a programmer and a system software engineer. Not all programmers are called engineers, but many are. The title depends on the work.

I don't actually have a completed degree. I have like all but 10 classes (9 geneds) finished of a CS degree, but then I just decided to quit school and begin working.

0 u/Conspirologist [OP] 08 Jun 2018 23:44

So, basically all engineers are programmers, but not all programmers are engineers?

0 u/Omnicis 11 Jun 2018 23:56

gah, its gets a little semantic here. Not all engineers are programmers (like Mechanical Engineer, for example). and not all programmers are programmers depending on what you mean with that word.

For instance, there are jobs with an "engineer" title, which require in depth programming experience, but where you would not actually do the programming directly yourself, instead you sort of carve out the work for "lesser" programmers to type up.

There are also IT Engineers that do no programming at all. Some of these might do tasks related to networking or security.

But I would say that all software engineers are programmers, when using the word "programmer" to mean "they make programs" even if they aren't the ones directly typing it up themselves.

I do designing of systems and I do programming too.

0 u/roznak 09 Jun 2018 01:01

IT engineers are definitely not programmers they basically stay on the scripting side while programmers tend to go deeper into compiled languages.

But I have to say that modern programmers, those have more and more deteriorated into script kiddies. They can't invent new technology when they need to, they rely on frameworks created by others. They have become very good at "name that framework" but very bad in what real programmers do: "Cheat" to by pass restrictions.

It is shocking to see that very good programmers have deteriorated into average by this SCRUM madness. The winners mentality has changed into the losers mentality where no one cares anymore if the sprint succeeds or not.

0 u/whambamthankyouham 25 Jun 2018 23:53

I would think that the 'engineering' is being used as a synonym for 'science'. And the science part comes in if one can analyze algorithms according to their logarithmic run-times.

Many people learn software languages perfectly fine without knowing that.

Now, if someone can actually create a software language and/or design hardware that can execute software, I would expect that individual to be classified as an engineer.

0 u/MrKequc 08 Jul 2018 09:18

Countries handle this differently, the word "engineer" in many is a legal term which often America ignores. Even in Canada you can't just call someone an "engineer" without a very specific accreditation. This is a mistake many software developers make on their resumes too, in case you are applying for jobs outside of the US.

It's like calling yourself a doctor.