To Engineer, or not
I have been calling myself a ‘Developer’ one way or another for most of my professional career. That name seems to fit the bill pretty good considering I develop software for a living, so I felt pretty secure using that in the job-naming compartment. These last years however I see the term ‘Software Engineer’ being used more and more, up to the point I started to feel like an ageing dinosaur who is slightly out of touch with current tech affairs. So what would make Software Engineer a better description? Is it just a trend, or should I tweak some content on my LinkedIn profile before I start to miss out?
Truth be told the term ‘Software Engineer‘ has existed a lot longer than I have been calling myself a ‘Developer‘ from the late 90’s. But for some reason naming myself a Software Engineer used to make me cringe a bit. It felt like I was destined to shovel coal in an old fashioned train. An admirable profession for sure, but not something that is closely related to producing software perhaps.
For me ‘Developing’ software suggests adding something new and distinct, possibly from scratch, using code (and possibly some tears). On the other hand ‘Engineering’ somehow suggests software is operated upon, merely by wiring up the needed building blocks. Ironically these days that is more true than ever using a health mix of actual programming, DevOps, Serverless and Infrastructure as Code. But for some reason it still does not feel exactly right using this term to describe my work.
Using ‘Software Engineer’ to describe your activities also does not lend itself well to indicate some sort of specialisation perhaps. What exactly would a Backend Software Engineer do differently that a regular Software Engineer? Calling yourself a Software Engineer already suggest you can create any kind of software really. Which is possibly true of course, if you had unlimited time at your disposal for which not many clients will pay you.
One of the reasons terms like Frontend/Backend/Fullstack/Native/DevOps are in use is because creating software can be a rather complex and diverse activity. For this you often need people with a specific skillset to achieve your goals. It certainly feels good to name yourself a Software Engineer to indicate that you are halfway of becoming a full-fledged Software Architect and are knowledgeable to go any direction you want when creating software. But for most projects that is not really a realistic scenario. For the same reason any decent sized restaurant would not just hire `a cook` but specifically a Head Chef, Sous Chef, Pastry Chef, Saucier, etc.
But the division is not that black and white of course. A quick search on the term Engineering states some sort of higher level creative act is actually involved. And most likely I am one of the few who has this kind of negative association, so I should really adjust my attitude on this. And what would be the alternative, simply calling yourself a ‘Programmer’? That does not feel right either. And perhaps you are simply that good at what you do that you can justifiably call yourself an allround ‘Software Engineer’. All valid points.
But still, this is the gut feeling I have build up over the years. Perhaps one of the reasons for this negative vibe is also that this term is used rather quickly to elevate oneself from the crowd. To indicate you are something more than a simple programming serf. It reminds me of a quote I heard while watching a series (the Expanse I believe) which came down to something like this:
You’re no Engineer, you are just a Machinist!
Which in turn would indicate being a Developer is like being a Machinist. And that makes me feel I’m back shovelling coal in a train again for some reason 🤔
All this is not to say that I will not switch over to using Software Engineer as my professional calling name at some point. The negative vibe is diminishing every time I utter that term, so this article definitely helps with that. And I am certainly hypocrite enough to simply follow the money and change my working title if that is what the tech market wants of course.
