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by mousepilot 1869 days ago
I think the term "software engineer" is sort of meaningless. I know someone who builds ssis packages and while he does know T-SQL, he is relatively unfamiliar with transactions, cannot describe how a balanced tree index works, and will not complete an SQL query without using "nolock".

I have never seen him produce a working program in any dot net language, or for that matter any procedural language except maybe visual basic for applications (excel macros maybe). I think he tried to learn php but gave it up. He also calls himself a software engineer. He makes some good money tho, he's in management.

I rarely see this with other engineering disciplines. Its always the computer programmers lol

Just 2 cents from the peanut gallery!

1 comments

Sure, anyone can call themselves that, but if you give me a resume with only SQL on it and you want a programming job, I will definitely start asking about other languages and trying to gauge general experience.

I don’t really care what you call me but I will call myself a software engineer because I have a depth of understanding in how to solve problems with software in a consistent way. I’ve always had an engineering mindset, I grew up in a family of engineers. It’s just the term I prefer.

ok fine, you're an engineer!