[emmelaich]

There's an inverse snobbery in effect here to an extent. If you've made it / made a name for yourself you can call yourself a programmer.

I don't know know whether it was the recently departed dmr or ken, but one of them answered 'programmer' when asked what he put as a profession on his landing/visa/immigration card.

[piccadilly]

That isn't because they were so big that they could say programmer, it is because that is what it used to be called before self-promotion inflated all job titles to the point of hyperbole.