On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 18:36, Steve Mynott wrote:
Jim Dixon wrote:
The term 'software engineer' is becoming less common in the States these days. I have watched the job title wax and wane for more than twenty five years. I think that it was most fashionable in the early 1980s.
Any Americans care to comment on this?
In the mid-1980s, the US Department of Defense, at the time the largest software customer in the world, told its vendors that 10% (I think) of their software development staff must be software engineers. Along came the HR fairies with their magic wands and poof! almost all software developers were software engineers. The SE job title has ebbed and flowed, as Jim said. It means little other than "programmer" in the US. As Jim said in another message, almost all states restrict the use of the term "engineer" to those who are licensed. But most don't really enforce that rule, so HR departments are free to give their programming staff the glorious title. However, contrary to Jim's statement, Texas does license software engineers. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering .) I don't know if any other states license SEs. Regards, SRF, degreed Software Engineer (hooray, me)