Steve Mynott wrote:
Jim Dixon wrote:
The term 'engineer' is far from precise; in the UK most people who work with tools can be called engineers but people who write software generally are NOT called engineers. There are further complications: for example, in
I have had jobs as a "software engineer" in the UK and since the dot com bubble this hasn't been an uncommon job title.
The UK tends to follow US fashions very closely importing in titles like CEO and CTO and the term "software engineer" is no different.
Yes, but... the word "engineer" as used here by most people measns someone who fixes machines. If I go to somebody's ofice and they say that I'm "the engineer" pride makes me say no. I'm not an engineer, I'm a programmer. Different think entirely If I had to describe what I do I'd call myself a "systems programmer", even though that isn't exactly what my job title is. I'd avoid the word "engineer" because to most people it implies the bloke of the street who knows how to put a replacement PC card in, but to a few it implies some professional status and formal discipline, neither of which I have had anythign to do with.