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After I read this article I was quite upset, but really I wasn't angry as I was as much hurt. I actually don't like to call myself an engineer. I don't like t
by kemiller2002 10y ago
After I read this article I was quite upset, but really I wasn't angry as I was as much hurt. I actually don't like to call myself an engineer. I don't like the title, because I don't think it represents how I work and what I do. I don't follow a strict rigorous process, my job allows me to be free and agile (no pun intended) which is quite different from building engineers, mechanical engineers etc.
Where I live developers, programmers, etc. have never had the prestige that other science like professions have had. Most of the time when you talk about what you do, it's often a look of either confusion, or ambivalence because "Excel is on a computer, so programming can't be much different." A lot of companies belittle programmers, because "everyone can learn to program." Programming is hard, and this isn't to insult other professions. A lot of them are hard too. It's just that a lot of developers want to be respected for what they do just like everyone else and that's normally missing. This article, although in my opinion correct about not calling developers engineers, seems to ignore that what developers do is highly technical and quite complicated. Developers saying they're engineers puts that force of science and process behind it, and it's a defense from someone equating their basic class in HTML to mentally tracing how a request is going to trace through 100 servers in different regions.
Personally, I don't want to be restricted to being an engineer. I love the freedom to rapidly alter how I work, and most of what I work on will not cause harm to others. I am sure I speak for all developers, and what everyone really wants is to be counted among the other people who have challenging professions and respected for what is accomplished.