Agreed. Engineering is a "profession". You wouldn't call medicine or law "trades". In some jurisdictions (Canada for example) calling yourself a "software engin

Agreed. Engineering is a "profession". You wouldn't call medicine or law "trades". In some jurisdictions (Canada for example) calling yourself a "software engineer" without having a professional engineering license is unlawful (although lots of people still do it and it's difficult for the regulatory agencies to enforce it at scale).