The line has blurred because many companies now mandate that you hold a degree and 22 years of experience to even look in the direction of a computer, but I wou

The line has blurred because many companies now mandate that you hold a degree and 22 years of experience to even look in the direction of a computer, but I would say that not too long ago, it would be a pretty fair claim. There's no need to pretend that code monkeys who churn out generic CRUD programs are highly skilled or talented. It's respectable, pays enough, demands enough, and many people are capable of it; it's as close to a blue collar office job as you could ask for. Actual software "engineers," working on complex problems in computation, mathematics, physics, etc. are hugely outnumbered, even today, let alone tomorrow.