I've got an aerospace engineering degree and have worked across a number of industries, from satellites to robotics. These days my job is about 50% software. S

I've got an aerospace engineering degree and have worked across a number of industries, from satellites to robotics. These days my job is about 50% software. Software development feels the same as other engineering design. You generate requirements, prototype, test and iterate. To argue that it's not engineering because it's not regulated is stupid, partly because most engineering fields outside of buildings aren't particularly regulated anyway, and partly because there's loads of regulations which are just as relevant to software engineering. Generally safety standards apply to the whole system - not just the electronic design, but the software and hardware interaction. The complexity of software means you have to take a slightly different approach to actually quantify risk of failure, but it's still very much engineering.