In CA you can be a professional engineer which gives you the power to sign off on a bridge design or other similarly high-stakes projects. There's designations

In CA you can be a professional engineer which gives you the power to sign off on a bridge design or other similarly high-stakes projects. There's designations for all kinds of engineers (Civil, Mech, Electrical, etc). You get a nice little salary bump or something usually, but you also get the risk associated with the bridge falling down. You sign off on the design and can be liable for negligence and malpractice. You have to take a little test when you graduate college, then work under another professional engineer for 5 years, then take another test. CA basically has no professional software engineering license yet.