I think that software engineering is a perfectly valid description for some sorts of work. If you can talk to customers or users, understand their needs, design

I think that software engineering is a perfectly valid description for some sorts of work. If you can talk to customers or users, understand their needs, design and build software systems that meet those needs, test the systems to ensure propert functionality and usability, and deliver an end-product that your users agree meets their needs... that sounds to me like the essence of engineering. I do not believe that the end product has to be "tangible" in order for it to be "engineering". There are surely electrical engineers and mechanical engineers whose work consists mostly if not entirely in the realm of things such as computer-aided drawing programs, while someone else constructs the actual physical product.