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I prescribe the the fact programmer is the most accurate term for what I do. Im not an engineer, im far closer to an architect and an analyst. But those things
by waheoo 6y ago
I prescribe the the fact programmer is the most accurate term for what I do.
Im not an engineer, im far closer to an architect and an analyst. But those things are both from other fields and confuse things.
A programmer needs to be across aspects of engineering, architecture, business analyst, designer, copy editor, ux, accounting, lawer, marketer and even a bit of project management.
That doesnt even begin to cover the domain knowledge often leaking into network admin, sysadmin, operstions, support, and various other functions I get thrown into.
Engineer, in my experience, just doesnt quite cut it.
We are general purpose knowledge workers with the single defining characteristic of continuous learning.
If i had to put a new label on it, id say we are process automaters. But since our focus is on programming computers to achieve this automation and "bring in the automators" makes us sound like robots or bankruptcy auditors, i would say programmer is a pretty clear good fit.
- visarga 6y ago> If i had to put a new label on it, id say we are process automaters. Ha! My faculty is called 'Authomatics' even though they teach programming and computer science. During my career I have automated things, though. It was a good name.
- executesorder66 6y agoSoftware developer always seemed to me to be an unambiguous and good name for what we do. It takes programming, and all the things you mentioned, to develop software. On top of that it is not an overloaded term with some other title from some other industry.
- waheoo 6y agoIs programmer overloaded from somewhere else too? I like software developer. Its probably the most commonly understood term too. Odd fact, accountants sometimes hire interns called "coders" because they code account transactions. Its one of the most tedious jobs I've ever had.
- executesorder66 6y agoNot that I am aware of. But as I mentioned, programming is not the only thing that software developers do. I mean I'd image that attending meetings takes up a huge amount of time for a CEO. But they aren't called "meeters" because that's not all they do.
- waheoo 6y agoRight but id hazard thats an exception to the rule. How many jobs come to mind that dont label based in their primary function? Because the jobs that do label based on primary function are very easy to come up with. Brick layers, plumbers, painters, miners, accountants, lawyers, sailors, banker tellers. Software development is a thing, and software developer perfectly fits that view. I guess I just think* a software developer is a professional whereas a programmer is more apt for things like open source development. Programmer being more of a general term encompassing software developers. *Nuanced and subjective thoughts.