I have a degree in Software Engineering and NOT CS. I had to teach myself a lot of core CS, largely for interviewing in the industry which is full of CS majors

I have a degree in Software Engineering and NOT CS. I had to teach myself a lot of core CS, largely for interviewing in the industry which is full of CS majors and people with myriad unrelated degrees (or no degrees). You can't call yourselves 'hackers' and 'engineers' at the same time. (I mean, you _can_, but talk is cheap) That's not a bad thing by a long shot. There's a time and place for hacking as there is for engineering.