Pretty much. If an engineer is in a bubble of software engineering, it's easy to forget there are other engineering professions where a lack of ethics or a poor

Pretty much. If an engineer is in a bubble of software engineering, it's easy to forget there are other engineering professions where a lack of ethics or a poor understanding of engineering gets people killed or causes damage. For most of the people here on HN, getting a license doesn't really matter much- they fall under the umbrella exception, so they can call themselves engineers. The license indicates some floor of engineering competency, which I think is fair. I can't speak for other engineering disciplines, but I aced the computer engineering exam with minimal preparation and sleep. Having 50% fail rates is not uncommon for these exams- do people really want engineers with a bad grasp of the basics making critical design decisions?