5 ms·

Don't think op is in US. Nobody would say "phone engineer" in the states.

by milliondollar 5y ago

wellthisisgreat 5y ago
I thought wow some guest working at Apple snitched on your kids?
Yajirobe 5y ago
Come on, this sort of cop behavior is limited to the US
- rubyn00bie 5y ago
  That’s easily the most naive thing I’ll read today.
- jimnotgym 5y ago
  Not at all, as I mentioned above I am in the UK. It is hard to get our police to react to anything...but any mention of firearms gets them excited. Interestingly I thought the phone engineer was more of a dick than the coppers.
  - throwaway2077 5y ago
    yeah, fuck that guy sideways.
- marcellus23 5y ago
  Lol you’ve been shown to be wrong by the original commenter. Get your head out of your ass.
OJFord 5y ago
I'm also (as well as OP) in the UK, but mildly disappointed to read it on HN. Bit of a pet peeve of mine (as a capital E Engineer I suppose) the absurd things we accept having 'engineers' sent out for, things that are barely even trades. I had a dishwasher engineer fit a replacement plastic piece where you put the tablet; a quote for an oven engineer to replace the glass door. That sort of ridiculousness makes me more sympathetic to bonafide tradesmen using the term (or rather having it used about them by customer services) - boiler engineers, ISPs' 'engineer visit' to set up a new line, etc. - despite that probably being what started my peeve initially! I don't know how widespread it is, I know in Germany for example it's a protected term. In Canada I think if unqualified (i.e. not 'software engineer' or 'boiler engineer', but just 'Engineer') it is too. We have chartered institutions that can bestow 'CEng', but it doesn't affect whether or not you're allowed to be called 'an engineer' or anything. (This whole comment probably makes it sound like I'm a lot more annoyed by it than I am.. I just mean it's sort of 'heh ok sure' chuckle/eyeroll when they say it. Like if it started to be normal to refer to pharmacists/nurses/phlebotomists as 'dispensing/assisting/blood-taking doctors' I suppose.)
- jimnotgym 5y ago
  Perhaps we have it backwards. I'm in the UK. If I saw a company that did 'engineering' I would expect to walk in and see someone at a lathe. I work in the West Midlands a lot and this is especially true. An engineer may drive a train or maintain ships propulsion in the English speaking world. A Civil Engineering company builds roads and bridges, and may not have any Chartered Engineers on the staff. I know several people who design electronics for a living, have degrees in the same subject and call themselves 'Electronic Engineer', yet becoming CEng would never cross their mind. Whereas if you wanted to become a structural engineer you would likely have to become chartered. I have never met a Chartered network engineer, yet what else would a CCNA call themselves? Never mind the software engineers and Devops engineers... Perhaps the Chartered Engineers should have found their own term rather than adopt a general one and then get sniffy about other uses? I know the Chartered Institutes have been around a long time but the term 'Engineer' predates them by some years.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Yeah, maybe. But that's what I mean about 'barely even a trade' - takes a lot more know-how to operate a lathe (per your example) than to do a lot of the 'handyman' type jobs that we get told 'an engineer' will be sent out for. Fwiw I'm not CEng, EE by degree, but work in SE. I'd like the IET & chartership to be more relevant for SE, but all I meant by that was that we have it, but don't (as some other countries do) require it or something like it in order to use the term 'engineer'.
    - OJFord 5y ago
      I was reminded on the tube this morning that this same sort of thing gives us TfL's 'Network Presentation Team' - née 'cleaners'.

Don't think op is in US. Nobody would say "phone engineer" in the states.

wellthisisgreat 5y ago

I thought wow some guest working at Apple snitched on your kids?

Yajirobe 5y ago

Come on, this sort of cop behavior is limited to the US

rubyn00bie 5y ago
That’s easily the most naive thing I’ll read today.
jimnotgym 5y ago
Not at all, as I mentioned above I am in the UK. It is hard to get our police to react to anything...but any mention of firearms gets them excited. Interestingly I thought the phone engineer was more of a dick than the coppers.
- throwaway2077 5y ago
  yeah, fuck that guy sideways.
marcellus23 5y ago
Lol you’ve been shown to be wrong by the original commenter. Get your head out of your ass.

OJFord 5y ago

I'm also (as well as OP) in the UK, but mildly disappointed to read it on HN. Bit of a pet peeve of mine (as a capital E Engineer I suppose) the absurd things we accept having 'engineers' sent out for, things that are barely even trades. I had a dishwasher engineer fit a replacement plastic piece where you put the tablet; a quote for an oven engineer to replace the glass door. That sort of ridiculousness makes me more sympathetic to bonafide tradesmen using the term (or rather having it used about them by customer services) - boiler engineers, ISPs' 'engineer visit' to set up a new line, etc. - despite that probably being what started my peeve initially! I don't know how widespread it is, I know in Germany for example it's a protected term. In Canada I think if unqualified (i.e. not 'software engineer' or 'boiler engineer', but just 'Engineer') it is too. We have chartered institutions that can bestow 'CEng', but it doesn't affect whether or not you're allowed to be called 'an engineer' or anything. (This whole comment probably makes it sound like I'm a lot more annoyed by it than I am.. I just mean it's sort of 'heh ok sure' chuckle/eyeroll when they say it. Like if it started to be normal to refer to pharmacists/nurses/phlebotomists as 'dispensing/assisting/blood-taking doctors' I suppose.)

jimnotgym 5y ago
Perhaps we have it backwards. I'm in the UK. If I saw a company that did 'engineering' I would expect to walk in and see someone at a lathe. I work in the West Midlands a lot and this is especially true. An engineer may drive a train or maintain ships propulsion in the English speaking world. A Civil Engineering company builds roads and bridges, and may not have any Chartered Engineers on the staff. I know several people who design electronics for a living, have degrees in the same subject and call themselves 'Electronic Engineer', yet becoming CEng would never cross their mind. Whereas if you wanted to become a structural engineer you would likely have to become chartered. I have never met a Chartered network engineer, yet what else would a CCNA call themselves? Never mind the software engineers and Devops engineers... Perhaps the Chartered Engineers should have found their own term rather than adopt a general one and then get sniffy about other uses? I know the Chartered Institutes have been around a long time but the term 'Engineer' predates them by some years.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Yeah, maybe. But that's what I mean about 'barely even a trade' - takes a lot more know-how to operate a lathe (per your example) than to do a lot of the 'handyman' type jobs that we get told 'an engineer' will be sent out for. Fwiw I'm not CEng, EE by degree, but work in SE. I'd like the IET & chartership to be more relevant for SE, but all I meant by that was that we have it, but don't (as some other countries do) require it or something like it in order to use the term 'engineer'.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    I was reminded on the tube this morning that this same sort of thing gives us TfL's 'Network Presentation Team' - née 'cleaners'.