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"The net effect is that my software engineering title can't have "Engineer" in it" Where is this? There are plenty of people in Software Engineering (with Engi

"The net effect is that my software engineering title can't have "Engineer" in it" Where is this? There are plenty of people in Software Engineering (with Engineer as their title) without engineering degrees (or college degrees at all), even at large companies like Facebook/Google etc.

ghaff 5y ago
That sounds like some weird company/person specific thing. have heard this come up with respect to professional engineering certifications in some states. But I believe those don't even exist in the US for software at this point--and even in some states where there are supposedly restrictions on using the term, those seem to be pretty widely ignored.
- shaftway 5y ago
  It's a weird company-specific thing. I think part of it is that the company does a significant amount of traditional engineering under the same contracts.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  It’s about the political pecking order at a company. If you’re working at a law firm, non-attorneys are often a lesser stratum of human. Likewise, engineers in some engineering company will see IT people as pretenders to the engineering throne. Some people gain joy in finding creative ways to be assholes. It’s just how humans are wired.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    And certainly at least Big Law (at least up to the point where you become a real rainmaker--which you probably won't make without the other things) has a lot of fixation on schools, law review, and clerkships.
shaftway 5y ago
Without being super cagey, let's just say I understand their rationale, and it's not entirely un-legit. I found the role via a Hacker News "Who's Hiring" post. My title is going to be "IT Consultant", and it will have zero impact on my compensation. I don't really have a problem with it.
indemnity 5y ago
I have heard this is the case in Canada. In most other Anglo countries you can get engineer in your title as a developer (and it is beneficial as it tends to be higher compensated than programmer or developer titles in my experience).
pshc 5y ago
This is the rule in Canada, at least. I wouldn’t be able to call myself an Engineer here with my CS degree, despite having had several such roles in the US.
- _aavaa_ 5y ago
  You wouldn't be able to be call yourself and engineer even if you had an engineering degree. You need the professional accreditation. Which you can incidentally get without having done an engineering degree, but it requires passing a lot of exams.

ghaff 5y ago

That sounds like some weird company/person specific thing. have heard this come up with respect to professional engineering certifications in some states. But I believe those don't even exist in the US for software at this point--and even in some states where there are supposedly restrictions on using the term, those seem to be pretty widely ignored.

shaftway 5y ago
It's a weird company-specific thing. I think part of it is that the company does a significant amount of traditional engineering under the same contracts.
Spooky23 5y ago
It’s about the political pecking order at a company. If you’re working at a law firm, non-attorneys are often a lesser stratum of human. Likewise, engineers in some engineering company will see IT people as pretenders to the engineering throne. Some people gain joy in finding creative ways to be assholes. It’s just how humans are wired.
- ghaff 5y ago
  And certainly at least Big Law (at least up to the point where you become a real rainmaker--which you probably won't make without the other things) has a lot of fixation on schools, law review, and clerkships.

shaftway 5y ago

Without being super cagey, let's just say I understand their rationale, and it's not entirely un-legit. I found the role via a Hacker News "Who's Hiring" post. My title is going to be "IT Consultant", and it will have zero impact on my compensation. I don't really have a problem with it.

indemnity 5y ago

I have heard this is the case in Canada. In most other Anglo countries you can get engineer in your title as a developer (and it is beneficial as it tends to be higher compensated than programmer or developer titles in my experience).

pshc 5y ago

This is the rule in Canada, at least. I wouldn’t be able to call myself an Engineer here with my CS degree, despite having had several such roles in the US.

_aavaa_ 5y ago
You wouldn't be able to be call yourself and engineer even if you had an engineering degree. You need the professional accreditation. Which you can incidentally get without having done an engineering degree, but it requires passing a lot of exams.