I think this is an interesting idea, but ultimately there's always a hierarchy when there are decisions to be made (tech x vs tech y) so the principal behind th

I think this is an interesting idea, but ultimately there's always a hierarchy when there are decisions to be made (tech x vs tech y) so the principal behind the different level still ultimately exists. I like the idea of differentiating a developer and a software engineer more explicitly. I think the industry needs a way to differentiate some guy who hacks things together [and sells it off as professional software - where a client would expect error handling/logging/security/automated tests/backups etc] vs the professional software engineer* who designs and builds the system using the latest professional best practices. I think that we need to have a minimum level of delivery for a professional developer/software engineer. *I wanted to put engineer here rather than developer to seed the idea of someone who builds a bridge and sells it as a service. Anyone can throw stones into a stream to cross it, but few can build a bridge that is safe for cars to go through I agree that the whole concept of 'back end' vs 'front end' is silly. I agree that anyone should be able to do both, but the interviewer probably meant to ask 'where would you rate your skills most highly'. A lot of techies seem to pigeon hole themselves in one skill-set which makes them very inflexible.