The software development market is giant and highly differentiated now. I have personally gone into client sites with plenty of people whose full-time job is doing nothing but scripting, and they're paid as software developers (for their locale) and their work is appreciated (as long as they have good bedside manners with the stakeholders). Granted, these clients are not hot startups, they're nowhere near the leading edge, it often involves tying together CRUD applications instead of more interesting problems, and often they're found in "flyover country" instead of hot metros, but for some people it's the right fit.

Starting and ending one's programming skills with scripting is not a programming sin. For some businesses, there is a real, constant need fulfilled by someone who glues together data and systems with scripts. Personally not my cup of tea, but I recognize it works for some people and organizations; if those circumstances work for you, then that kind of job is nearly a slam dunk.

'A job' is not necessarily a job at a large software firm. How about supporting your local medical offices (dentist, optometrist) by remote-monitoring their servers, installing updates etc? That's a job. Or updating web order forms for the local shops for the holiday specials?

There is an enormous spectrum of software to be done. And not enough people to do it, currently. So getting a job could be very easy.

Sure.

But, the point is a "professional software development job", not "something to do with computers"

The way it usually works is you get a job doing non-primarily coding stuff at a company that has also has programmers, and then get shifted to a development job when people figure out you can code.

Meh.

I've never seen that work for actual software development, but I guess it depends on where you work/what sort of job you do.

I've seen it work for sdets though so who knows.

Err, SDET _is_ a professional software developer. It's in the title!

Working in a non-development group doesn't somehow make you not a software developer.

They aren't the same job, regardless for how similiar the titles are.

My point was the skills required in architecting a solution vs testing a given specific solution differ. So, while you can more easily fall/move into a automated testing role, it's harder to do so into a core programming job. The bar for moving into the latter, rightly or not, very much higher.