Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice (2011)

Re:Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice... by verelo on Wednesday September 21, 2016 @03:42PM (#12551548)

I agree with both the parent and this comment; this is why when i read "Software Engineer" i don't consider it to fit in the same bucket as any other "Engineer" in general.

As a "guy who writes code" - call me whatever you want, i could probably give myself a fancy title and get away with it, but I am one of the very successful (When compared to the 99%) people who didn't finish school but managed to get by in the tech industry very comfortably. Life is already great, perhaps I just don't deserve to get everything my way.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice... by blowski on Wednesday September 21, 2016 @03:50PM (#12551617)

Exactly. If I had been born 100 years earlier (maybe even 25 years earlier) I would have had a low paying menial job. I'm blessed to be in the job that I am, with the pay that I receive, and I am grateful for that every day.

I don't use "software engineer" as an ego thing, but because it communicates better the variety of knowledge I have to people that barely understand how to turn their computer on. I get better pay, my employer is happy, everybody wins.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice... by duaneb on Wednesday September 21, 2016 @04:19PM (#12551847)

Note—tying this back into the article—a lot of people can write code. It's the person who understand what they're writing, why they're writing it, and why it works that you want to hire, so you would not be well served walking in with JUST the "programmer" title. That's a title many in the world can claim without being worth a hire.

[ Parent | on HN ]