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.
You need the professional accreditation. Which you can incidentally get without having done an engineering degree, but it requires passing a lot of exams.
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.
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.
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).
1. The way I handled this was to insinuate on the resume that I had a degree. I went to a university for a couple years (before flunking out) and before that I did a couple summer classes at an extension program. Those add up to four years, and I point out that I studied computer science (which is true). If they don't outright ask that's not my problem. And if they do then I explain that something personal came up, and not completing it is one of my biggest regrets in life, but at this point I don't see how a degree would help my career blah blah blah.
This has only actually affected me once, and it's for a role I'm starting this week. The net effect is that my software engineering title can't have "Engineer" in it because I don't have an "Engineering degree".
3. A degree doesn't resolve that. I interview people every week for a role at my MAGMA company, most of whom have degrees, and most of whom act like they have impostor syndrome. Practice it. Do interviews for companies you don't expect to join just for the interview practice in a low-stakes setting. You'll get over it.