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The Life of a Software Engineer

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the code-as-an-art-form dept.

Jonathan Wise writes to share with us an interesting bit of prose describing life as a software engineer. "I am, in the States, known as a Software Engineer. In Canada we're not allowed to call ourselves engineers, although the discipline is no less rigorous than any other kind of engineering. But perhaps its for the best, because 'engineering' describes only a part of what I do. A software developer must be part writer and poet, part salesperson and public speaker, part artist and designer, and always equal parts logic and empathy."

4 of 519 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm a software engineer. by orclevegam · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a troll, and definitely NSFW.

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    Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
  2. A few clarifications from the author of the post: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    - Sorry about the site being down. Its probably not a coincidence that I made Slashdot AND my host (which, to be fair, survived a Digg-rush awhile ago) is having troubles. I'm on the horn with them right now.

    - A few people, who likely didn't make it to the site, like to make broad generalizations about geeks of this sort not having sex. I'd like to point out for the record that I'm married, have one child and another on the way. This suggests that I've had sex at least twice. And my wife is very beautiful.

    - The intent was not to gripe about Canada's standards for the term "engineer." I only pointed that out the difference between my home country, and my current country of employ. I prefer the term "software developer" myself, but it doesn't really matter to me.

    - The intent was also not to be pompous or fuel my own ego, it was to describe, as eloquently as I knew how, what most of us here on Slashdot are. Although the stigma is going away, us geeky types tend to be considered only that: geeks. When really there is art and beauty to what we do. I'm not even as skilled a programmer as I imagine most are, but I wanted to lend my prose to our art because I believe it is valuable. But flame on, if you must!

    Thanks for reading, hopefully the site will be back up soon! I'd copy and paste the article text here, but I wasn't expecting this and don't have an offline copy!

    Jonathan Wise

  3. Re:No less rigourous? by WGR · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dr. David Parnas actually succeeded in becoming a Professional Engineer (P.Eng) in Ontario as a "Software Engineer". He showed that there are rigorous ways of designing software so that the tenets of engineering safety can be upheld.

    So yes you can be a software engineer in Canada. But not by getting a cereal box certification from Microsoft. Perhaps graduating with a degree in Software Engineering from a University like Waterloo or Toronto, which do have software engineering courses.

  4. Re:No less rigourous? by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's what I came in here to say.

    You CAN be a Software Engineer in Canada. You just have to get a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (or similar) with Software as your discipline. Then register with your appropriate body (APEG-BC in British Columbia) and there you go. The University of Victoria offers a B.Eng. in Software Engineering. For the first four years after graduation, you can call yourself an Engineer In Training. After that, you can get your seal and stamp as a Professional Software Engineer.

    In other words, yes, you can call yourself an Engineer. Just not after mailing in box-tops to MS.

    (I'm an EE. (in Training) )

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    ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.