Engineer. My roles have been very broad and coding has been only a small portion of it, so engineer fits better, IMO.
Honestly, one of the proudest moments of my career was getting promoted into an 'engineer' title. In my mind, engineers solve problems holding society back and although the problems I was solving were relatively mundane I was proud to carry that title.
Application Engineer, on any given day I'm doing non-trivial work in web dev, 3d apis or desktop software.
It's one of those things where you could pick either one but you want someone to ask you to explain more and then proceed to brag about being a generalist, being proficient in n languages and how many stacks you use/know...
For a long time I was self deprecating about this topic.
When people who weren’t in tech asked me what I did, I told them on a good day I was an internet plumber, and on a bad day, an internet janitor. I take myself a bit more seriously now and just opt for software engineer.
I’ve found that no one cares except some other programmers, developers, engineers, whatever. I describe my work as computer programming when asked, rather than equate myself with a title. The companies that pay me don’t care, the subject only comes up on HN.
An utterly useless bikeshed, but one which a broad range of people love talking about, engineered to launch the "Triplebyte community forum" linked in the post. I expect nothing more from these guys.
Interesting I don't have a degree, job title/paid as SWE but don't think I can call myself one(lack of degree) so I identify as SWD used to be "full stack" but idk anymore. Eventually I'll just be "hermit in desert".
I can't say I really love any of them. But I think my favorite is "dev" because it is short and pretty unambiguous (afaik). The problem is it isn't a widely used term outside the industry, so when I talk to acquaintances who probably wouldn't know what I mean by "dev", I say "programmer", because most people seem to have some idea of what that is (even if that idea is very different from reality).
Engineer if I'm working on backend/hardware as it's my actual education and experience. Programmer if it's frontend / system admin as I'm really just winging it as required.
In German, "Entwickler" (developer) seems to be most common. Avoid everything with "code" particularly if your, say, aunt asks what you do for a living because code sounds like "Kot" which translates to "shit". (Example: "Today, I had to delve deep into someone else's code.")
I dropped out of uni to become a professional developer or programmer. Many friends and coworkers who did similar things call themselves engineers, but personally I find it a bit pretentious since CS / computer engineering education is almost purely theoretical in my country (it's more of a maths degree with a couple of programming subjects).
Software laborer (or software day laborer if you're a contractor) - without a governing body calling yourself an engineer seems disingenuous, and developers develop film.
Software Developer as per company internal title, although I am a professional engineer inscribed in the Engineering Order of my home country, where it is illegal to pimp up oneself with engineering on the title just because one feels like doing it.
My original education is physicist and I worked as a scientist back in USSR. Then I immigrated to Canada and since I was not exactly Einstein science did not pay enough. So I've switched to product development since during my science days I've learned how to program computers, design mechanics and electronics for my experiments and many other interesting skills.
End result - been on my own for the last 20 years and develop products for living. From initial idea to successful production stage. Not always software. Sometimes it is also mechanics and electronics. Some I develop for my own company. Some I made for clients. Never had a single f.. up in regards to delivery and have very good references.
I do not get hung up on languages, technologies etc. To me those are just tools. What I am very good at is figuring out the most practical and fastest way to design build and deliver solid product. Sometimes I design and code most of it, sometimes I hire extra subcontractors. I get satisfaction from the end result and the pay of course. I've done just about anything from firmware and real time device control to enterprise systems for Telcos, etc.
So what do I call myself? No frigging idea but by word of mouth I get nice clients here and there.
To my friends I'm a programmer, to someone in an official position (like a bank) I'm a software developer and to people I want to help out I'm a problem solver.
I never call myself an engineer as that's too broad to be useful. Some people who consider education to be the most important call me that, since I technically have a degree in civil engineering (civilingenjör in Swedish).
People call themselves developers or software engineers because it sounds a bit more pretentious. However there's no shame in calling oneself a programmer just like in the olden days :)
I'm not an engineer, so I don't like referring to myself as one. Even most actual engineers who are "software engineers" don't do anything remotely engineering-y.
Programmer or coder etc to me sound too mechanical, as if literally (badabish) writing code is all I do, which isn't true.
So software developer feels more accurate to me.
But at the end of the day I'll take whatever title will pay the most for the most enjoyable work.
I probably use programmer most often, although my title has been SWE for decades by now. That said, scanning the Wikipedia page for Engineer sounds exactly like my job. I take it from other commenters that is not typical?
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[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 91.3 ms ] threadI’m not a Developer, or a Software Engineer. I can’t code in Java or any other typical programming language.
But I can configure things to work, and do infrastructure as code.
So, DevOps Engineer it is.
Honestly, one of the proudest moments of my career was getting promoted into an 'engineer' title. In my mind, engineers solve problems holding society back and although the problems I was solving were relatively mundane I was proud to carry that title.
It's one of those things where you could pick either one but you want someone to ask you to explain more and then proceed to brag about being a generalist, being proficient in n languages and how many stacks you use/know...
Never, EVER say coder. That is the language of muggles.
When people who weren’t in tech asked me what I did, I told them on a good day I was an internet plumber, and on a bad day, an internet janitor. I take myself a bit more seriously now and just opt for software engineer.
But for people in the industry, I’ve found “dev” works the best
developer DEVELOPER! DEVELOPER!
https://www.kbasm.com/blog/reasons-programmer-is-artisan
I saw somebody else say this somewhere, it felt fitting.
End result - been on my own for the last 20 years and develop products for living. From initial idea to successful production stage. Not always software. Sometimes it is also mechanics and electronics. Some I develop for my own company. Some I made for clients. Never had a single f.. up in regards to delivery and have very good references.
I do not get hung up on languages, technologies etc. To me those are just tools. What I am very good at is figuring out the most practical and fastest way to design build and deliver solid product. Sometimes I design and code most of it, sometimes I hire extra subcontractors. I get satisfaction from the end result and the pay of course. I've done just about anything from firmware and real time device control to enterprise systems for Telcos, etc.
So what do I call myself? No frigging idea but by word of mouth I get nice clients here and there.
To my friends I'm a programmer, to someone in an official position (like a bank) I'm a software developer and to people I want to help out I'm a problem solver.
I never call myself an engineer as that's too broad to be useful. Some people who consider education to be the most important call me that, since I technically have a degree in civil engineering (civilingenjör in Swedish).
Programmer or coder etc to me sound too mechanical, as if literally (badabish) writing code is all I do, which isn't true.
So software developer feels more accurate to me.
But at the end of the day I'll take whatever title will pay the most for the most enjoyable work.