In Ontario the Professional Engineers (http://www.peo.on.ca/) crack down on unlicensed use of the "Engineer" word in job titles pretty aggressively.
The point is that the public should have confidence in engineers. Software developers who tout themselves as "software engineers" actively piggy-back upon, and undermine this confidence. It's malicious, and you should feel bad for defending the practice.
If you still don't see why, "Lawyer" and "Doctor" are "just job titles" but obviously that's a problem. I trust you can see that.
> In Ontario the Professional Engineers (http://www.peo.on.ca/) crack down on unlicensed use of the "Engineer" word in job titles pretty aggressively.
Yeah well, good for them I guess. I don't think anybody else cares.
> The point is that the public should have confidence in engineers.
Why? "Engineer" is a very broad term used in a variety of occupations for very different things. If you're looking at someone's credentials and you're so uninformed that you can't tell the difference between a licensed engineer in a particular profession and a guy that has "Engineer" written on their business card, you're not qualified to make a decision either way.
> If you still don't see why, "Lawyer" and "Doctor" are "just job titles" but obviously that's a problem. I trust you can see that.
I can see the argument for why a medical doctor or a lawyer should be afforded some amount of protection, because they are directly dealing with laymen. I don't buy the same argument for the word "Engineer", much less "Software Engineer". It just doesn't really mean anything. We already have degrees and certifications for when specifics matter.
The point is that the public should have confidence in engineers. Software developers who tout themselves as "software engineers" actively piggy-back upon, and undermine this confidence. It's malicious, and you should feel bad for defending the practice.
If you still don't see why, "Lawyer" and "Doctor" are "just job titles" but obviously that's a problem. I trust you can see that.