What are we called?
Basecamp says we're Programmers. Stack Exchange likes Developers. Patreon has Engineers. And so it goes.
At Vanilla, we've typically used 'Developers'. What's your preference to see in a job title?
Comments
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I always felt "engineer" is not appropriate. I don't feel I have the knowledge or education to be called an engineer.
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There are strong arguments for all of them. Usually when I read Think Pieces™ or opinions about them I get irritated because I feel like they are just ignoring the arguments they don't like. My feeling is that the choice is more about values than it is accuracy.
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Then what are the values of each?
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IMHO:
Programmers do programs / another term - coders
(stuff nobody can understand except other programmers and far from reality and business and customer needs)
Developers do things
(apps and features that business or customers need)
Engineers do core tools for developers
(what developers need)
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Very briefly:
Developers
- Very ambiguous professionally (e.g. Real Estate Development, Business Development).
- A bit ambiguous semantically (We're "developing" software, not building it? Ehhh, OK) but it does reference more than "coding" so that feels nice.
- Probably the majority favorite across multiple software disciplines (product, agency, in-house, etc).
Programmers
- Very specific professionally. We own this word (the only contestant is television, which is super niche relatively speaking).
- Very specific semantically. It's an active verb that describes a key part of our job.
- Some folks feel it is diminutive or overly simplistic relative to the work. (I don't share this view.) Not fashionable in our industry currently.
Engineers
- Fairly ambiguous professionally, but not as much so as 'developer'. The field is at least more akin to (physical) engineering than 'developer' is to its cross-meanings.
- Fairly strong semantically. "Engineering software" sounds like a decent description of the work.
- It's perhaps a bit of ego-pleasing. All the tech giants especially call them engineers and it's very ingrained in Silicon Valley culture.
It's like choosing khakis, mom jeans, or hipster skinny slacks. They'll all work as pants, it's just a matter of what you're going for.
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Engineers
At least in dear old Quebec, the term "engineer" refers to a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs. Similar to calling yourself a doctor when you aren't legally recognized as a doctor this is considered fraud. If recall from my ENG101 course, to become a member of the order, not only do you need to have the relevant degree, but all credits received towards that degree must have been taught by a professor who is also a member of the order.
Programmer
My biggest issue with this one is we do a lot more than program. Would you call a maid a "vacuummer" or a CSM a "phone call maker" or a construction worker a "hammerer"?
Developer
I guess this is what's left? I think it fits pretty well.
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Would you call a maid a "vacuummer" or a CSM a "phone call maker" or a construction worker a "hammerer"?
This is essentially the "diminutive or overly simplistic" take I mentioned above.
No, I'd call a maid a "house cleaner" or a construction worker a "builder", which are both real-world uses, much like "waiter" or "wrestler".
What really follows from your example would be calling a programmer a "typist" or "code compiler" since those are verbs not representative of the whole of our work.
I think having a discussion around a whiteboard is "programming" as much as physically typing code into an IDE is (much like being a waiter involves a ton of work not spent table-side). My sense is we viscerally don't like jobs named {main task}+"er" because it feels too blue collar, but I'd much rather lean into that distinction than away from it.
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Sorry for off topic. But I always associated myself with "blue collar".
But after @Linc words I went to google and found interesting classification:
- Gold collar – Highly skilled professionals who may be in high demand, such as company secretary, chartered accountants, surgeons, anesthesiologists, engineers and lawyers.
- Red collar – Government workers of all types;[8] derived from compensation received from red ink budget. Also in China, refers to Communist Party officials in private companies.[9]
- Grey collar – Skilled technicians, typically someone who is both white and blue collar; an example is information technology workers. They are principally white-collar, but perform blue-collar tasks with some regularity, such as engineers. May also be used to refer to old aged workers after retirement age.
- New collar - develops technical and soft skills needed to work in the contemporary technology industry through nontraditional education paths
- No collar – Artists and "free spirits" who tend to privilege passion and personal growth over financial gain. This term was popularized on the reality game show Survivor: Worlds Apart, which used No Collar (in addition to White and Blue Collar as the tribal divisions);[10] also, people who work, but not for payment.[8]
- Orange collar – Prison laborers, named for the orange jumpsuits commonly worn by inmates.[8][11]
- Green collar – Workers in a wide range of professions relating to the environment and renewable energy.
- Scarlet collar – Workers in the sex industry[8]
- Black collar – Manual laborers in industries in which workers generally become very dirty, such as mining or oil-drilling;[8][12] has also been used to describe workers in illegal professions.
- Virtual collar – Robots performing manual repetitive tasks, both physical as well as virtual.
So we are "New collar"s class.
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