I'm not a Software Engineer any more. But what am I?

Question

I started out my career in computing writing web scripts on the microsoft platform. When ASP.Net came out I got enough experience in more rigid programming to make the switch into software engineering. Where I've been happy for several years.

In my current post my job title is Software Engineer, that's what I was recruited to do and what I spent the first year of my time doing. However, what started as a brief secondment into Operations slowly turned into what appears to be a different role in which I deal with clients to look at change requests and bug reports, search and analyse data to build a clear picture of what's going on, and then look at existing code to spot problems before planning and implementing solutions.

I'm not unhappy about this at all. Architecture was never my strong point and while an important skill in Engineering, it's much less vital in what I'm now doing which is much less studied and far more reactive. Plus it involves dealing directly with customers, which I enjoy, and means I get to work with a greater variety of languages and technologies but at a shallower level which suits the butterfly nature of my brain. As a final bonus I reckon that searching and analysing data to find hidden problems and working out business solutions as a particularly strong skill for me.

My employer seems have realised the same thing - I've been offered a possible permanent switch into this new role. I'd like to discuss this at my imminent review. However, if I'm not doing Engineering any more, and I enjoy this new role and might like to pursue it as a career path in the future I have a problem: I have no idea what, if anything, it might be called!

So two questions. First, does what I'm now doing have some sort of official name in the world of technology careers? And second, if it is an official job type, am I entitled to think about asking for a salary increase compared to my Engineering role?

Answer 1

As to title: There are few generally accepted titles in SW engineering, mostly because it depends on the structures of each company. Some possible job titles would be:

• requirements engineering (don't know if there is a specific title associcated)
• analyst (somewhat old-fashioned name)
• support engineer
• customer liasion
• project manager (though that usually involves more long-term planning)

However, I think what you are doing is still mostly software engineering. SW engineering is a lot more than writing code. So you could just call yourself software engineer with an emphasis on customer liasion.

Answer 2

You sir, are now a Programmer/Analyst. And no, no pay raise for you. You could only justify a raise (to me as an employer anyway), if you show me you're making the professional shift by, I don't know, getting training or certification in that direction. ITIL comes to mind.

Answer 3

This seems to be the fate of a lot of engineers in some companies. Sometimes their position is more or less accurate : tendering manager, feedback manager/engineer, "warranty manager" (bad translation), but other are way out of their field. On some projects the company just says "we need you on this because you know the engineer part" and there you go. Any engineer will at some point stop making softwares or calculation notes...

I think it can be a good way to evolve into a higher position later.

You should however definitely ask for a proper definition of your position and your responsabilities (and maybe have them improved).

Negotiating an increase is a bit more complicated to answer here but if there is a significant change of levels (dealing with customers with commercial responsabilities etc) then you have good reasons to ask for one. But you are best placed to evaluate this.