Shibbibilybob wrote
I am eletrical eng graduate from wits.
I work for small electronics manufacturing company in cape town.
I say electronics, but it's totally telephony...we design and build hybrid PBX systems.
I really enjoy it.
Software dev totally counts as engineering! They say a degree is not about specific knowledge, but about developing a skill set, way of thinking and an approach to problem solving.
During my university career, I found that the latter two of those were developed most by software development courses.
If Object oriented programming did not fundamentally change the way you see the world then your experience of the universe must be considerably different to mine ?
What I'm saying is that when you call in a civil engineer you know you are going to get a certain set of skills, a certain amount of knowledge, that the person you are hiring is conversant with certain methodologies.
Unfortunately (and I mean that) we don't get the same when we employ or hire or consult with a "developer". Like I say, I know people who write software for a living and have little knowledge of programming rudiments.
In the good (allegedly) old days programmers just coded, they did not design. But even then terms like "analyst" were vague and it was still a bit like opening a box of chocolates.
So it can be like hiring somebody to design a bridge but you don't know if he knows how to properly measure loadings, knows what load the candidate materials can take, how to produce drawings that the construction team can follow etc.
I might agree that a certain mind set and approach to problem solving are developed by software courses - but only SOME software courses. I have a datametrics certificate from UNISA, and that's all BSc modules. There's some rigour in that, and it imparts some good discipline. Those modules were tougher than the courses I did at Wits Technikon (when that still existed) but even there I learned proper programming practices and different levels of cohesion and coupling (for those who know about all that good old classic procedural language text book stuff). But there are lots of other guys who have gone through some place that teaches them the syntax of some programming language or other (NOT the same as being able to program) and coaches them to pass some exame that gives you some certificate from some body that nobody really knows much about. That's a different proposition (and I have some sympathy for the people who lay out good money so that they or their kids can be "taught to program" at some or other certificate mill).
My views on programming and programmers are not always well received. Employers (and I don't REALLY blame them) want a piece of paper that says that you an program in some language or other that they know their IT department uses. My take is that if you can PROGRAM then another language is just a matter of learning the syntax and maybe an IDE. The language that I did most of my certificate in was COBOL. I've never actually written a line of COBOL code for a living.
