Ask HN: What's Up with Title Inflation, and "Software Engineers"?

2 mikewarot 2 8/29/2025, 4:29:24 PM

Why is everyone in FAANG is willing to put up with the blatant title inflation and call programmers "Software Engineers"?

Comments (2)

ben_w · 3h ago

My degree is in "software engineering", I graduated in 2006 from a Welsh university, so that isn't an example of FAANG anything.

Nor title inflation IMO, original etymology is "one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence, etc.", and anyone who uses security components will be doing some of that given how cyberspace as a warfare domain doesn't seem to be particularly constrained these days.

bigyabai · 3h ago

Something like "software engineer" is vague enough that they can force non-programming tasks into your job description.

Post 2010 it's all been some variation on distributed systems. You can't really just "program" your way to a working K8s cluster.

Ask HN: The government of my country blocked VPN access. What should I use?

Cloudflare confirms downtime on August 23rd, silently posts it on status page

Ask HN: What to learn for math for modeling?

Ask HN: Best self-hosted wiki solution in 2025? Mediawiki or something else?

Ask HN: Should we stop worrying that AI will replace developer jobs?

Ask HN: What options do I have for self-hosted end to end encrypted group chat?

Ask HN: Theory That Economic Growth Stagnates in a Civilization

Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series?

Ask HN: Daily/weekly/monthly technical rituals?

Tired of Broken .onion Links? I Built a Real-Time Tor SE That Works

Ask HN: What to do when you suspect your interview is with a state operative?

Ask HN: How can I recover and run my old mobile game from the 2010s?

Ask HN: Avoiding AI slop in music services

Apple App Store Review Mess

Best up-to-date guides on Vibe Coding

Ask HN: Where can I see a live octopus in Maine?

Ask HN: Anyone working on bringing software back from US clouds?

Staying up to date on the best AI dev workflow?

Ask HN: How much better can the LLMs become assuming no AGI

Ask HN: Did modern AI's coding abilities make you lose interest in programming?

Ask HN: Services for Shutting Down a Startup?

Ask HN: What to Do with Old iPads?

CompactifAI Inference API

Ask HN: What are the best Google alternatives in 2025?

Ask HN: GitHub Copilot down?

Ask HN: Best codebases to study to learn software design?

Ask HN: How to teach a 4 year old to code?

Petition to stop Google from restricting sideloading and FOSS apps

Ask HN: Is there a temp phone number like temp email?

Ask HN: Does sentience put stress on the brain?

Ask HN: Why are so many services rejecting Google Voice numbers for signups?

Stop squashing your commits. You're squashing your AI too

Ask HN: How to Learn to Build Agentic AI Systems (Like Claude Code)

Ask HN: Are AI filters becoming stricter than society itself?

Ask HN: What should I use to run React Native tests on a device?

Ask HN: What measures are you taking to stop AI crawlers?

Ask HN: Is backlink trading still a problem worth solving?

Ask HN: What's Up with Title Inflation, and "Software Engineers"?

Comments (2)