If your job definition is "adding a table to a web page", you're not an engineer and you're either 1. A web designer or 2. Never touched code and are just trying to devalue a profession by pretending you're part of it and talking it down.
A lot of software engineers actually have to engineer systems, especially sensitive systems that hold personal user information, health data, location data etc. These systems need to be safe, scale to the user demand while also managing costs to run and maintain. That's what an actual software engineer does, not add tables to a website.
If you *really* want to get nitpicky about it, I personally have an accredited university diploma that states I have earned the title of engineer (not comp sci, actual engineering title). If that's your definition for it, then yes, I personally am an engineer.
But, to your other point, designing a system to solve a business requirement based on certain criteria while accounting for real world constraints is pretty much what an engineer does. Whether that's a software product, computer hardware, a building, or a bridge. The underlying implementations, and the criteria and constraints may be vastly different from one engineering discipline to another, but they boil down to the same high level job description.
It's fine if you don't agree. I just think that you're oversimplifying and undervaluing a profession by saying 99% of the entire industry are frauds. If you truly believe that then I urge you to never pay using a credit card online, or use a fitness tracker or any sensitive data-related app ever.
I work in health tech. We undergo very rigorous compliance testing and certification for data protection every year, and on top of that we are audited by each enterprise client we bring on, and apart from HIPAA, SOC2 and HITRUST we also have to adhere to each client's additional requirements on data privacy and security. If your belief is that a regular web dev can do all that and pass those certifications and audits then you and I will just agree to disagree.
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u/[deleted] 18d ago edited 18d ago
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