A few years back I was talking to a so called "Software Engineer" in Bangalore... He wanted to install "Linux in Windows"! I helped him say "Linux and Windows together". Of course, we got tools which dub Linux on Windows now. But that was not the case then. I was surprised to know that he has a work experience of 5 years in the industry and cannot install a operating system. I fear how many of us can!
I was looking for the meaning of "Engineer" in the word-web on my desktop, it says "A person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems" . And we are software Engineers!
A few months later a manager of mine came to me, when I was re engineering some program I put the code on the left and was writing into document on right. Both windows were together and visible on left and right of the monitor, so that I don't have to keep either one of them in background and while working on the other. He exclaimed, "How could you do that? you must be very smart!"
Another incident that happened with my friend, when his manager asked him, "I copied the content from the desktop using mouse-click, can I disconnect the mouse and attach to another computer and paste it there!"...A bit innovative :) but not possible with current state of technology. However mouse needs a power supply to retain the information and a memory in itself, which will complicate things and makes mouse a USB memory stick and not a mouse!
One manager in a IT company, suddenly realizes that she sent a wrong email to the other person, and in a hurry to stop the email, she switches off the monitor and relaxes.... Had this been CPU power or a network card, it might have helped! Brains!
Are we lacking the spirit of being an Engineer when we got into secured jobs with decent money in hands? Engineer is no less to a scientist and should always swim against the stream to find the best ways to do the job. Only dead fish go with the stream!
One should know in the IT industry at least to install, remove the software and Operating systems. One should know how to partition a disk, what is a boot sector and what is a bootable disk. One should know that there exist shortcut keys on the Operating systems, the differences between a Operating system and a Software. The difference between a DLL and a EXE, a Shell Script and a executable, the development environment and the run-time environment. One should know what tools would ease his day to day work. I don't feel a Engineer is a labour who does, what he is told. He should know what is the problem, known solutions, and should be enthusiastic to find a new solution to any existing problem.
The educational institutions have mushroomed with lack of solid infrastructure to groom the youth and the parents just aspire their sons be called as "Engineers", whether or not they are actually! Pitiable situation.
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1 comment:
Dear Vijay,
Nice article. You should have searched in Wordweb for the meaning of 'Software Engineer' and not 'Engineer'. Let me remind you that many Software Engineers are with non-technical background who has flown into Software industry 'along with the stream'. I have seen people coming from Pharma and Bio-tech to IT. I better call our community as Software Programmers or Application Programmers.
Hmmm....Managers are there to get the work done by entertaining the team(Cheer boys or Cheer girls???) with their funny acts like those you mentioned.(with due apologies to managers who know that mouse cannot store data) That is the reason they are called Managers and not 'Software Managers'.
I agree with you that Software Industry is losing its charm with too much inflow.
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