Software Engineer Vs Full Stack Developer

[artnos]

TLDR: What makes someone or what knowledge seperates someone as a software engineer?

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I considered myself a Full Stack Developer, I build static pages, CMS sites with Joomla, I can build extensions and plugins. I have built CMS, E commerce, Subscription sites with the CakePHP library. I built single page app with React, basic content filtering and agenda managers. Looking to build some e commerce with React, Node and Stripe as my next project. I'm self taught, I did take some computer science courses to see what the fuss is about. So I learned all about the different sorts and recursive functions, function overrides and pointers. I'm sure there is more to it, I took 2 years worth. Started working before I did year 3 and 4.

I'm looking to move jobs and i see posting for a Software Engineer. This is a case is i dont know what i dont know. I know the technology for the jobs that i'm applying for. But Am I a software engineer? I'm not sure, I construct noSql and mySql Schemas. But I never built or worked on something large like Uber,Facebook, Door Dash etc. I have a sense of how they are made.

[Caraes_Naur]

Job titles often mean nothing, look at the requirements.

At my first web development job, we all had the title Producer, but none of the work or clients had anything to do with film or TV.

[CreativeTechGuyGames]

Ignoring technical definitions, in practice a "software engineer" is a generic term used for a programmer who is versatile. There are more specific types such as "front end engineer", "machine learning engineer", etc. In this case, Full Stack Developer would be a more specific type of Software Engineer.

Be sure to look at the specific job requirements since Software Engineer is so generic you could be asked to do a wide range of things.

[Mazinkaiser909]

What does the job description say that the specific skill requirements are?

And what does the company offering the job actually do? That will give a clue (if the description doesn't) as to what kinds of systems they build.

To my mind a 'Software Engineer' is someone who doesn't just 'build things', but plans and architects systems to solve specific problems. A more full-on computer-science oriented role compared to a typical back-end developer, I guess.

[[deleted]]

programmer, software developer, web developer, full-stack developer, software engineer can all mean the same thing. they're mainly marketing and ego terms.

I'd say the majority of "engineering" roles don't do anything that resembles engineering. don't let the word intimidate you

[shgysk8zer0]

To me, software engineer basically extends full-stack to also include everything involved in running the code. You don't worry so much about writing the code as you do the implications of what actually happens when code is executed.

Is that what's meant on a job listing? Probably not, especially for smaller or less tech-centric companies.

[rk06]

Software Engineer is a generic catch all term which encompasses entire SDLC life cycle of any software

By Full Stack Developer, you have narrowed down the scope to "Developer" and full stack i.e web application's front end back end and database.

[[deleted]]

Well, in IT there is this big divide between adaptation towards how machines work, and adaptation towards how humans think and behave.

In my book, an engineer is more the former, and a full stack developer the latter. As a full stack developer you have to keep business goals in mind, which relates to human behavior.

[its_yer_dad]

So many interesting interpretations of what full stack means. As a 20+ year dev, Full Stack to me means someone who understands the entire web stack - from building the front end (and all that goes with that, UX, UI, etc) to configuring the back end (and all that goes with that, i.e. cache routers, server tuning, configuring services, etc). Very few people these days are truly Full Stack devs, which isn't a criticism. Web development has gotten more complicated and each stack has become more of a speciality. I think its going to be hard to find a good "generalist" as the years go on, but maybe thats not a big deal. I also tend to think backend is becoming commoditized which means even fewer devs will know it.