This is very good advice, if you want to work in Germany. The general requirement to call oneself an engineer ("Ingenieur") is that a person has successfully completed a technical or scientific course of study at a German university or university of applied science with the duration of at least three years (full-time). Each German state has its own Engineer Law ("Ingenieurgesetz", IngG) for the details, which also include the regulations regarding the recognition of foreign qualifications and fines for unauthorized use of the title (for example, up to 25,000 Euro in Baden-Württemberg).
"Software Engineer" (without German translation) is used as an official job title by many German companies and the German linkedin is also full of people describing themselves as Software Engineers. This is the first time I hear such an objection.
From the German Wikipedia article on "Softwareentwickler":
My translation:
The job title _software developer_ is not a protected job title in Germany and Austria.
According to German law, the job title _software engineer_ may only be used by those who have successfully completed a technical degree. In Austria, the title of engineer can also be acquired through training at an HTL [Höhere Technische Lehranstalt, aprox.: Higher Technical College].
Original:
Die Berufsbezeichnung _Softwareentwickler_ ist in Deutschland und Österreich keine geschützte Berufsbezeichnung.
Die Berufsbezeichnung _Softwareingenieur_ darf nach deutschem Recht nur führen, wer ein technisches Studium mit Erfolg abgeschlossen hat. In Österreich kann der Ingenieurstitel auch durch die Ausbildung an einer HTL erworben werden.
This all might very well be, but it does not reflect reality. Everybody calls himself Software Engineer, nobody calls himself Softwareingenieur.
As if Google Deutschland would not hire you as a Software Engineer (or SRE, ..) if you are missing a B.Sc. (or did it in a non-technical field) but everything else is perfect.
This is not about hiring, it is about what you are allowed to call yourself, i.e. what you are allowed to write into your CV on your buisness card, on your Web site or use for self advertisment. Don't expect to get away with calling yourself an "Engineer" if you are not an "Ingenieur". Judges do not like to be fooled.
Job adverisments in German almost exclusively use the term "Software-Entwickler" ("software developer"), indicating that an IT degree is not necessarily required for the job.
> This is not about hiring, it is about what you are allowed to call yourself, i.e. what you are allowed to write into your CV on your buisness card, on your Web site or use for self advertisment.
If my job title is Software Engineer, then this is of course what it written on my business card that my employer prints for me.
> Job adverisments in German almost exclusively use the term "Software-Entwickler"
>> This is not about hiring, it is about what you are allowed to call yourself, i.e. what you are allowed to write into your CV on your buisness card, on your Web site or use for self advertisment.
> If my job title is Software Engineer, then this is of course what it written on my business card that my employer prints for me.
If you are not entitled to do use the title, then it is illegal nevertheless. After all, the law applies regardless of whether it is followed.
>> Job adverisments in German almost exclusively use the term "Software-Entwickler"
> This is just not true.
A search for "Softwareingenieur" or "Software-Ingenieur" on gulp.de, the leading IT freelancer platform in Germany currently gives zero results. If you search for "Software engineer" you get results mixed with "Softwareentwickler". So I went through these results which gave me aprox. 10 cases where they were looking explicitely for an "engineer" ("aprox." because I excluted those where "engineer" was one option among others or were they were mentioning the field "engineering" -- but even those were only a few). In contrast to that, when I searched for "Entwickler" or "developer", I got 275 results.[1] So the proportion of "engineer" is aprox. 3.6 % to that of "developer"/"Entwickler". I think it is okay to call that "almost exclusively".
[1] Some of it are a bit general, so you may not want to count everything. A quick random sample seems to indicate that the number is low nevertheless; so I went with 275, because the end result is unlikely to be significantly different.
For example the Engineer Law of Baden-Württemberg states in § 1.1:
(1) The professional title "engineer" may be held by anyone who
1. has successfully completed a course of study in a technical or natural science subject with a standard period of study of at least six semesters, corresponding to at least 180 ECTS credits, at a German state or state-recognised higher education institution, whereby this course of study must be predominantly in the fields of mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology, ... [1]
My own interpretation is that not all of these four aspects need to be included equally in a course of study. If the question is of practical importance to you, you should contact the Chamber of Engineers of the respective (federal) state for an authoritative answer.
[1] Original:
(1) Die Berufsbezeichnung »Ingenieurin« oder »Ingenieur« darf führen, wer
1. ein Studium in einer technischen oder naturwissenschaftlichen Fachrichtung mit einer Regelstudienzeit von mindestens sechs Semestern, was mindestens 180 ECTS-Punkten entspricht, an einer deutschen staatlichen oder staatlich anerkannten Hochschule mit Erfolg abgeschlossen hat, wobei dieses Studium überwiegend von den Bereichen Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik geprägt sein muss, ...
