Understand the difference between a software developer and a software engineer
Published: 2021-11-12 11:07:42

Let’s be bold and frank, the software development journey does not involve writing code alone. There is much to be done before this process. Implementation is a subcategory of the software engineering process.

Developer

A software developer is an individual with the skills to use the existing tools and create a running system. This fellow uses tools like APIs, frameworks, etc. to make sure the code is performing its job. When you create a website and integrate it with Google Maps, you are a developer.

When you specialize in computer programming and information technology, you become a developer. It’s more of a general term with a specific job in the industry. That’s where a person with a degree in computer science and another with Information technology differs.

Engineer

A software engineer can build a model from scratch. You must have a strong foundation of mathematics, problem-solving, and hardware understanding. A degree in computer science or software engineering is enough to equip one with the relevant skillset to work for big tech companies. That’s where many students drop out of computer science courses to pursue other related courses like IT. Having a broad understanding of how software and hardware are related allows you to explore various careers.

Career path between the two

Remember, once you are a software engineer, you can perform all the roles played by a developer. Careers such as Lead software Development engineers, Principal software engineers, Lead Technicians are grabbed by engineers. An engineer will work with business people and the developers from stage one of the process to deployment time. Hey, have to scale down the application to make sure time and memory complexity are taken care of. If you are well conversant with specific tools like java, or docker, web development languages, then such roles belong to developers.

Salary

Salary is always a big issue for most people. At least, everyone wants to do a job that pays well. According to the Indeed data, the average software engineer earns $115,119 per year. This is minus the benefits and rewards from the company. A software developer in the United States makes almost $107,510 yearly on an average basis. These are individuals with almost 3 – 5 years of experience. The salary in IT fields will rise as per the years of experience.

Creativity and Deep Thinking

In terms of creativity, a developer has much time to come up with different solutions for designing some models. They can perform some engineering jobs but to a certain limit. On the other hand, engineers are always on the ground, solving ambiguous problems on a large scale. As an engineer, you must be a deep thinker to be more systematic.

Tools application

The compilers, editors, frameworks, and some APIs are created by software engineers. Imagine coming up with a programming language, designing its compiler. It requires a logical understanding of mathematics and hardware systems. The developers come later to utilize the available tools to build web, desktop, and mobile applications. We can say that the software engineer builds for the developer. The developer uses the tools to build software for the final users.