Howdy, coders and coder wannabes. Something I always wonder about the world of programming is what level you have to be at to be able to call yourself a programmer. I feel like there is a sliding scale when it comes to professional identity. For example, a lot of experienced journalists advise trainees not to downplay themselves as 'aspiring journalists' when they are doing the same kind of job. However, it's highly illegal for somebody to call themselves a dentist just because they saw a tooth extraction once.
My guess would be that programming sits somewhere in the middle of this scale. You do have to have some technical knowledge for the title to make any sense, but that knowledge could comprise everything from coding your first game of Pong to managing backend development for a major corporation. I suppose that's why all these technical jobs have fancy titles, to distinguish between the people who (allegedly) know what they're doing. In that way, it's not that much different from any other industry.
