I had the excitement last week of finding out that my application for professional registration was successful – and I am now a Chartered Engineer! Technically CEng MBCS for those who are interested.
I hadn’t really clocked on to professional registration or being a member of a professional body like the BCS. Obviously I’d heard of Chartered Accountants, but never really put too much thought into it. Anyway, in my current job (at JBA Consulting) there is a emphasis on professional registration, so I thought I’d look into it. Turns out that it’s a demonstration of competence in a range of areas which I was already working in, an agreement to behave according to a code of conduct, and that you have sufficient academic (or experiential) qualifications. Because I did a Masters in Software Engineering as an undergrad I automatically ticked the qualification box, which helped a lot.
I thought I was in with a good chance of meeting the competence criteria, but you can never be completely sure with these things.
I personally have always viewed software development as closer to engineering than science, and being a member of professional body (and especally being professionally registered) means publically agreeing to adhere to a code of conduct which
covers areas which I personally have always considered to be non-negotiable for any professional, or indeed any Chrisian come to that – such as working for the public good, being ethical, continuous development, knowing your limits, etc.
The Engineering Council have a range of professional registration options to reflect people being at different stages of their careers, and I would now encourage anyone in a profession to at least look into the options – I’m sure most workplaces would support you in it.