A technician could call themselves a &quot;doctor&quot;, but they couldn&#x27;t call themselves a &quot;Medical Doctor&quot;. A developer can call themselves an &quot;engineer&quot;, but they cannot call themselves a &quot;Professional Engineer&quot;. If I started putting &quot;PE&quot; after my name, I&#x27;d expect the NCEES to come after me. No one but you can decide what you take as an insult, of course, but choosing industry-standard (and legally uncontrolled) terminology like &quot;software engineer&quot; to take offense at seems like a losing battle.