Becoming a Software Engineer

Nope.

I mean, to some extent all that stuff depends on a specific company anyway -- especially the definition of "software engineer." My job title is "software engineer," but I don't do anything fundamentally different from when my job title was "programmer" at another job.

Furthermore, my specialization is in graphics, and I currently work on (decidedly non-visual) aspects of tracking systems. My specialization wasn't neccessarily useful to my employers, but it didn't hurt me and certainly didn't prevent me from getting the job.

As long as you have a solid grasp of the fundamentals -- which I imagine you do probably do, since you were awarded a degree -- specializing isn't a bad thing.

Thanks for your input.

I’m still a bit concerned that choosing a very specific field of study would give me too narrow of a skill set. On the flip side of the coin, I wonder if “Software Engineering” would be too broad of a focus area to be useful.

In other words, I don’t want to choose a research topic which is so broad that I’m viewed as a jack-of-all-trades. Yet at the same time I’m afraid that choosing too narrow of a topic would make me so specialized that companies would have trouble finding a position for which I was a “good fit”.

in my somewhat limated experiance for a software engineering being a jack of all trades isnt such a bad thing, the more technology you can familiarize yourself with the better

how does a 'software engineer' differ from a 'computer engineer?' I'm in school for the latter, but recently i've had a nagging suspicion that this whole time i've been thinking that i was for former (and what i want to be anyways)

I'd say Computer Engineers have more brawn, implementing Networks, Hardware and carrying Servers and Air Conditioners up five flights of stairs before setting them up. They also are true gods when it comes duct taping things. Weapon of choice: Leatherman or RJ45 Crimp tool.

Software Engineers are the feeble type that wears combat boots to work, nonetheless, solving highly theoretical problems using brittle programming techniques and boasting their high IQ on slashdot while a Computer Engineer has their development servers down for maintenance. Weapon of choice: Office Guns or Nerf Bats.

From my understanding, a computer engineer deals with both the software and hardware aspect (The link between them so to speak) while a software engineer deals with development and maintenance of software i.e. large scale.

Software engineers will probably be more useful in companies that need software that performs critical functions (reliability) such as medical and defense purposes.

Computer engineers will probably design things like PICs in the department of mapping registers and interpreting data (Op Codes) as electrical signals through various buses to controlling blocks.

The main difference is that a Computer Engineer is actually an engineer, whereas a Software Engineer is not a professional engineer and only claims the title (quite a few times the US and Canadian engineering boards have tried to regulate people calling themselves engineers but dont have an accredited engineering degree... but unfortunately the law applies to the term 'professional engineer' and not 'engineer'). Computer Engineering is basically EE + Computer Science so you basically learn both implementing hardware and software systems. Although there has been a new program accredited in Canada as 'Software Engineering' that allows for P. Eng designation and I believe the US has something like this now too. This was implemented for people that want to be a professional engineer (which you cannot be if you take say comp sci for instance) but wanted to concentrate the majority of your studies on software.

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Software engineers will probably be more useful in companies that need software that performs critical functions (reliability) such as medical and defense purposes.

Note that most of these positions actually use computer engineers because to work in engineering in a field that can affect the public you have to be a registered professional engineer. An example would be nuclear power where computer engineers write all of the software for the systems as they must be professional engineers and can't just claim the title as you can in the private sectors. Although as I said there is an accredited software engineer title now so we will start seeing more of them soon.

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Computer engineers will probably design things like PICs in the department of mapping registers and interpreting data (Op Codes) as electrical signals through various buses to controlling blocks.

Note that computer engineers do perform these functions but electrical engineers also do these very same things.