Recently, students in BUET and other universities in Bangladesh have been protesting. They want the title “Engineer” to be reserved only for people who completed an official engineering degree (alongside other demands). I understand why. They study for years, go through tough exams, and naturally, they want that recognition. I have no problem with their other demands either.
But here’s my perspective as someone who took a very different path.
I dropped out of college in 1994. No degree. No certificate. Just curiosity, passion, and a lot of trial and error. Fast forward almost two decades, I now work as the CTO at a well-known software company. I’ve built systems and frameworks, led teams, and solved real-world problems that a certificate alone could never prepare me for.
That’s why I always say: a degree can be valuable, but knowledge and skill are what truly matter.
Let’s be honest. Many students go to college, get their degree, and then discover in their first job that they hardly learned anything useful.
If you get a certificate but not the knowledge, it’s just a piece of paper. On the other hand, many self-taught people—without any degree—become excellent engineers because they learn by building, failing, and improving.
In my early days as a CTO, I interviewed many job candidates who held certificates with high grades. But when they faced the interview, I discovered that many of them only had a certificate—not real knowledge. They focused so much on getting grades that they never actually learned the subject deeply.
Students should go to college or university to gather knowledge first. That should be their top priority. Without knowledge, the certificate is just a piece of paper. Too often, such graduates end up wasting years, only to later switch to a completely different career path because they were only pretending—they had the degree, but not the passion or the skills.
And sometimes, it’s not even their fault. Many parents push their children into subjects of the parents’ choice. The student obeys, studies half-heartedly, and eventually earns a degree without passion. But without passion, real learning never happens.
This is where the conflict starts.
Globally, this is normal. In Silicon Valley, India, Europe—you’ll see job titles like Frontend Engineer, Backend Engineer, Software Engineer. Nobody asks to see your certificate first.
Think about people like:
They didn’t need a degree to earn the respect of being called engineers in their field.
I respect the students’ protest. If they want to make sure only certified people in civil, mechanical, or electrical fields can call themselves Engineer, I have no problem with that. That’s their right.
But if the demand also includes blocking the title “Software Engineer” for people without degrees, then I think they should re-think.
Bangladesh’s IT industry is growing fast. We work with global clients who expect to see job titles like Software Engineer. If we remove that title, we will only harm ourselves.
A practical way forward could be this:
This approach recognizes and respects academic achievements while also valuing real-world expertise in the IT sector. It ensures that degree-holders get the recognition they deserve, and talented software professionals without degrees can still thrive and contribute to Bangladesh’s growing tech industry.
I’m not against the students’ movement. I support their fight for recognition. But software is different from traditional engineering. If you remove the title Software Engineer from those who actually build and maintain software—degree or no degree—you’re not protecting the word, you’re hurting an entire industry.
At the end of the day, software doesn’t care if you have a certificate. It only cares: does it work or not?