<p>Is there a difference?</p>
<p>In certain cases, there could be a difference. Programming is associated with the development phase of the software engineering life-cycle. If we looked the software engineering life-cycle as:</p>
<p>Requirements Analysis–>Design–>Development–>Test–>Implementation–>Sustainment</p>
<p>…then programming would just pertain to one phase.</p>
<p>A software engineer is someone who has knowledge in all software engineering phases can perform multiple phases (usually, the Analysis, Design, Development & Test phases at a minimum).</p>
<p>A degree and knowledge of more than programming syntax.</p>
<p>Programmer and software engineers? </p>
<p>Small difference: name difference. Some people don’t give a damn about the title.</p>
<p>Big difference: real difference.</p>
<p>The title “software engineer” sounds more technical and more specific “programmer”.</p>
<p>If you know the basic syntax you can called yourself a programmer.</p>
<p>Software engineer is a title that the industry prefers and this requires some heavy experience in developing an application (or a software) and computer science. Software engineers need NOT to be a computer science graduates. The general software industry may prefers those with computer science or computer engineering background, however.</p>
<p>The area of work objective might prefer a software engineer with a specific knowledge. For example for a biomedical company, it is more convenient and more preferable to get a software engineer either graduate from a biomedical degree, or have years of experience in biomedical software engineering.</p>
<p>In essence, software engineer can be anyone who work in the industry and the main role is software / application development, and need not to be a computer science graduate.</p>
<p>One other distinction between the two in the past is that software engineers develop software that’s used by many customers. Microsoft Corporation engineers their operating systems software to support sales of millions of copies. In the past, programmer often referred to developing an application for a specific customer or your employer.</p>