Which is better: A software engineer(programmer) or a web developer?

I am planning on doing a diploma in web development but am wondering if this is a waste of time.


What is the best career option: Web developer or software engineer?


Please give reasons

Which is better: A software engineer(programmer) or a web developer?
im a 22 year old guy.. i started building sites since i was 17.. i dint go for any diploma or anything.. it just came to me naturaly.. web developing is a nice SIDE income for me.. i get 200$ per site i make for people around the world.. right now im developing a site for a gym in saudia arabia.. and iv almost made thousands of site since 2 years..





its how i bought my bike u see on my display pic..





so i would suggest taking both of them..


software eng. would be i shiny career and web developing can save ur life at times..





good luck.





-Pleiades
Reply:Business couldn't find enough web developers during the dot.com heyday. But there were job openings for entry-level workers. Further back when computers ran from the terminal (mainframe / mini-mainframe) there were entry-level positions available. Today, I have noticed too many qualified persons doing per-piece work through craigList and rentAcoder.com. If I were going to pursue a new IT career, I would tough it out at a recognized university which has a proven track record of hiring out their graduates. Many IT companies only hire on-campus or they require a minimum of 2 years of verifiable on-the-job experience. Coming out of a mediocre learning institution handicaps the job seeker because the technology is evolving so fast. Paying out of your own pocket is a no-win game -- the employer needs to pay for the training and equipment they want. Finally, the bleeding edge software development teams are a young man's sport. Your IT career is a wash after age 30. I personally got excluded because of Outsourcing.
Reply:Hey buddy I think that being a software engineer is better cuz you will be highly paid for it because you will be makin new softwares and that is what matters. Being a web developer is just stupid cuz you make a website so wats the big deal in it, people come and visit your site, become members, and pay you for the membership, MONTHLY ! So you decide pal, being paid monthly or weekly, its your choice cuz thats what I heard and know so I thought of tellin it to you for some advice.
Reply:a software engineer is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software.





while the..





Web developer is a software developer or software engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser.





so while ur in a doubt..





i suggest u try software engineer
Reply:Web development is simply a subset of software engineering. Long gone are the days of static HTML web pages. Web devs are programmers whose primary environment are web browsers. They still deal with many of the same challenges as other programmers using different languages across various platforms.





There really is no "better" choice here. My suggestion is to go with what interests and motivates you personally. You're much more likely to succeed at whatever specialty you chose if it's something you're passionate about. (As cliche as it sounds, it's true.)





It seems to me that web development has a slightly lower barrier to entry in that the environment (a web browser) comes standard on pretty much every computer these days. HTML itself is easy to learn but it's not a programming language. Because of this I think there tends to be an assumption that web development is easier than more traditional programming environments. This is further reinforced by "web developers" who simply deploy slightly customized third party content management systems rather than actually creating an application from the ground up.





The line between front end and back end is often blurred and most web devs worth their salt are going to be proficient in some server side languages in addition to the markup, CSS and Javascript which runs in the browser itself.





Good programmers will always be in demand because good programming transcends specific languages and platforms.
Reply:To be honest anyone can get a "For Dummies" book and make a webpage. There are far fewer that can handle the math involved with software engineering. You will be much more in demand with the latter and make much more money as well.





Learn from the .com bust.