Technically a software engineer is someone who has been academically trained to manage software projects. In my experience, in order to get a job managing software projects you have to have progressive experience in managing aspects of software projects. You get that experience by first working as a lead programmer and taking on increasing levels of responsibility up to project management.
As an entry level person with academic training in software, you will almost certainly start out as a software developer. Depending on what courses you have taken, you may work in an Information Technology support role, which does not usually involve software development but is more of a computer administrator type position. This is a staff position in the IT department which does not usually lead to software project management.
In my experience, in order to be considered for a software management position (i.e., software engineering) you need to gain experience in the various phases of software development first. This means you have to have a good grounding in computer languages, algorithms, computer architecture, operating systems, etc.
On the otherhand, very large corporations have a career track for very large software projects in which you can start out on the project management side, for example as someone who maintains/updates project schedules, and eventually work your way into a non-technical project management role. These very large projects have a non-technical project manager (who could be a software engineer) and a technical chief architect (who is most likely a computer scientist or has some other technical degree).
Hope this wasn't too confusing. I believe the short answer to your question is "Yes, most likely with a large corporation". |