I’ve really been enjoying reading “The Braidy Tester”. His most recent entry, “Hallmarks of a Great SDET” strikes a personal chord with me:

A great SDE/T constantly invents new tools that help them find bugs.  A great SDE/T sees a tool in every task they contemplate.  A great SDE/T’s driving force is writing code that breaks other code.

“Software Development Engineer in Test” doesn’t tell the entire story.  A great SDE/T is more than a great tester who happens to also be a great developer (or vice versa).  A great SDE/T combines their deep knowledge of how applications are written with their deep knowledge of where bugs lurk and how to find them to create tools that help testers find more bugs and help developer write fewer bugs.

Bingo. This is what makes me get up and go to work in the morning, and describes (better than I did) what being an SDE/T is all about.