Study Says Software Engineers Have the Best US Jobs

D H NG writes "According to a new study by CareerCast.com, software engineers have the best jobs of 2011 in the United States, based on factors such as income, working environment, stress, physical demands and job outlook, using Labor Department and Census data. Mid-level software engineers make between $87,000 and $132,000 a year, putting them in the top 25% of the 200 professions studied by income. Software engineers beat out last year's number one job, actuary, which came in third, behind mathematician."

Job security

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming you can actually find a Software Engineering job that will stay in the U.S., yeah, they're the "best."

I think that it's sad, really...

[mark-t]

... that so much of the perception of how good a job is would be derived from how much money one makes doing it.

Re:Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[blair1q]

Not really. Since it's self-reported, it's up to the person checking the box to bin themselves. What we learn here is that people who shy from calling themselves "software engineer", or are labelled "computer programmer" by their company's org chart, make less than people who report in as "software engineer".

Re:Before slashdotters post with opposition views

[MrEricSir]

If Wall Street proves anything, it's that competence and compensation are in no way related.

Re:Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[darkstar949]

From what I have seen in my time in industry, companies typically have fewer software engineers than computer programmers and while both roles will have employees sitting at a computer writing code, the software engineers will also spend a good deal of time designing the overall architecture of a system. Likewise, the software engineer is also generally the more senior level position and may also be the first person to take heat when a major problem is found in a system.

Re:Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[frosty_tsm]

Not really. Since it's self-reported, it's up to the person checking the box to bin themselves. What we learn here is that people who shy from calling themselves "software engineer", or are labelled "computer programmer" by their company's org chart, make less than people who report in as "software engineer".

Maybe it's because those who know the difference also know how to make themselves more valuable.

reporting income

[NynexNinja]

If you are a software engineer and you make over a million dollars per year, do you think you would want people to know this? I'd rather just file a W-2 and say I made $20K/year and write the rest off through my corporation as an expense. I think once you get above a few hundred K per year, it really behooves you to adjust what you report as personal income accordingly, otherwise you're just going to be giving away all your money towards taxes. I think most people in this position are already doing this tho, so I'm preaching to the choir I'm sure. :/

Re:Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[0xdeadbeef]

I mean "software engineer" in lieu of a CS degree. Most schools pay lip service to software engineering, from individual classes all the way to dedicated research programs (like CMU).

But software engineering is nothing more than applied CS. It exists to serve the needs of industry. The people promoting it as some sort of status symbol are delusional.

Re:Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[jedidiah]

So now you're going to conflate CMU with the diploma mills?

Re:Job security

[Aargau]

I gather you're not in Silicon Valley? My small startup is having a really hard time the last 6 months competing against Facebook, Google, Zynga, Apple in hiring quality developers, even just out of college. Thanks to goldman sachs, we've also got 2000 people about to move into the real estate market with $10 million in fungible stock options as well.