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."

Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[Mad Marlin]

Software engineer: $87,000; Computer programmer: $71,000. It is weird that they break those two up.

Re:Software engineer vs. computer programmer?

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who's worked in the field for a decade (and who survived the CS department at Cal), the difference seems to be that of executive assistant versus secretary. What are the connotations you have for the terms, and where did they come from? My wild guess is if back in the days of punch cards, the programmer fed the punch cards to the computer and the engineer wrote them.

Re:Mid-Level $132k, really?

[company suckup]

Well in that case I'm sure Grand Island, NE. would love to have you.