‘Software Engineer’ Tops List of 2012s Best Jobs

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

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CareerCast compiled a list of the top 200 jobs for 2012. If you are working as a software engineer, then you are sitting in the best job in the US, based on five major deciding factors. If you are a lumberjack, you might be at the top in the trees, but you are at the bottom of the list for job satisfaction.:D

The site, which used Department of Labor statistics, pegged the average income of a software engineer at $88,142.
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Interesting. While I no doubt they make good money, I thought that a portion of their jobs were getting outsourced? Or maybe times are changing?
 
Most of that list is dross. The job environment and stress levels are completely subjective and can not be quantified by a single person.
 
LOL...what is a software engineer and why are they no longer making a decent living?
 
Basically it's like this; If you are good at what you do then you will make good money off it it.
There is plenty of money in other IT fields especially when you have some people skills to go along with it.
 
SolidBladez said:
Interesting. While I no doubt they make good money, I thought that a portion of their jobs were getting outsourced? Or maybe times are changing?
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That's because there aren't enough of them. My company just moved a bunch of jobs back over here because they were training people and they'd head off to another company just after the training ended. That's par for the course in India and China. Most companies would prefer to keep the jobs in the US, but they just can't fill them. We have a $5000 bounty on developers. if an employee refers a developer, and they keep the job for 3 months, that employee gets $5000.

BTW, know any developers who need jobs? :)
 
Average income only 88k for software engineer? No wonder there's not a lot.
 
I'm just wrapping my freshman year of college. My major will be software engineering. I hope these jobs still exist in the US when I graduate in five more years.

For those unaware, Computer Engineering is a bachelors degree. And Software Engineering is a masters degree.
 
SolidBladez said:
Interesting. While I no doubt they make good money, I thought that a portion of their jobs were getting outsourced? Or maybe times are changing?
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The ones getting outsourced are programmers. There is a difference between software engineers and just a "programmer." Those that actually have a degree in it and not just the title of "software engineer," have knowledge of electrical engineering, math, physics, etc...
 
I teach Programming in college and we have an advisory board and though they certainly need software developers they also need those SW developers to have Project Management skills. We're talking Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duke Power, etc. So big companies.
 
gman said:
I teach Programming in college and we have an advisory board and though they certainly need software developers they also need those SW developers to have Project Management skills. We're talking Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duke Power, etc. So big companies.
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Wells Fargo and Bank of America you say?

I know a lot of their PMs because my Delivery Managers have to tell them what to do all the time... you are doing noble work Sir, and you and your colleagues have my absolute respect!
 
Having been able to increase my pay by a not-insubstantial $28,000 in the last year, I can safely say that being a software engineer is definitely in demand.

The crazy part? I've had multiple job offers in that range.
 
IRSmurf said:
I'm just wrapping my freshman year of college. My major will be software engineering. I hope these jobs still exist in the US when I graduate in five more years.

For those unaware, Computer Engineering is a bachelors degree. And Software Engineering is a masters degree.
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Uhh... not true, that depends what school you are going to. Most leading degree to becoming a software engineer is a 4 year in computer science. Computer engineering is normally a blend of computer science and electrical engineering courses but doesn't specialize in either. Software engineering isn't even a major in most schools. But regardless, a degree doesn't exactly define what you are doing in the workforce since you only utilize about 20% of what you learned in school.
 
IRSmurf said:
I'm just wrapping my freshman year of college. My major will be software engineering. I hope these jobs still exist in the US when I graduate in five more years.

For those unaware, Computer Engineering is a bachelors degree. And Software Engineering is a masters degree.
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ABET lists 21 colleges offering BS degrees in software engineering. Other than these 21, no other colleges indicate that they confer a degree, graduate or otherwise, in "software engineering." I assume your school identifies software engineering as a specialized type of computer engineering or something. Either that or you're not in the US (or you're talking about unaccredited degrees). Regardless, it does not appear that your statement that software engineering requires a graduate degree is generally applicable.

http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx
 
dgingeri said:
That's because there aren't enough of them. My company just moved a bunch of jobs back over here because they were training people and they'd head off to another company just after the training ended. That's par for the course in India and China. Most companies would prefer to keep the jobs in the US, but they just can't fill them. We have a $5000 bounty on developers. if an employee refers a developer, and they keep the job for 3 months, that employee gets $5000.

BTW, know any developers who need jobs? :)
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Me, please. C# & .NET FTW.
 
This is one of those things I would love to work on (schooling for a job like this) but alas, I would have to choose between paying for school or food on the table. Sometimes being the breadwinner sucks.
 
Software Engineering is definitely good here in Wisconsin. Everyone from my graduating class in 2010 who graduated with a BS in Software Engineering already had a job lined up before they got their diploma. Salaries were 55K-60K on average for starting with 0 years of experience right out of school.

I think that is decent considering It's Wisconsin. It's pretty cheap to live here compared to something like California.
 
Rattle said:
Average income only 88k for software engineer? No wonder there's not a lot.
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That's an AVERAGE, so you can be assured that people in Bumblefuck make ~60k and people in NY/Cali probably make upwards of 100k average.

That's a comfortable salary, especially since all you need is a 4-year degree. And if you want to make more money (and don't mind sacrificing your free time and soul), you can always move into Software/Project Management.
 
Where I live 88k is more then a livable wage. I would easily call it a "successful" career and living. Though in other locations this is not the case, just as in anything else, you pay for name brand even for states/cities!

I think many people think that the large expensive locations (NY, LA, SF etc) also pay accordingly, but if you look at the numbers in most cases salaries do not compensate for increased expenses for living in those areas. In many cases there is a bump in salary but if you compare cost of living, usually you will be at a lower income level if cost of living is factored in due to the high costs.

I live in Minnesota, luckily enough it has a very good salary to cost ratio.

Last year census data said MN 2 family home avg income is 61.1k.

Compare that with Calif (61.5K), New York (56.1k) and Hawaii (62.4k)... A few of the more expensive states to live in (obviously some places in those states are more expensive then others). Yet the average family income is very very close.


BTW Software Engineer is not always a programmer per se. I am technically a Senior Software Engineer, yet I know very little about programming. I actually build and edit installers for deployment via SCCM in a large node environment. Maybe a bit of VBS/scripting but nothing that requires actual programming language knowledge.
 
Software engineer here...making way above average. Then again, I am also what they call a 'good' programmer. I'll say this: if you're an american and speak english, you will never be out of a job as a software engineer.

I enjoy my job but now I am aslo striving to do something different, like run my own company which is exactly what I'm working on :)
 
IRSmurf said:
I'm just wrapping my freshman year of college. My major will be software engineering. I hope these jobs still exist in the US when I graduate in five more years.

For those unaware, Computer Engineering is a bachelors degree. And Software Engineering is a masters degree.
Click to expand...
there are no standards of software engineering degrees or careers. Many schools dont even have a "software engineering" degree but can produce graduates that are just as capable of being a "software engineer" as someone who went graduated from with a degree of that name.
And then throughout the IT field you have programmers called engineers, engineers called developers, and everything in between, along with countless people that use the words interchangeably.
Also I live in SoCal and i still dont see this huge demand software engineers. The couple I do see demand 3+ years experience in a laundry list of different technologies that are ridiculous to obtain.
 
The problem with software engineering is that every code money thinks they're a good developer.

Most programmers are absolute garbage.... and their wage reflects that (which is why the average is low).
 
Im in NYC my 2nd year out of school and currently make 104k (got a 15% raise last year) with about a 11k bonus. I have no complaints :). Crazy thing is im headhunted daily too.
 
Cali3350 said:
Im in NYC my 2nd year out of school and currently make 104k (got a 15% raise last year) with about a 11k bonus. I have no complaints :). Crazy thing is im headhunted daily too.
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You 1% bastard. You clearly do not deserve that income.
Eat your peas.

We've got offices in Manhattan, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong and it's funny to think about how that affects our average wage when the software development is mostly centralized in an inexpensive city in the Western US.
 
There is a fundamental difference between a software engineer and a "coder". You can find a coder anywhere (people who might be able to form a case statement)...finding a real SW engineer is another story.
 
Trepidati0n said:
There is a fundamental difference between a software engineer and a "coder". You can find a coder anywhere (people who might be able to form a case statement)...finding a real SW engineer is another story.
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I'd say that at least 10% of my team's time for now is spent cleaning up shortcuts and bad practice from poor coders.

That said, there are plenty of career developers who pass as "software engineers" who couldn't tell you what an interface is... I know, I've interviewed many.
 
I took a $42,000 position right out of college and in 6 years I have gone up to $63,000. I thought I was doing good until I read this article.
 
dandirk said:
Last year census data said MN 2 family home avg income is 61.1k.

Compare that with Calif (61.5K), New York (56.1k) and Hawaii (62.4k)... A few of the more expensive states to live in (obviously some places in those states are more expensive then others). Yet the average family income is very very close.
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The cost a living varies alot depending on where you live in California, it's a big state. The Bay area is very expensive while Orange county and along coast are somewhat expensive. The further you go inland then cheaper it gets. The cost of living in places like Barstow (not that I'd want to live there) are reasonable.
 
nutzo said:
The cost a living varies alot depending on where you live in California, it's a big state. The Bay area is very expensive while Orange county and along coast are somewhat expensive. The further you go inland then cheaper it gets. The cost of living in places like Barstow (not that I'd want to live there) are reasonable.
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As a for instance, my rent + utilities is about 2000 a month, and I usually spend around 300 on eating. This is in manhatten.
 
Cali3350 said:
Im in NYC my 2nd year out of school and currently make 104k (got a 15% raise last year) with about a 11k bonus. I have no complaints :). Crazy thing is im headhunted daily too.
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I'm a software engineer in NYC, with 5 years of experience and i make half your salary. So unfair..
 
I can't find a new job either. Couple interviews and all ended with rejection letters. So its not easy finding work in the Big Apple.
 
SirMaster said:
Software Engineering is definitely good here in Wisconsin. Everyone from my graduating class in 2010 who graduated with a BS in Software Engineering already had a job lined up before they got their diploma. Salaries were 55K-60K on average for starting with 0 years of experience right out of school.

I think that is decent considering It's Wisconsin. It's pretty cheap to live here compared to something like California.
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So did you go to MSOE or UW-Platteville?
 
MajorDomo said:
CareerCast compiled a list of the top 200 jobs for 2012. If you are working as a software engineer, then you are sitting in the best job in the US, based on five major deciding factors. If you are a lumberjack, you might be at the top in the trees, but you are at the bottom of the list for job satisfaction.:D
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My guess, that wasn't a weighted average of income.
 
foxtrotniner said:
I'm a software engineer in NYC, with 5 years of experience and i make half your salary. So unfair..
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Time to start hunting for a new job. The best way to get a raise is a new job. Either get with the program or be happy with an average salary.
 
Cali3350 said:
^^ and thats also a studio, about 350 sq/ft.
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$2K/mth for 350 sq/ft? Please tell me you're trying to get away from there. $1000/mth for mtg+util on 2,000 sq/ft, 2 car attached, blah blah blah. I think my first apartment was about 500 sq/ft and I paid $550 for rent+util.
 
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