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The Best Job in the World

Posted
Judy Robertson

The Wall Street Journal published a ranking of jobs this week  in terms of "income, working environment, stress, physical demands, and job outlook."  And guess what comes out top? Software Engineer! Hooray!

According to CareerCast, which performed the survey; "Software Engineer, Computer Systems Analyst, Technical Writer and Computer Programmer all rank in the top 30 this year". Hmm… I wonder why "lecturer" is not featured so highly….

CareerCast attributes the strong performance of software engineer to two emerging industries: Web applications and cloud computing. More and more companies are making apps for smartphones and tablets, along with the growing momentum to develop cloud software, which has made the demand for software engineers both broader and more diverse. Last year, by the way, software engineer ranked #2, behind actuary, in CareerCast’s job-ranking survey.

Computer application software engineers will be the fastest-growing job category during the next eight years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It projects a 32% increase in the number of computer software engineers between 2008 and 2018. That’s a very strong increase given that the total work force is expected to grow 8 percent during the same period.

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