Best job in America - Software Engineer

According to CNN; the best job in America is a ‘Software Engineer’. I, being one myself, have to agree. The only thing that sucks about it is the ‘occasional’ long hours and the stress that comes around release time. Other than that; its the best job. You get to make your own schedule, you can work from anywhere, and you are given a licencse to really unleash your creative skills while desiging the new software.

For me, there is a big difference between a Software Engineer, and a ‘coder’. A ‘coder’ is someone who is given a task, and has to write the code to implement that task. A Software engineer, I think, is someone who is in charge of developing frameworks, APIs that help these coders do their job more efficienctly. A real Software Engineer would spend more time analyzing the requirments, analyzing the business needs, doing forward thinking than writing code. The best example I can give is the ‘Microsoft ADO.net framework’. In my mind, the real Software Engineer are the ones who wrote that framework; not the ones that use that framework in their application. If you think of it in those terms; you see the prestige that comes along with being a Software Engineer.

From CNN

Why it’s great Software engineers are needed in virtually every part of the economy, making this one of the fastest-growing job titles in the U.S. Even so, it’s not for everybody.

Designing, developing and testing computer programs requires some pretty advanced math skills and creative problem-solving ability. If you’ve got them, though, you can work and live where you want: Telecommuting is quickly becoming widespread.

The profession skews young — the up-all-night-coding thing gets tired — but consulting and management positions aren’t hard to come by once you’re experienced.

What’s cool Cutting-edge projects, like designing a new video game or tweaking that military laser. Extra cash from freelance gigs. Plus, nothing says cool like great prospects.

What’s not Jobs at the biggest companies tend to be less creative (think Neo, pre-Matrix). Outsourcing is a worry. Eyestrain and back, hand and wrist problems are common.

Top-paying job Release engineers, who are responsible for the final version of any software product, earn six figures.

Education Bachelor’s degree, but moving up the ladder often requires a master’s.