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I'm rather surprised to see Software Developer as the most common job in any state. I wonder what they consider to be software development. If you are a not an

I'm rather surprised to see Software Developer as the most common job in any state. I wonder what they consider to be software development. If you are a not an actual programmer but you work at a company who's only product is software, and you contribute to that product in ways other than writing code -- perhaps as a copywriter for e-learning software, or a graphic designer for a web app -- are they counting you as a software developer? Because while the software development industry is certainly very large now, the number of people actually writing code is not large enough in my experience to be the most common job anywhere.

lordnacho 11y ago
This is perplexing to me as well. I would have thought something that appears across industries would be top. Something like accountant, secretary, sales person. But then again Software Dev crosses a lot of industries. Also professional jobs (desk jobs) have a lot of similar roles with different sounding titles. Biz Dev, consultant, manager, and so on.
- Retric 11y ago
  It's all in how you slice it. Teacher would be far more prevalent, as there are 1.7 million post-secondary teachers in the US. However, they separate Primary School teacher from just teacher and Primary School teacher still shows up.
  - jrumbut 11y ago
    Whenever you aggregate data, particularly about human behaviors, the grouping is always going to be somewhat arbitrary. An underlying assumption, which we can make because the consequences of being wrong are so low (god forbid we be entertained by an inaccurate infographic!), is that all occupations will lose some people that should be counted with them, and gained others they don't deserve, and that this will balance out. It would be interesting to learn if there is some sort of systemic bias, say jobs commonly held by women were more or less likely to be lumped together, or jobs with more itinerant workforces weren't counted well.
    - Retric 11y ago
      IMO, there is a usage problem. If you define an arbitrary worker type 1 as X, and then graph the % of the workforce, average hours, or change in pay you can see meaningful trends. However, if you create arbitrary category's and then just look for the largest group or average salary etc. then how you define each group becomes extremely important. IE: Heart Surgeon with GP ends up an average that nobody really fits.
      - jrumbut 11y ago
        It does appear, if the citation of IPUMS at the bottom (a cool source of data, for those who haven't seen it: https://usa.ipums.org/usa/ https://usa.ipums.org/usa/ ) means anything, that they are at least using standard classifications. That doesn't mean their distinctions make sense, but at least they're openly available and documented.
  - dredmorbius 11y ago
    Under the BLS occupational classifications, there are 53 distinct categories for "teacher". https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupation_classifications_growth_and_change_over/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupat...
- TheCoelacanth 11y ago
  The big caveat to this data is that it excludes "Salespeople not categorized elsewhere" and "Managers not categorized elsewhere" since they considered those categorizations too generic and they would be the top jobs in every state.
anovikov 11y ago
I think it may be the reverse, anyone who is holding a CS degree and doing computer-related job, like an IT support guy in non-software, non-tech company, counts as software developer.
wahsd 11y ago
You should try to get out of your bubble every once and a while. The world does not consist of software developers in the vast majority of places. There is a reason why truck/delivery drivers are the most prolific jobs, because it takes a lot of moving shit around to get you your stuff when you want it. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the future when trucks will drive themselves at least on long hauls, which just commoditizes the last mile delivery even more. There is really trouble down the road because it is not like software can absorb millions of people, the very core purpose of software is an anathema to scaling up to support a retrained workforce of millions.
- hellofunk 11y ago
  The map clearly shows that software developers are the most common job in at least 3 states, so that is my point. Your attitude about me needing to get out of my bubble is unwarranted. I am referring directly to the map in this article.
- burkaman 11y ago
  Did you reply to the wrong comment?
mtberatwork 11y ago
The states which list "software developer" as the most common job are also states which are home to quite a large number of gov/defense contracting companies.
vkjv 11y ago
For me, it makes the entire chart unbelievable. For example, they separate out teachers into two groups. I find it unlikely that there is a bigger difference between high school and elementary school teaching than there is between installing (programming?) a PoS system than building a video game. I assume the only reason for the teacher split is tthat they didn't want it to be the top job of every position.
- mikepavone 11y ago
  Primary and secondary teachers typically need different certifications so they're not very interchangeable.
  - vkjv 11y ago
    You can get certified by to teach both primary and secondary. It takes very little additional effort. No courses and very little studying if you are already familiar with the material. I know some people who do both and they are more interchangeable than you may think. Analogy: Front end developer, back-end developer, and full-stack developer. It's really just a focus, they are all developers.
mc32 11y ago
If "farmer" is the most prevalent in ND and "primary teacher" in FL, then I think the information here is pretty useless.

lordnacho 11y ago

This is perplexing to me as well. I would have thought something that appears across industries would be top. Something like accountant, secretary, sales person. But then again Software Dev crosses a lot of industries. Also professional jobs (desk jobs) have a lot of similar roles with different sounding titles. Biz Dev, consultant, manager, and so on.

Retric 11y ago
It's all in how you slice it. Teacher would be far more prevalent, as there are 1.7 million post-secondary teachers in the US. However, they separate Primary School teacher from just teacher and Primary School teacher still shows up.
- jrumbut 11y ago
  Whenever you aggregate data, particularly about human behaviors, the grouping is always going to be somewhat arbitrary. An underlying assumption, which we can make because the consequences of being wrong are so low (god forbid we be entertained by an inaccurate infographic!), is that all occupations will lose some people that should be counted with them, and gained others they don't deserve, and that this will balance out. It would be interesting to learn if there is some sort of systemic bias, say jobs commonly held by women were more or less likely to be lumped together, or jobs with more itinerant workforces weren't counted well.
  - Retric 11y ago
    IMO, there is a usage problem. If you define an arbitrary worker type 1 as X, and then graph the % of the workforce, average hours, or change in pay you can see meaningful trends. However, if you create arbitrary category's and then just look for the largest group or average salary etc. then how you define each group becomes extremely important. IE: Heart Surgeon with GP ends up an average that nobody really fits.
    - jrumbut 11y ago
      It does appear, if the citation of IPUMS at the bottom (a cool source of data, for those who haven't seen it: https://usa.ipums.org/usa/ https://usa.ipums.org/usa/ ) means anything, that they are at least using standard classifications. That doesn't mean their distinctions make sense, but at least they're openly available and documented.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  Under the BLS occupational classifications, there are 53 distinct categories for "teacher". https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupation_classifications_growth_and_change_over/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupat...
TheCoelacanth 11y ago
The big caveat to this data is that it excludes "Salespeople not categorized elsewhere" and "Managers not categorized elsewhere" since they considered those categorizations too generic and they would be the top jobs in every state.

anovikov 11y ago

I think it may be the reverse, anyone who is holding a CS degree and doing computer-related job, like an IT support guy in non-software, non-tech company, counts as software developer.

wahsd 11y ago

You should try to get out of your bubble every once and a while. The world does not consist of software developers in the vast majority of places. There is a reason why truck/delivery drivers are the most prolific jobs, because it takes a lot of moving shit around to get you your stuff when you want it. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the future when trucks will drive themselves at least on long hauls, which just commoditizes the last mile delivery even more. There is really trouble down the road because it is not like software can absorb millions of people, the very core purpose of software is an anathema to scaling up to support a retrained workforce of millions.

hellofunk 11y ago
The map clearly shows that software developers are the most common job in at least 3 states, so that is my point. Your attitude about me needing to get out of my bubble is unwarranted. I am referring directly to the map in this article.
burkaman 11y ago
Did you reply to the wrong comment?

mtberatwork 11y ago

The states which list "software developer" as the most common job are also states which are home to quite a large number of gov/defense contracting companies.

vkjv 11y ago

For me, it makes the entire chart unbelievable. For example, they separate out teachers into two groups. I find it unlikely that there is a bigger difference between high school and elementary school teaching than there is between installing (programming?) a PoS system than building a video game. I assume the only reason for the teacher split is tthat they didn't want it to be the top job of every position.

mikepavone 11y ago
Primary and secondary teachers typically need different certifications so they're not very interchangeable.
- vkjv 11y ago
  You can get certified by to teach both primary and secondary. It takes very little additional effort. No courses and very little studying if you are already familiar with the material. I know some people who do both and they are more interchangeable than you may think. Analogy: Front end developer, back-end developer, and full-stack developer. It's really just a focus, they are all developers.

mc32 11y ago

If "farmer" is the most prevalent in ND and "primary teacher" in FL, then I think the information here is pretty useless.