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Software developer tops list of U.S. News and World Report's annual best jobs

24 points by Varcht 8y ago

Varcht 8y ago
“Unlike some other jobs that do pretty well on the list, which are very demanding, software developer tends not to be a really stressful profession," Koenig said. Money for nothing and the clicks for free...
- mywittyname 8y ago
  Bangin' on the keyboard like some chimpanzee.
  - Varcht 8y ago
    Guess that makes us a bunch of Code Monkeys? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYodWEKCuGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYodWEKCuGg
thatoneuser 8y ago
“Unlike some other jobs that do pretty well on the list, which are very demanding, software developer tends not to be a really stressful profession," Koenig said. This sounds like more propaganda from the tech industry to saturate the workforce with more hopefuls to drive up the talent pool and drive down employee costs. Don’t get me wrong there are some slacker software jobs out there, but if you want “software money” then in my experience it’s usually not a cake walk. We’re talking putting in many extra hours, way too many meetings and being “on call” a lot of weekends. Maybe I’ve just been working in the wrong places...
- smrtinsert 8y ago
  Once you factor in all the software jobs not in SV, I'm pretty sure this is the general case. We aren't in a life or death battle like doctors, we aren't poring over endless tomes like lawyers, we can fix mistakes with a commit instead of rebuilding fallen bridges, we can work from home a lot of the time, the list goes on and on.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    On the other hand we have this constant pressure to stay up-to-date and face age discrimination after only a few years in the career.
- NikolaeVarius 8y ago
  Ive been on call my entire software Dev life. Software Dev is lavish compared to the services jobs ive held. I don't mind being woken up at 3am nexuses I know how BaD service jobs can get. Sometimes it blows my mind as Toto how much software devs have it easy for no real reason
- mitgraduate 8y ago
  It's not entirely true tho. I graduated and i write lambda function for AWS. I never learned anything else. Other than writing simple Lambda function often copied code from Stackoverflow or github. Never learned OOP or functional programming. It's not that hard!
ThrustVectoring 8y ago
There's a selection effect that means that the best job for you might not be the best job among people who have that job. Software development is notoriously full of people who are really really into programming. If you're not that kind of person, getting into programming isn't very actionable advice. Like, professional programmers as a class are winners of a fairly strict meritocratic tournament - either you can code to an acceptable standard, or you can't. Of course it's good to be employed in a manner that's after winning a difficult competition. Like, there's a difference between how good it is to be an NBA player and how good of a decision it is to try to become an NBA player.
extragood 8y ago
> 4. Dentist That profession historically is also toward the top of suicide lists.

24 points by Varcht 8y ago

“Unlike some other jobs that do pretty well on the list, which are very demanding, software developer tends not to be a really stressful profession," Koenig said. Money for nothing and the clicks for free...

mywittyname 8y ago
Bangin' on the keyboard like some chimpanzee.
- Varcht 8y ago
  Guess that makes us a bunch of Code Monkeys? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYodWEKCuGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYodWEKCuGg

thatoneuser 8y ago

“Unlike some other jobs that do pretty well on the list, which are very demanding, software developer tends not to be a really stressful profession," Koenig said. This sounds like more propaganda from the tech industry to saturate the workforce with more hopefuls to drive up the talent pool and drive down employee costs. Don’t get me wrong there are some slacker software jobs out there, but if you want “software money” then in my experience it’s usually not a cake walk. We’re talking putting in many extra hours, way too many meetings and being “on call” a lot of weekends. Maybe I’ve just been working in the wrong places...

smrtinsert 8y ago
Once you factor in all the software jobs not in SV, I'm pretty sure this is the general case. We aren't in a life or death battle like doctors, we aren't poring over endless tomes like lawyers, we can fix mistakes with a commit instead of rebuilding fallen bridges, we can work from home a lot of the time, the list goes on and on.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  On the other hand we have this constant pressure to stay up-to-date and face age discrimination after only a few years in the career.
NikolaeVarius 8y ago
Ive been on call my entire software Dev life. Software Dev is lavish compared to the services jobs ive held. I don't mind being woken up at 3am nexuses I know how BaD service jobs can get. Sometimes it blows my mind as Toto how much software devs have it easy for no real reason
mitgraduate 8y ago
It's not entirely true tho. I graduated and i write lambda function for AWS. I never learned anything else. Other than writing simple Lambda function often copied code from Stackoverflow or github. Never learned OOP or functional programming. It's not that hard!

ThrustVectoring 8y ago

There's a selection effect that means that the best job for you might not be the best job among people who have that job. Software development is notoriously full of people who are really really into programming. If you're not that kind of person, getting into programming isn't very actionable advice. Like, professional programmers as a class are winners of a fairly strict meritocratic tournament - either you can code to an acceptable standard, or you can't. Of course it's good to be employed in a manner that's after winning a difficult competition. Like, there's a difference between how good it is to be an NBA player and how good of a decision it is to try to become an NBA player.

extragood 8y ago

> 4. Dentist That profession historically is also toward the top of suicide lists.