According to a recent article in Money magazine, software engineers have the best job in America. Actually, the software industry has two entries in the top-ten list, because “computer IT analysts” supposedly have the seventh-best job. The complete list of top-10 jobs consists of the following:

• Software engineer
• College professor
• Financial adviser
• Human Resources Manager
• Physician assistant
• Market research analyst
• Computer IT analyst
• Real estate appraiser
• Pharmacist
• Psychologist

I’m not sure I agree with this list — but hey, it’s their report, not mine. Software engineers don’t have the highest paying job: the average salary-plus-bonus for software engineers is $80,427, compared to $122,462 for the #3 category of financial analysts, and $107,049 for the #11 category of advertising managers. Even dentists, #43 on the list, make more money, with a $122,883 income. But Money had the following explanation for why software engineers have the best job:

“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.”

Keep in mind, by the way, that Money is only making this claim about jobs in America; whether it’s the best job of all in Canada, India, or Afghanistan is anyone’s guess. From the number of young university graduates in India and China who are clamoring for software-related jobs, it’s probably safe to assume that software engineers would be near the top of the list of desirable professions in those countries too. And maybe Canada, England, Germany, and other “advanced” countries, too.

Well, if it’s such a great job, how come the number of computer-science and software-engineering majors in America’s universities has plummeted, and fallen behind several other areas of study. You might be surprised to learn, for example, that a July 2005 article in the Wall Street Journal, “The Hot Major for Undergrads is Economics,” the hot new field of undergraduate study around the world is economics. It’s pretty sobering to think that the “dismal science” of economics is considered more attractive than computer science and software engineering!

And why does the Wall Street Journal think that interest in computer-science degrees has decreased? Because “computer and engineering jobs look increasingly threatened by competition from inexpensive, highly skilled workers in places like India and China.” Aha … so being a software engineer is the best job in the country, if you can get such a job. But undergraduate students — at least in the United States — are apparently so discouraged by the prospects of getting such a job that they don’t even bother considering computer science and software engineering. When I wrote my Outsource book, I was focusing primarily on people who were already in the field, and who worried about losing their jobs to less-expensive computer wizards in China and India; maybe I should write a new book on the competition to attract the attention of students when the enter universities. After all, does the world really need that many more economists?

Well, anyway, the moral of this story is: if you do have a job as a software engineer, be happy. You’re supposed to be happy!