Software Engineer: 2012's Top Job (informationweek - Engineering Colleges Tamil Nadu)

The top job for 2012: software engineer.

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According to the CareerCast study, software engineer beat out positions including physician, Web developer, computer programmer, and financial planner, thanks to through-the-roof demand and excellent pay. In fact, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for software engineers in 2010 was $90,530 per year. And the demand for software engineers is on the rise, with an estimated growth rate of 30% between 2010 and 2020--more than double the 14% average growth rate for all occupations.

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"Over the last few years there's definitely been a 20% to 25% uptick in salary for software engineers," said Tom Janofsky, VP of software engineering at Monetate, a Philadelphia-based provider of marketing optimization technology and a 15-year software engineer veteran. "I feel like I live in a different economy. We're constantly hiring, which is so different from what I hear on the news. It's sort of surreal."

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But great pay and plentiful job opportunities aren't the only aspects of what makes the role of software engineer an enviable IT position. The collaboration, creative thinking, and hands-on experimentation required of software engineers can lead to an ever-evolving career path.

Just ask Ruchi Sanghvi. Facebook's first female engineer, Sanghvi worked her way from "an office space in downtown Palo Alto right above a Chinese restaurant" to the executive office of Dropbox, where she's currently the VP of operations.

Consider these five advantages of a software engineer career path:

1. Tons Of Flextime: Artsy Web designers aren't the only IT professionals who get to think outside the box--and work outside the cubicle. "Being a software engineer is a really creative job," said Janofsky. "There's a lot of freedom around workplace hours and a lot of the work can be done remotely from home--perks people typically associate with more creative positions."

2. Cool Colleagues: A big part of software engineering is constant trial-and-error--an experimental spirit that's likely to attract those who "enjoy theoretical problem-solving" rather than IT professionals "from more traditional IT roles like systems administration," said Janofsky. As a result, he said, "some people who come to our company and interview for a position may not have even studied to become a software engineer, but maybe wrote a game that's available in an app store. It's very much a field that's open and accessible to people that may not have a traditional computer science background."