MSN and CareerBuilder released an article titled “Where the Jobs Are: Top Jobs in 10 Industries”.  I found it interesting that Information Technology was the first industry listed.  Below are the top 5 jobs listed for IT.  I also found it interesting that the growth for “computer applications software engineers” was a whopping 45% by 2016, a mere 8 years from now.  That’s 5% per year.  So what exactly is a computer applications software engineer?  I’m guessing that it’s a software developer / programmer for the desktop (non web based programming).  But that is only because they used the word “application”.  As we all know, who are in the industry, applications are a mix of desktop and web technologies now, but I’m guessing they don’t know that.  I can only guess they are referring to system drivers and other hardware interfacing software when they listed “Computer systems software engineers” but who knows …  I definitely like the listed salaries, it’s gone up from the $55-65k, I remember seeing 5-8 years ago.

1. Network systems and data communications analysts
Projected growth by 2016: 53 percent
Median annual salary: $64,600*

2. Computer applications software engineers
Projected growth by 2016: 45 percent
Median annual salary: $79,780

3. Database administrators
Projected growth by 2016: 29 percent
Median annual salary: $64,670

4. Computer systems software engineers
Projected growth by 2016: 28 percent
Median annual salary: $85,370

5. Network and computer systems administrators
Projected growth by 2016: 27 percent
Median annual salary: $62,130