As any kid with a closet full of energy drinks and taco chips
knows, when it comes to computers, hardware is the actual physical
machine and software is all instructions that make the hardware work.
This means a computer software engineer - these days simply called a
computer engineer - can end up working on anything that has a
microprocessor in it, from something as small as a smart phone to a
robotic assembly line for a car manufacturer onto the NASA space
platform.
Of all the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
professions, one of the fastest growing, as well as the most exciting,
is computer software engineering. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, as of 2008, there were currently over 900,000 computer
engineers in the U.S. That the occupation is projected to expand by 21%
by 2018 should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been reading the
news lately.
