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Comment by fredoliveira | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised at this mainly for the stress figures. I don't know if this is the case for everyone else, but I would assume some of those positions would have much higher figures for stress - namely software engineers and actuaries.

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Yeah that was very surprising especially since the stress number was the lowest for software engineers. I have way more stress than a dental hygienist.

So when you screw up you have the potential to fuck up someone's teeth, draw blood, or generally cause pain and discomfort to your client? Personally, I just edit and re-run the program.

We're talking about a hygienist not a dentist. They do teeth cleanings and assist the doc'. And having just gotten my teeth cleaned yesterday by my dental student sister, I can comfortably say that there is not that much room for really fucking things up. Yeah, maybe you can nic someone in the gums with the pick, but that's about it.

I just had my teeth cleaned today. The hygienist did an exemplary job and still my teeth and gums are sore. Perhaps there's no worry with healthy teeth, but someone who has brittle teeth or a somewhat-hidden cavity could definitely receive damage at the hands of a careless hygienist.

That's not to mention the general stench of some of that crap that gets picked out, the filthiness of some people's mouths, spending a half hour or more hunched over someone with bad breath, and the opportunity for someone (especially a child) to bite you while you're working. I'll take software engineer, please.

And the stress I'm referring to is more deadline induced than anything else. It's a fact that people in the dental world have very regulated ~40 hours/week schedules. How many all nighters do they pull? None.

Sounds like the job of a software dev in a properly managed company.

The last all-nighter (or actually, the closest I came) I pulled was in 1997. And then we went home at 2AM. I've been doing development work since 1988 and I've rarely failed to leave by 5. Even then, when I stayed late it was -- with one exception due to an a-hole boss -- by choice.

The fact that we think working a 40 hour week is unusual is itself a sign of how prevalent terrible work environments are in software development. Believe me, there are many well-run and profitable companies where "in at 9 out at 5" is the norm.

and 95% of software engineers don't either. My roommate in college works an exact 40.0 hours each weak doing ASP.NET coding for enterprise stuff. Basically zero stress what-so-ever, and makes $55k at age 22.

Unless your roommate wants to stay in the same position (entry level coder) then s/he will at some point have to take on more responsibility and/or more challenging work which in turn leads to working some overtime.

I have the ability to lose people a lot of money, that's kind of stressful.

Remember that "Software Engineer" also includes a ton of people designing internal-use VB enterprise bloatware to specifications written by people who think Excel is a database. Not very inspiring work, but good pay and good job security, and well within the median programmer's capabilities. When averaged in with the small number of pressure-cooker startups and the slightly larger number of fast-paced tech-focused companies, it's surprising but not unreasonable.

That would be Computer Systems Analyst. #5 on the list.

The main form of stress for actuaries that they measure is deadlines. There might be a bit of travel if they are a consultant, but otherwise job security tends to be quite good, salaries reasonably high, there's a continuous intellectual challenge, peers tend to be friendly and clever(er than oneself) and so on.

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