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The majority of people do not rate any of those being a profession of prestige. Most people do not really understand what a CPA is as an example. To many he is just a glorified bookkeeper. The better educated would say a lawyer is a prestigious profession. The lower middle class and down don't hold them up as a prestigious profession. Most people consider computer programmers as geeks.
ln my working life, I worked with a lot of attorneys over the years. Some were very good and earned respect. Then there were the other kind. I knew in the 50s and 60s one of the top 5 attorneys in the United States on a personal basis. Melvin Belli from San Francisco. On the other hand, I have known attorneys that could not even properly prepare a set of papers for real estate, or many other things. The same for CPAs. Some are brilliant like a good friend of mine back in the real estate days. My wife and I would get together with him and his wife for meals every once in a while, when we met at business conferences from Las Vegas to The Grand Cayman Islands where my and I and Chuck and his wife sat together for 10 days. He at one time was considered the best tax accountant/tax attorney in the U.S. His name was Charles Considine. He was so good, he is the man that wrote the Tax Laws for the Grand Cayman Islands. On the other hand, I also have known CPAs that were so bad, I would not trust them with any complicated books.
The Harris Pole showed that Farmers, Ministers, Firefighters and many others are all admired more than any of these 3 professions.
If you are looking to find the profession that will give you the most prestige from the public, unless you are one of the top 2% in the country in your field, you are looking down the wrong road.
It all depends upon where you work and what you do.
I have a number of friends in all the positions you mentioned, and there's no way you can just look at what they do in a completely generic way. Is my friend who's a CPA for Water Reclamation District more "prestigious" than my friend who's a programmer for Fermilab? Is my friend who's an enforcement lawyer for the Federal Reserve more prestigious than my friend who does front end programming for Orbitz? Is my friend who's a contract lawyer for a commercial property company more prestigious than my CPA friend who works in compliance for a large insurance company?
The question may not be a great one but it's a general question and I believe the OP is asking for general consensus. The greatest CPA in the world is probably smarter and carries more prestige than the worst lawyer or engineer in the world, etc.
At the very least, lawyers need to take the LSAT, do reasonably well, and attend law school for 3 years. That's more than a CPA or software engineer.
I will say that at least at my alma mater, the undergraduate majors for software engineering (computer science, EE) are much more difficult than econ, pre-law (english, etc.), etc.
I will say that at least at my alma mater, the undergraduate majors for software engineering (computer science, EE) are much more difficult than econ, pre-law (english, etc.), etc.
I don't follow what you're saying here. Are you referring to software engineering, computer science, or EE? I've never heard of a decent school having an undergraduate software engineering program... albeit, I'm not in the software engineering field.
It's worth noting that the OP is referring to a computer programmer.
I think with both CPA and programmer professions you should worry about weather you like what you do and if you are good at what you do more than the individual prestige of these professions. Both can be grueling. In both you can have aptitudes for them and find out later in life that you do not like them as a profession. So do what you can to make sure either is right for you before committing to them as a career if you can. I also think if you pursue the programming route you should become a subject matter expert in something else first...like say become an engineer or mathematician first and tac on programming later.
[quote=nybbler;39009625]Neither one is particularly prestigious. There are prestigious companies to work for in both professions, however, and the ones for programming are better-known to the general public.[/quote]
Really? I don't know of any prestigious computer programming companies. I certainly am not knocking skilled computer programmers. Just saying in some areas at least they are just taken for granted. So my vote would be for the guy that keeps me from having problems with the IRS ,the wonderful CPA.
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