O'BRIEN: Ok. Here's a question for you. Is your job cool? Christine takes a look at the answers. It's probably no unless you're a nerd.</s>ROMANS: You know what, you're not going to believe this. In this week's "Smart is the New Rich," it's revenge of the nerds.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds, nerds.</s>ROMANS: Nerds aren't like that anymore, Soledad. A new report from CareerTest.com says that nerdy careers have become the country's coolest professions. The Web site named software engineers the number one jobs to have in the fields of engineering and information technology because of high salaries and excellent working conditions. Other computer science jobs took second and third place as well. Now one reason these jobs are so good, Soledad, demand is soaring. But in the middle of the last decade, we actually saw a drop in the number of people graduating with degrees in computer science. CareerCast publisher Tony Lee says recruiters then are swarming colleges and universities they are looking for smart technically minded students, and they can't find enough of them to fill their hiring needs. Bottom line, there's money in your math homework. So what if they call you nerd? It used to be your mom or dad would say I want you to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a banker. No more. They want you to grow up to learn code and be an engineer.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes that's right. Starting salary for I think biomedical engineer is like $80,000. All right Christine, thank you.</s>ROMANS: You're welcome.</s>O'BRIEN: Don't go anywhere. Actor, rapper and now director Ice- T is going to join us up next. Here is his play list, Eminem, "Lose Yourself." You're watching STARTING POINT. We're back in just a moment.
Smart is the New Rich