Barbie gets a new job: code monkey

Barbie Doll has a new job, and unlike many of the 14.8 million unemployed Americans, the new job found her -- she's a computer engineer.

In an online poll sure to put the Bush-Gore vote count to shame, voters gave Barbie two jobs in 2010. The popular vote winner from online voting was for computer engineer, while a global survey in October 2009 put her to work as a news anchor.

For our purposes, we'll stick with the computer engineer job, since it was a popular vote and one that Mattel promoted in a story WalletPop wrote about on Feb. 9.

She has her work cut out for her, starting with the many jokes her new career engenders, and she might want to bring her fashion sense to the world of IT.

Geeky stereotypes can make women feel less wanted in tech careers, where the percentage of women employed by 10 of Silicon Valley's most prominent technology companies fell from 37% in 1999 to 33% in 2005.

She's already ahead of the game in terms of fashion; her pink laptop is gleaming and ready for her to go to work as the newest code ninja. The doll, set to be for sale in the winter, also wears pink glasses and sports a fashionable Bluetooth headset.

And don't worry about Barbie going hungry in her new career. The typical systems engineer in computer networking in San Jose, CA earns $84,266 per year, according to Indeed.com. She will be able to afford plenty of fabulous outfits with that kind of salary.