Curators are one of the happiest careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, curators rate their career happiness 3.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 19% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy curators are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Humanitarian | 3.8 | $35k |
| Curator | 3.7 | $53k |
| Historian | 3.6 | $62k |
| Museum conservator | 3.5 | $26k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are curators happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do curators find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as curators?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are curator’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are curators making the best use of their abilities?
Are curators happy with their salary?
Curators rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.6/5. Curators tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked curators how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.6 out of 5 stars
301 curators
6% of curators rated their compensation 5 stars
14% of curators rated their compensation 4 stars
31% of curators rated their compensation 3 stars
29% of curators rated their compensation 2 stars
21% of curators rated their compensation 1 stars
Do curators find their jobs meaningful?
On average, curators rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.6/5. Unlike many careers, curators have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become curators.
We asked curators how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
307 curators
24% of curators rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
35% of curators rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
23% of curators rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
14% of curators rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
4% of curators rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as curators?
Curators rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.1/5. The majority of curators find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked curators how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
350 curators
37% of curators rated their career fit 5 stars
39% of curators rated their career fit 4 stars
18% of curators rated their career fit 3 stars
5% of curators rated their career fit 2 stars
1% of curators rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a curator’s work environment?
As a whole, curators rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.9/5. A solid majority of curators enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a curator.
We asked curators how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
349 curators
34% of curators rated their work environment 5 stars
37% of curators rated their work environment 4 stars
18% of curators rated their work environment 3 stars
9% of curators rated their work environment 2 stars
1% of curators rated their work environment 1 stars
Are curators making the best use of their abilities?
Former curators on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.6/5. Most curators surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a curator, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked curators how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
346 curators
27% of curators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
30% of curators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
25% of curators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
14% of curators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
3% of curators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars