Database administrators are one of the least happy 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, database administrators rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 19% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy database administrators 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drafter | 2.9 | $45k |
| Command and control center specialist | 2.9 | $37k |
| Data analyst | 2.9 | $70k |
| Operations research analyst | 2.9 | $65k |
| Quality assurance analyst | 2.8 | $58k |
| Database administrator | 2.8 | $58k |
| IT support specialist | 2.8 | $50k |
| Logistician | 2.7 | $45k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are database administrators happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do database administrators find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as database administrators?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are database administrator’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are database administrators making the best use of their abilities?
Are database administrators happy with their salary?
Database administrators rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most database administrators having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked database administrators how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
859 database administrators
15% of database administrators rated their compensation 5 stars
27% of database administrators rated their compensation 4 stars
29% of database administrators rated their compensation 3 stars
17% of database administrators rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of database administrators rated their compensation 1 stars
Do database administrators find their jobs meaningful?
On average, database administrators rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.4/5. The majority of database administrators struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked database administrators how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.4 out of 5 stars
862 database administrators
7% of database administrators rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
13% of database administrators rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
23% of database administrators rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
26% of database administrators rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
31% of database administrators rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as database administrators?
Database administrators rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.4/5. The majority of database administrators find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked database administrators how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
952 database administrators
18% of database administrators rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of database administrators rated their career fit 4 stars
26% of database administrators rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of database administrators rated their career fit 2 stars
9% of database administrators rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a database administrator’s work environment?
As a whole, database administrators rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. A solid majority of database administrators enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a database administrator.
We asked database administrators how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
945 database administrators
16% of database administrators rated their work environment 5 stars
35% of database administrators rated their work environment 4 stars
24% of database administrators rated their work environment 3 stars
14% of database administrators rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of database administrators rated their work environment 1 stars
Are database administrators making the best use of their abilities?
Former database administrators on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Database administrators tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked database administrators how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
952 database administrators
10% of database administrators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
21% of database administrators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
24% of database administrators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
25% of database administrators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
20% of database administrators rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars