Geotechnical engineers 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, geotechnical engineers rate their career happiness 2.6 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 6% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy geotechnical engineers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Power engineer | 2.8 | $68k |
| Sales engineer | 2.8 | $78k |
| Marine electrician | 2.8 | $73k |
| Civil engineer | 2.8 | $81k |
| Product safety engineer | 2.7 | $99k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are geotechnical engineers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do geotechnical engineers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as geotechnical engineers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are geotechnical engineer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are geotechnical engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Are geotechnical engineers happy with their salary?
Geotechnical engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most geotechnical engineers having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked geotechnical engineers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
43 geotechnical engineers
9% of geotechnical engineers rated their compensation 5 stars
33% of geotechnical engineers rated their compensation 4 stars
28% of geotechnical engineers rated their compensation 3 stars
16% of geotechnical engineers rated their compensation 2 stars
14% of geotechnical engineers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do geotechnical engineers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, geotechnical engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.5/5. The majority of geotechnical engineers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked geotechnical engineers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.5 out of 5 stars
44 geotechnical engineers
9% of geotechnical engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
14% of geotechnical engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
20% of geotechnical engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
30% of geotechnical engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
27% of geotechnical engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as geotechnical engineers?
Geotechnical engineers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.4/5. The majority of geotechnical engineers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked geotechnical engineers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
44 geotechnical engineers
14% of geotechnical engineers rated their career fit 5 stars
39% of geotechnical engineers rated their career fit 4 stars
23% of geotechnical engineers rated their career fit 3 stars
23% of geotechnical engineers rated their career fit 2 stars
2% of geotechnical engineers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a geotechnical engineer’s work environment?
As a whole, geotechnical engineers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.1/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked geotechnical engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
44 geotechnical engineers
7% of geotechnical engineers rated their work environment 5 stars
27% of geotechnical engineers rated their work environment 4 stars
43% of geotechnical engineers rated their work environment 3 stars
14% of geotechnical engineers rated their work environment 2 stars
9% of geotechnical engineers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are geotechnical engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Former geotechnical engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.7/5. Most feel that their skills are being underutilized in the career, probably leading to more general dissatisfaction with being a geotechnical engineer.
We asked geotechnical engineers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.7 out of 5 stars
44 geotechnical engineers
11% of geotechnical engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
18% of geotechnical engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
14% of geotechnical engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
39% of geotechnical engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
18% of geotechnical engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars