Life coaches 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, life coaches rate their career happiness 4.1 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 7% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy life coaches 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Motivational speaker | 4.3 | $55k |
| Life coach | 4.1 | $47k |
| Career counselor | 3.8 | $48k |
| Calligrapher | 3.8 | $75k |
| Counseling psychologist | 3.6 | $80k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are life coaches happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do life coaches find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as life coaches?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are life coach’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are life coaches making the best use of their abilities?
Are life coaches happy with their salary?
Life coaches rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most life coaches having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked life coaches how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
427 life coaches
23% of life coaches rated their compensation 5 stars
20% of life coaches rated their compensation 4 stars
23% of life coaches rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of life coaches rated their compensation 2 stars
15% of life coaches rated their compensation 1 stars
Do life coaches find their jobs meaningful?
On average, life coaches rate the meaningfulness of their work a 4.3/5. Unlike many careers, life coaches have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become life coaches.
We asked life coaches how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
4.3 out of 5 stars
433 life coaches
52% of life coaches rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
30% of life coaches rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
13% of life coaches rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
4% of life coaches rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
2% of life coaches rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as life coaches?
Life coaches rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.3/5. The majority of life coaches find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked life coaches how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.3 out of 5 stars
470 life coaches
52% of life coaches rated their career fit 5 stars
33% of life coaches rated their career fit 4 stars
10% of life coaches rated their career fit 3 stars
4% of life coaches rated their career fit 2 stars
1% of life coaches rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a life coach’s work environment?
As a whole, life coaches rated their enjoyment of their work environment 4.1/5. A solid majority of life coaches enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a life coach.
We asked life coaches how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
469 life coaches
42% of life coaches rated their work environment 5 stars
35% of life coaches rated their work environment 4 stars
15% of life coaches rated their work environment 3 stars
5% of life coaches rated their work environment 2 stars
3% of life coaches rated their work environment 1 stars
Are life coaches making the best use of their abilities?
Former life coaches on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 4.0/5. Most life coaches surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a life coach, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked life coaches how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
468 life coaches
40% of life coaches rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
31% of life coaches rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
21% of life coaches rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
6% of life coaches rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
2% of life coaches rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars