Occupational therapy assistants are below average when it comes to happiness.
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, occupational therapy assistants rate their career happiness 3.0 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 33% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy occupational therapy assistants 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mental health counselor | 3.1 | $48k |
| Dentist | 3.0 | $128k |
| Rehabilitation counselor | 3.0 | $41k |
| School psychologist | 3.0 | $80k |
| Occupational therapy assistant | 3.0 | $52k |
| Dental assistant | 3.0 | $18k |
| Medical transcriptionist | 3.0 | $18k |
| Diagnostic medical sonographer | 3.0 | $43k |
| Optometrist | 3.0 | $96k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are occupational therapy assistants happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do occupational therapy assistants find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as occupational therapy assistants?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are occupational therapy assistant’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are occupational therapy assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Are occupational therapy assistants happy with their salary?
Occupational therapy assistants rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most occupational therapy assistants having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked occupational therapy assistants how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
121 occupational therapy assistants
15% of occupational therapy assistants rated their compensation 5 stars
32% of occupational therapy assistants rated their compensation 4 stars
29% of occupational therapy assistants rated their compensation 3 stars
12% of occupational therapy assistants rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of occupational therapy assistants rated their compensation 1 stars
Do occupational therapy assistants find their jobs meaningful?
On average, occupational therapy assistants rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.4/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked occupational therapy assistants how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
123 occupational therapy assistants
20% of occupational therapy assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
28% of occupational therapy assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
30% of occupational therapy assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
15% of occupational therapy assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
8% of occupational therapy assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as occupational therapy assistants?
Occupational therapy assistants rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.9/5. The majority of occupational therapy assistants find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked occupational therapy assistants how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
137 occupational therapy assistants
32% of occupational therapy assistants rated their career fit 5 stars
36% of occupational therapy assistants rated their career fit 4 stars
18% of occupational therapy assistants rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of occupational therapy assistants rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of occupational therapy assistants rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an occupational therapy assistant’s work environment?
As a whole, occupational therapy assistants rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked occupational therapy assistants how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
137 occupational therapy assistants
17% of occupational therapy assistants rated their work environment 5 stars
33% of occupational therapy assistants rated their work environment 4 stars
29% of occupational therapy assistants rated their work environment 3 stars
15% of occupational therapy assistants rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of occupational therapy assistants rated their work environment 1 stars
Are occupational therapy assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Former occupational therapy assistants on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.2/5. Most occupational therapy assistants are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked occupational therapy assistants how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
137 occupational therapy assistants
15% of occupational therapy assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
25% of occupational therapy assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
34% of occupational therapy assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
16% of occupational therapy assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
9% of occupational therapy assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars