Opticians 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, opticians rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 23% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy opticians 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Radiologic technologist | 2.9 | $36k |
| Hospitalist | 2.9 | $201k |
| Respiratory therapist | 2.9 | $63k |
| Ophthalmic medical technician | 2.9 | $21k |
| Audiologist | 2.9 | $92k |
| Optician | 2.9 | $23k |
| Podiatrist | 2.9 | $141k |
| Cardiovascular technologist | 2.9 | $59k |
| Orthotist | 2.9 | $71k |
| Personal care aide | 2.8 | $25k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are opticians happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do opticians find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as opticians?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are optician’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are opticians making the best use of their abilities?
Are opticians happy with their salary?
Opticians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Opticians tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked opticians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
342 opticians
9% of opticians rated their compensation 5 stars
19% of opticians rated their compensation 4 stars
29% of opticians rated their compensation 3 stars
25% of opticians rated their compensation 2 stars
17% of opticians rated their compensation 1 stars
Do opticians find their jobs meaningful?
On average, opticians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.5/5. The majority of opticians struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked opticians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.5 out of 5 stars
342 opticians
7% of opticians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
13% of opticians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
27% of opticians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
28% of opticians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
25% of opticians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as opticians?
Opticians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of opticians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked opticians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
363 opticians
34% of opticians rated their career fit 5 stars
33% of opticians rated their career fit 4 stars
20% of opticians rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of opticians rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of opticians rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an optician’s work environment?
As a whole, opticians 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 opticians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
367 opticians
19% of opticians rated their work environment 5 stars
29% of opticians rated their work environment 4 stars
30% of opticians rated their work environment 3 stars
14% of opticians rated their work environment 2 stars
8% of opticians rated their work environment 1 stars
Are opticians making the best use of their abilities?
Former opticians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.9/5. Opticians tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked opticians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
368 opticians
10% of opticians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
22% of opticians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
29% of opticians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
23% of opticians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
15% of opticians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars