Psychiatric technicians 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, psychiatric technicians rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 17% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy psychiatric technicians 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Psychiatric aide | 2.9 | $29k |
| Social worker | 2.9 | $43k |
| Audiologist | 2.9 | $92k |
| Orthotist | 2.9 | $71k |
| Home health aide | 2.8 | $25k |
| Psychiatric technician | 2.8 | $23k |
| Family social worker | 2.8 | $28k |
| Licensed practical nurse | 2.8 | $41k |
| Pharmacy technician | 2.8 | $18k |
| Medical administrative assistant | 2.8 | $19k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are psychiatric technicians happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do psychiatric technicians find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as psychiatric technicians?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are psychiatric technician’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are psychiatric technicians making the best use of their abilities?
Are psychiatric technicians happy with their salary?
Psychiatric technicians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.4/5. Most psychiatric technicians do not feel that their salaries adequately reflect their work, and are actively unhappy with their income.
We asked psychiatric technicians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.4 out of 5 stars
168 psychiatric technicians
5% of psychiatric technicians rated their compensation 5 stars
15% of psychiatric technicians rated their compensation 4 stars
22% of psychiatric technicians rated their compensation 3 stars
29% of psychiatric technicians rated their compensation 2 stars
30% of psychiatric technicians rated their compensation 1 stars
Do psychiatric technicians find their jobs meaningful?
On average, psychiatric technicians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.2/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked psychiatric technicians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
166 psychiatric technicians
16% of psychiatric technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
28% of psychiatric technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
30% of psychiatric technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
14% of psychiatric technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
12% of psychiatric technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as psychiatric technicians?
Psychiatric technicians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of psychiatric technicians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked psychiatric technicians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
184 psychiatric technicians
34% of psychiatric technicians rated their career fit 5 stars
32% of psychiatric technicians rated their career fit 4 stars
18% of psychiatric technicians rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of psychiatric technicians rated their career fit 2 stars
5% of psychiatric technicians rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a psychiatric technician’s work environment?
As a whole, psychiatric technicians rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked psychiatric technicians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
183 psychiatric technicians
20% of psychiatric technicians rated their work environment 5 stars
27% of psychiatric technicians rated their work environment 4 stars
25% of psychiatric technicians rated their work environment 3 stars
16% of psychiatric technicians rated their work environment 2 stars
12% of psychiatric technicians rated their work environment 1 stars
Are psychiatric technicians making the best use of their abilities?
Former psychiatric technicians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Psychiatric technicians tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked psychiatric technicians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
184 psychiatric technicians
16% of psychiatric technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
14% of psychiatric technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
23% of psychiatric technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
30% of psychiatric technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
16% of psychiatric technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars