Scientists are about average in terms of 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, scientists rate their career happiness 3.3 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 46% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy scientists 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Biostatistician | 3.3 | $102k |
| Biochemist | 3.3 | $84k |
| Geospatial information scientist | 3.3 | $90k |
| Geodesist | 3.3 | $69k |
| Geologist | 3.3 | $84k |
| Scientist | 3.3 | $67k |
| Geographer | 3.2 | $104k |
| Bioinformatics scientist | 3.2 | $85k |
| Soil and water conservationist | 3.2 | $69k |
| Atmospheric scientist | 3.2 | $90k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are scientists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do scientists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as scientists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are scientist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are scientists making the best use of their abilities?
Are scientists happy with their salary?
Scientists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Scientists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked scientists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
947 scientists
11% of scientists rated their compensation 5 stars
23% of scientists rated their compensation 4 stars
27% of scientists rated their compensation 3 stars
21% of scientists rated their compensation 2 stars
18% of scientists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do scientists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, scientists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.3/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked scientists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
952 scientists
21% of scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
26% of scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
23% of scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
19% of scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
11% of scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as scientists?
Scientists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of scientists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked scientists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
1032 scientists
27% of scientists rated their career fit 5 stars
42% of scientists rated their career fit 4 stars
20% of scientists rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of scientists rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of scientists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a scientist’s work environment?
As a whole, scientists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.6/5. A solid majority of scientists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a scientist.
We asked scientists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
1032 scientists
23% of scientists rated their work environment 5 stars
36% of scientists rated their work environment 4 stars
24% of scientists rated their work environment 3 stars
11% of scientists rated their work environment 2 stars
5% of scientists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are scientists making the best use of their abilities?
Former scientists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.4/5. Most scientists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a scientist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked scientists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
1036 scientists
21% of scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
31% of scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
16% of scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
7% of scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars