Ship captains rate their happiness above average.
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, ship captains rate their career happiness 3.5 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 33% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy ship captains 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | 3.8 | $109k |
| Commercial pilot | 3.8 | $84k |
| Aviation inspector | 3.5 | $78k |
| Ship captain | 3.5 | $85k |
| Military air crew officer | 3.4 | $141k |
| Explosives worker | 3.4 | $50k |
| Air traffic controller | 3.3 | $101k |
| Military aircrew member | 3.3 | $51k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are ship captains happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do ship captains find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as ship captains?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are ship captain’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are ship captains making the best use of their abilities?
Are ship captains happy with their salary?
Ship captains rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.3/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most ship captains having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked ship captains how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
76 ship captains
18% of ship captains rated their compensation 5 stars
32% of ship captains rated their compensation 4 stars
24% of ship captains rated their compensation 3 stars
14% of ship captains rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of ship captains rated their compensation 1 stars
Do ship captains find their jobs meaningful?
On average, ship captains 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 ship captains how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
75 ship captains
23% of ship captains rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
25% of ship captains rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
32% of ship captains rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
12% of ship captains rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
8% of ship captains rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as ship captains?
Ship captains rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of ship captains find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked ship captains how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
81 ship captains
36% of ship captains rated their career fit 5 stars
40% of ship captains rated their career fit 4 stars
19% of ship captains rated their career fit 3 stars
4% of ship captains rated their career fit 2 stars
2% of ship captains rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a ship captain’s work environment?
As a whole, ship captains rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.6/5. A solid majority of ship captains enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a ship captain.
We asked ship captains how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
81 ship captains
25% of ship captains rated their work environment 5 stars
38% of ship captains rated their work environment 4 stars
21% of ship captains rated their work environment 3 stars
10% of ship captains rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of ship captains rated their work environment 1 stars
Are ship captains making the best use of their abilities?
Former ship captains on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.3/5. Most ship captains surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a ship captain, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked ship captains how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
80 ship captains
21% of ship captains rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
31% of ship captains rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
19% of ship captains rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
18% of ship captains rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
11% of ship captains rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars