Surgical assistants 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, surgical assistants rate their career happiness 3.4 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 37% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy surgical 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Radiologist | 3.7 | $201k |
| Orthodontist | 3.6 | N/A |
| Naturopathic physician | 3.5 | $74k |
| Doctor | 3.4 | $106k |
| Nurse educator | 3.4 | $84k |
| Surgical assistant | 3.4 | $11k |
| Biomedical engineer | 3.4 | $61k |
| Endoscopy technician | 3.4 | $27k |
| Phlebotomist | 3.3 | $16k |
| Paramedic | 3.3 | $46k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are surgical assistants happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do surgical assistants find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as surgical assistants?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are surgical assistant’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are surgical assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Are surgical assistants happy with their salary?
Surgical assistants rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most surgical assistants having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked surgical assistants how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
58 surgical assistants
16% of surgical assistants rated their compensation 5 stars
24% of surgical assistants rated their compensation 4 stars
26% of surgical assistants rated their compensation 3 stars
17% of surgical assistants rated their compensation 2 stars
17% of surgical assistants rated their compensation 1 stars
Do surgical assistants find their jobs meaningful?
On average, surgical assistants rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.1/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked surgical assistants how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
58 surgical assistants
19% of surgical assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
21% of surgical assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
24% of surgical assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
24% of surgical assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
12% of surgical assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as surgical assistants?
Surgical assistants rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.1/5. The majority of surgical assistants find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked surgical assistants how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
61 surgical assistants
43% of surgical assistants rated their career fit 5 stars
30% of surgical assistants rated their career fit 4 stars
21% of surgical assistants rated their career fit 3 stars
5% of surgical assistants rated their career fit 2 stars
2% of surgical assistants rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a surgical assistant’s work environment?
As a whole, surgical assistants rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.8/5. A solid majority of surgical assistants enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a surgical assistant.
We asked surgical assistants how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
63 surgical assistants
37% of surgical assistants rated their work environment 5 stars
35% of surgical assistants rated their work environment 4 stars
16% of surgical assistants rated their work environment 3 stars
2% of surgical assistants rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of surgical assistants rated their work environment 1 stars
Are surgical assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Former surgical assistants on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.5/5. Most surgical assistants surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a surgical assistant, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked surgical assistants how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
63 surgical assistants
25% of surgical assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
25% of surgical assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
27% of surgical assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
16% of surgical assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
6% of surgical assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars