Travel agents 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, travel agents rate their career happiness 3.0 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 32% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy travel agents 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Esthetician | 3.3 | $21k |
| Spa manager | 3.2 | $38k |
| Tailor | 3.2 | $42k |
| Funeral director | 3.2 | $31k |
| Nail technician | 3.1 | $9k |
| Travel agent | 3.0 | $31k |
| Fundraiser | 2.9 | $61k |
| Real estate appraiser | 2.9 | $55k |
| Lodging manager | 2.9 | $47k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are travel agents happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do travel agents find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as travel agents?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are travel agent’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are travel agents making the best use of their abilities?
Are travel agents happy with their salary?
Travel agents rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.6/5. Travel agents tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked travel agents how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.6 out of 5 stars
805 travel agents
8% of travel agents rated their compensation 5 stars
14% of travel agents rated their compensation 4 stars
27% of travel agents rated their compensation 3 stars
29% of travel agents rated their compensation 2 stars
21% of travel agents rated their compensation 1 stars
Do travel agents find their jobs meaningful?
On average, travel agents rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.7/5. While most travel agents aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.
We asked travel agents how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.7 out of 5 stars
807 travel agents
13% of travel agents rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
13% of travel agents rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
26% of travel agents rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
26% of travel agents rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
23% of travel agents rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as travel agents?
Travel agents rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of travel agents find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked travel agents how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
890 travel agents
31% of travel agents rated their career fit 5 stars
34% of travel agents rated their career fit 4 stars
21% of travel agents rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of travel agents rated their career fit 2 stars
5% of travel agents rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a travel agent’s work environment?
As a whole, travel agents 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 travel agents how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
890 travel agents
19% of travel agents rated their work environment 5 stars
29% of travel agents rated their work environment 4 stars
28% of travel agents rated their work environment 3 stars
15% of travel agents rated their work environment 2 stars
9% of travel agents rated their work environment 1 stars
Are travel agents making the best use of their abilities?
Former travel agents on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.0/5. Travel agents tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked travel agents how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
885 travel agents
14% of travel agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
21% of travel agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
29% of travel agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
24% of travel agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
13% of travel agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars