Archaeologists 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, archaeologists rate their career happiness 3.6 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 23% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy archaeologists 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Curator | 3.7 | $60k |
| Anthropologist | 3.7 | $62k |
| Archaeologist | 3.6 | $62k |
| Historian | 3.6 | $64k |
| Museum conservator | 3.5 | $48k |
| Geologist | 3.3 | $84k |
| Geographer | 3.2 | $85k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are archaeologists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do archaeologists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as archaeologists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are archaeologist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are archaeologists making the best use of their abilities?
Are archaeologists happy with their salary?
Archaeologists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.6/5. Archaeologists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked archaeologists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.6 out of 5 stars
293 archaeologists
8% of archaeologists rated their compensation 5 stars
17% of archaeologists rated their compensation 4 stars
29% of archaeologists rated their compensation 3 stars
25% of archaeologists rated their compensation 2 stars
22% of archaeologists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do archaeologists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, archaeologists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.4/5. Unlike many careers, archaeologists have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become archaeologists.
We asked archaeologists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
302 archaeologists
25% of archaeologists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
27% of archaeologists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
22% of archaeologists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
16% of archaeologists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
11% of archaeologists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as archaeologists?
Archaeologists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of archaeologists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked archaeologists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
328 archaeologists
34% of archaeologists rated their career fit 5 stars
39% of archaeologists rated their career fit 4 stars
20% of archaeologists rated their career fit 3 stars
4% of archaeologists rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of archaeologists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an archaeologist’s work environment?
As a whole, archaeologists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.7/5. A solid majority of archaeologists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as an archaeologist.
We asked archaeologists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
327 archaeologists
28% of archaeologists rated their work environment 5 stars
33% of archaeologists rated their work environment 4 stars
21% of archaeologists rated their work environment 3 stars
13% of archaeologists rated their work environment 2 stars
5% of archaeologists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are archaeologists making the best use of their abilities?
Former archaeologists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.5/5. Most archaeologists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as an archaeologist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked archaeologists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
332 archaeologists
21% of archaeologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
33% of archaeologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
27% of archaeologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
12% of archaeologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
7% of archaeologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars