Civil engineers are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
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, civil engineers rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 18% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy civil engineers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear engineer | 2.9 | $106k |
| Environmental engineer | 2.9 | $89k |
| Industrial engineer | 2.9 | $86k |
| Power engineer | 2.8 | $62k |
| Sales engineer | 2.8 | $99k |
| Civil engineer | 2.8 | $76k |
| Product safety engineer | 2.7 | $91k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are civil engineers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do civil engineers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as civil engineers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are civil engineer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are civil engineers making the best use of their abilities?