Compliance managers 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, compliance managers rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 10% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy compliance managers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Legal secretary | 2.7 | $48k |
| Account manager | 2.7 | $47k |
| Paralegal | 2.7 | $56k |
| Securities and commodities broker | 2.7 | $63k |
| Financial analyst | 2.7 | $92k |
| Compliance manager | 2.7 | $125k |
| Financial advisor | 2.7 | $94k |
| Cost estimator | 2.7 | $65k |
| Revenue agent | 2.7 | $57k |
| Investment banker | 2.7 | $73k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are compliance managers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do compliance managers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as compliance managers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are compliance manager’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are compliance managers making the best use of their abilities?
Are compliance managers happy with their salary?
Compliance managers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.1/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most compliance managers having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked compliance managers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
496 compliance managers
14% of compliance managers rated their compensation 5 stars
28% of compliance managers rated their compensation 4 stars
27% of compliance managers rated their compensation 3 stars
20% of compliance managers rated their compensation 2 stars
13% of compliance managers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do compliance managers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, compliance managers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.4/5. The majority of compliance managers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked compliance managers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.4 out of 5 stars
496 compliance managers
8% of compliance managers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
13% of compliance managers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
22% of compliance managers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
28% of compliance managers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
30% of compliance managers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as compliance managers?
Compliance managers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of compliance managers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked compliance managers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
525 compliance managers
23% of compliance managers rated their career fit 5 stars
36% of compliance managers rated their career fit 4 stars
23% of compliance managers rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of compliance managers rated their career fit 2 stars
6% of compliance managers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a compliance manager’s work environment?
As a whole, compliance managers 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 compliance managers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
526 compliance managers
17% of compliance managers rated their work environment 5 stars
30% of compliance managers rated their work environment 4 stars
27% of compliance managers rated their work environment 3 stars
17% of compliance managers rated their work environment 2 stars
8% of compliance managers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are compliance managers making the best use of their abilities?
Former compliance managers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Compliance managers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked compliance managers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
527 compliance managers
12% of compliance managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
19% of compliance managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of compliance managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
28% of compliance managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
16% of compliance managers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars