Culinary chefs 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, culinary chefs rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 29% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy culinary chefs 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cake designer | 3.6 | $22k |
| Pastry chef | 3.2 | $26k |
| Baker | 3.1 | $30k |
| Bartender | 3.0 | $26k |
| Culinary chef | 2.9 | $50k |
| Barista | 2.9 | $25k |
| Caterer | 2.9 | $28k |
| Restaurant manager | 2.7 | $59k |
| Restaurant cook | 2.5 | $30k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are culinary chefs happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do culinary chefs find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as culinary chefs?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are culinary chef’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are culinary chefs making the best use of their abilities?
Are culinary chefs happy with their salary?
Culinary chefs rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.5/5. Most culinary chefs do not feel that their salaries adequately reflect their work, and are actively unhappy with their income.
We asked culinary chefs how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.5 out of 5 stars
2122 culinary chefs
7% of culinary chefs rated their compensation 5 stars
14% of culinary chefs rated their compensation 4 stars
23% of culinary chefs rated their compensation 3 stars
28% of culinary chefs rated their compensation 2 stars
28% of culinary chefs rated their compensation 1 stars
Do culinary chefs find their jobs meaningful?
On average, culinary chefs rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.7/5. While most culinary chefs aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.
We asked culinary chefs how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.7 out of 5 stars
2125 culinary chefs
12% of culinary chefs rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
17% of culinary chefs rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
23% of culinary chefs rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
24% of culinary chefs rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
23% of culinary chefs rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as culinary chefs?
Culinary chefs rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of culinary chefs find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked culinary chefs how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
2264 culinary chefs
32% of culinary chefs rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of culinary chefs rated their career fit 4 stars
19% of culinary chefs rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of culinary chefs rated their career fit 2 stars
5% of culinary chefs rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a culinary chef’s work environment?
As a whole, culinary chefs rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked culinary chefs how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
2264 culinary chefs
17% of culinary chefs rated their work environment 5 stars
27% of culinary chefs rated their work environment 4 stars
24% of culinary chefs rated their work environment 3 stars
19% of culinary chefs rated their work environment 2 stars
12% of culinary chefs rated their work environment 1 stars
Are culinary chefs making the best use of their abilities?
Former culinary chefs on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.1/5. Most culinary chefs are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked culinary chefs how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
2275 culinary chefs
17% of culinary chefs rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
22% of culinary chefs rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of culinary chefs rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
21% of culinary chefs rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
14% of culinary chefs rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars