Graduate teaching assistants 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, graduate teaching assistants rate their career happiness 3.4 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 35% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy graduate teaching assistants 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Professor | 3.6 | $64k |
| Clergy | 3.6 | $50k |
| Principal | 3.5 | $98k |
| Health educator | 3.5 | $61k |
| School counselor | 3.5 | $61k |
| Graduate teaching assistant | 3.4 | $33k |
| Art teacher | 3.4 | $34k |
| Teacher assistant | 3.3 | $24k |
| Library assistant | 3.3 | $29k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are graduate teaching assistants happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do graduate teaching assistants find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as graduate teaching assistants?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are graduate teaching assistant’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are graduate teaching assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Are graduate teaching assistants happy with their salary?
Graduate teaching assistants rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Graduate teaching assistants tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked graduate teaching assistants how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
683 graduate teaching assistants
10% of graduate teaching assistants rated their compensation 5 stars
22% of graduate teaching assistants rated their compensation 4 stars
25% of graduate teaching assistants rated their compensation 3 stars
25% of graduate teaching assistants rated their compensation 2 stars
18% of graduate teaching assistants rated their compensation 1 stars
Do graduate teaching assistants find their jobs meaningful?
On average, graduate teaching assistants rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.3/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked graduate teaching assistants how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
692 graduate teaching assistants
20% of graduate teaching assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
28% of graduate teaching assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
27% of graduate teaching assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
15% of graduate teaching assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
10% of graduate teaching assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as graduate teaching assistants?
Graduate teaching assistants rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.9/5. The majority of graduate teaching assistants find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked graduate teaching assistants how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
755 graduate teaching assistants
32% of graduate teaching assistants rated their career fit 5 stars
39% of graduate teaching assistants rated their career fit 4 stars
16% of graduate teaching assistants rated their career fit 3 stars
7% of graduate teaching assistants rated their career fit 2 stars
5% of graduate teaching assistants rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a graduate teaching assistant’s work environment?
As a whole, graduate teaching assistants rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.8/5. A solid majority of graduate teaching assistants enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a graduate teaching assistant.
We asked graduate teaching assistants how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
751 graduate teaching assistants
29% of graduate teaching assistants rated their work environment 5 stars
39% of graduate teaching assistants rated their work environment 4 stars
19% of graduate teaching assistants rated their work environment 3 stars
9% of graduate teaching assistants rated their work environment 2 stars
4% of graduate teaching assistants rated their work environment 1 stars
Are graduate teaching assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Former graduate teaching assistants on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.4/5. Most graduate teaching assistants are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked graduate teaching assistants how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
757 graduate teaching assistants
19% of graduate teaching assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
31% of graduate teaching assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
24% of graduate teaching assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
18% of graduate teaching assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
8% of graduate teaching assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars