Industrial engineers 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, industrial engineers rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 23% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy industrial 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
Drafter
2.9
$45k
Chemical engineer
2.9
$91k
Nuclear engineer
2.9
$85k
Command and control center specialist
2.9
$37k
Environmental engineer
2.9
$60k
Industrial engineer
2.9
$61k
Operations research analyst
2.9
$65k
Power engineer
2.8
$68k
Industrial production manager
2.8
$59k
Sales engineer
2.8
$78k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are industrial engineers happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do industrial engineers find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as industrial engineers?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are industrial engineer’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are industrial engineers making the best use of their abilities?

Are industrial engineers happy with their salary?

Industrial engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.3/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most industrial engineers having generally positive views of their salary.

We asked industrial engineers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

3.3 out of 5 stars

405 industrial engineers

5 Star
16%

16% of industrial engineers rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
32%

32% of industrial engineers rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
26%

26% of industrial engineers rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
16%

16% of industrial engineers rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
10%

10% of industrial engineers rated their compensation 1 stars

Do industrial engineers find their jobs meaningful?

On average, industrial engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.6/5. The majority of industrial engineers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.

We asked industrial engineers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

2.6 out of 5 stars

407 industrial engineers

5 Star
12%

12% of industrial engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
13%

13% of industrial engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of industrial engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
24%

24% of industrial engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
27%

27% of industrial engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as industrial engineers?

Industrial engineers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of industrial engineers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked industrial engineers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.6 out of 5 stars

478 industrial engineers

5 Star
22%

22% of industrial engineers rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
39%

39% of industrial engineers rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
22%

22% of industrial engineers rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
14%

14% of industrial engineers rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
3%

3% of industrial engineers rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is an industrial engineer’s work environment?

As a whole, industrial engineers 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 industrial engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.3 out of 5 stars

475 industrial engineers

5 Star
15%

15% of industrial engineers rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
31%

31% of industrial engineers rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
29%

29% of industrial engineers rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
17%

17% of industrial engineers rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
8%

8% of industrial engineers rated their work environment 1 stars

Are industrial engineers making the best use of their abilities?

Former industrial engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.0/5. Industrial engineers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked industrial engineers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

474 industrial engineers

5 Star
13%

13% of industrial engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
22%

22% of industrial engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
28%

28% of industrial engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
24%

24% of industrial engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
13%

13% of industrial engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars