Loan officers 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, loan officers rate their career happiness 2.5 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 5% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy loan officers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Customs broker | 2.6 | $75k |
| Accountant | 2.6 | $77k |
| Actuary | 2.5 | $106k |
| Sales representative | 2.5 | $62k |
| Financial clerk | 2.5 | $46k |
| Loan officer | 2.5 | $63k |
| Underwriter | 2.5 | $76k |
| Teller | 2.5 | $36k |
| Auditor | 2.5 | $77k |
| Insurance sales agent | 2.3 | $50k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are loan officers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do loan officers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as loan officers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are loan officer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are loan officers making the best use of their abilities?
Are loan officers happy with their salary?
Loan officers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most loan officers having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked loan officers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
921 loan officers
12% of loan officers rated their compensation 5 stars
24% of loan officers rated their compensation 4 stars
28% of loan officers rated their compensation 3 stars
20% of loan officers rated their compensation 2 stars
15% of loan officers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do loan officers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, loan officers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.3/5. The majority of loan officers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked loan officers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.3 out of 5 stars
921 loan officers
6% of loan officers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
8% of loan officers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
23% of loan officers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
29% of loan officers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
33% of loan officers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as loan officers?
Loan officers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.4/5. The majority of loan officers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked loan officers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
973 loan officers
21% of loan officers rated their career fit 5 stars
32% of loan officers rated their career fit 4 stars
25% of loan officers rated their career fit 3 stars
14% of loan officers rated their career fit 2 stars
9% of loan officers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a loan officer’s work environment?
As a whole, loan officers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.1/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked loan officers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
966 loan officers
14% of loan officers rated their work environment 5 stars
27% of loan officers rated their work environment 4 stars
27% of loan officers rated their work environment 3 stars
20% of loan officers rated their work environment 2 stars
12% of loan officers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are loan officers making the best use of their abilities?
Former loan officers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.6/5. Loan officers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked loan officers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.6 out of 5 stars
971 loan officers
10% of loan officers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
15% of loan officers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
27% of loan officers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
27% of loan officers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
22% of loan officers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars