Marine engineers are about average in terms of 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, marine engineers rate their career happiness 3.2 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 47% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy marine 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
Biomedical engineer
3.4
$61k
Non-Destructive testing specialist
3.3
$63k
Agricultural engineer
3.2
$89k
Industrial ecologist
3.2
$90k
Security engineer
3.2
$74k
Marine engineer
3.2
$111k
Wind turbine technician
3.2
$65k
Extraction worker
3.2
$51k
Mining and geological engineer
3.1
$98k
Radio mechanic
3.1
$50k

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

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

Are marine engineers happy with their salary?

Marine engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.5/5. The majority of marine engineers are quite happy with their salaries, with very few having complaints about their income level.

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

3.5 out of 5 stars

56 marine engineers

5 Star
16%

16% of marine engineers rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
39%

39% of marine engineers rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
29%

29% of marine engineers rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
7%

7% of marine engineers rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
9%

9% of marine engineers rated their compensation 1 stars

Do marine engineers find their jobs meaningful?

On average, marine engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.0/5. While most marine engineers aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.

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

3.0 out of 5 stars

57 marine engineers

5 Star
16%

16% of marine engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
23%

23% of marine engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
21%

21% of marine engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
30%

30% of marine engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of marine engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

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

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

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

3.6 out of 5 stars

62 marine engineers

5 Star
24%

24% of marine engineers rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
32%

32% of marine engineers rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
31%

31% of marine engineers rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
5%

5% of marine engineers rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
8%

8% of marine engineers rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a marine engineer’s work environment?

As a whole, marine engineers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked marine engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.4 out of 5 stars

62 marine engineers

5 Star
24%

24% of marine engineers rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
26%

26% of marine engineers rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
26%

26% of marine engineers rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
13%

13% of marine engineers rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of marine engineers rated their work environment 1 stars

Are marine engineers making the best use of their abilities?

Former marine engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.1/5. Most marine engineers are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.

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

3.1 out of 5 stars

61 marine engineers

5 Star
15%

15% of marine engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
30%

30% of marine engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
21%

21% of marine engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
23%

23% of marine engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of marine engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars