Nuclear 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, nuclear engineers rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 24% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy nuclear 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft mechanic | 3.0 | $45k |
| Chemical technician | 2.9 | $44k |
| Industrial engineering technician | 2.9 | $44k |
| Drafter | 2.9 | $45k |
| Chemical engineer | 2.9 | $91k |
| Nuclear engineer | 2.9 | $85k |
| Environmental engineer | 2.9 | $60k |
| Industrial engineer | 2.9 | $61k |
| Operations research analyst | 2.9 | $65k |
| Power engineer | 2.8 | $68k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are nuclear engineers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do nuclear engineers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as nuclear engineers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are nuclear engineer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are nuclear engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Are nuclear engineers happy with their salary?
Nuclear engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.6/5. The majority of nuclear engineers are quite happy with their salaries, with very few having complaints about their income level.
We asked nuclear engineers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
97 nuclear engineers
31% of nuclear engineers rated their compensation 5 stars
28% of nuclear engineers rated their compensation 4 stars
18% of nuclear engineers rated their compensation 3 stars
14% of nuclear engineers rated their compensation 2 stars
9% of nuclear engineers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do nuclear engineers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, nuclear engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.0/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked nuclear engineers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
97 nuclear engineers
19% of nuclear engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
22% of nuclear engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
21% of nuclear engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
18% of nuclear engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
22% of nuclear engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as nuclear engineers?
Nuclear engineers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.9/5. The majority of nuclear engineers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked nuclear engineers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
118 nuclear engineers
30% of nuclear engineers rated their career fit 5 stars
41% of nuclear engineers rated their career fit 4 stars
19% of nuclear engineers rated their career fit 3 stars
6% of nuclear engineers rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of nuclear engineers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a nuclear engineer’s work environment?
As a whole, nuclear engineers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. A solid majority of nuclear engineers enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a nuclear engineer.
We asked nuclear engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
117 nuclear engineers
23% of nuclear engineers rated their work environment 5 stars
27% of nuclear engineers rated their work environment 4 stars
25% of nuclear engineers rated their work environment 3 stars
14% of nuclear engineers rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of nuclear engineers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are nuclear engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Former nuclear engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.5/5. Most nuclear engineers surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a nuclear engineer, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked nuclear engineers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
115 nuclear engineers
30% of nuclear engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
24% of nuclear engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
22% of nuclear engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
11% of nuclear engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
13% of nuclear engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars