Occupational therapist assistants 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, occupational therapist assistants rate their career happiness 3.0 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 33% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy occupational therapist 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mental health counselor | 3.1 | $36k |
| Dentist | 3.0 | $160k |
| Rehabilitation counselor | 3.0 | $39k |
| School psychologist | 3.0 | $80k |
| Occupational therapist assistant | 3.0 | $62k |
| Dental assistant | 3.0 | $39k |
| Medical transcriptionist | 3.0 | $30k |
| Diagnostic medical sonographer | 3.0 | $78k |
| Optometrist | 3.0 | $124k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are occupational therapist assistants happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do occupational therapist assistants find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as occupational therapist assistants?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are occupational therapist assistant’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are occupational therapist assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Are occupational therapist assistants happy with their salary?
Occupational therapist assistants rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most occupational therapist assistants having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked occupational therapist assistants how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
121 occupational therapist assistants
15% of occupational therapist assistants rated their compensation 5 stars
32% of occupational therapist assistants rated their compensation 4 stars
29% of occupational therapist assistants rated their compensation 3 stars
12% of occupational therapist assistants rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of occupational therapist assistants rated their compensation 1 stars
Do occupational therapist assistants find their jobs meaningful?
On average, occupational therapist assistants rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.4/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked occupational therapist assistants how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
123 occupational therapist assistants
20% of occupational therapist assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
28% of occupational therapist assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
30% of occupational therapist assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
15% of occupational therapist assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
8% of occupational therapist assistants rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as occupational therapist assistants?
Occupational therapist assistants rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.9/5. The majority of occupational therapist assistants find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked occupational therapist assistants how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
137 occupational therapist assistants
32% of occupational therapist assistants rated their career fit 5 stars
36% of occupational therapist assistants rated their career fit 4 stars
18% of occupational therapist assistants rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of occupational therapist assistants rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of occupational therapist assistants rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an occupational therapist assistant’s work environment?
As a whole, occupational therapist assistants 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 occupational therapist assistants how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
137 occupational therapist assistants
17% of occupational therapist assistants rated their work environment 5 stars
33% of occupational therapist assistants rated their work environment 4 stars
29% of occupational therapist assistants rated their work environment 3 stars
15% of occupational therapist assistants rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of occupational therapist assistants rated their work environment 1 stars
Are occupational therapist assistants making the best use of their abilities?
Former occupational therapist assistants on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.2/5. Most occupational therapist assistants are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked occupational therapist assistants how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
137 occupational therapist assistants
15% of occupational therapist assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
25% of occupational therapist assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
34% of occupational therapist assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
16% of occupational therapist assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
9% of occupational therapist assistants rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars