Power engineers 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, power engineers rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 19% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy power 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear engineer | 2.9 | $120k |
| Water treatment plant operator | 2.9 | $48k |
| Control center specialist | 2.9 | $37k |
| Environmental engineer | 2.9 | $97k |
| Industrial engineer | 2.9 | $95k |
| Power engineer | 2.8 | $64k |
| Industrial production manager | 2.8 | $103k |
| Sales engineer | 2.8 | $104k |
| Marine electrician | 2.8 | $77k |
| Civil engineer | 2.8 | $88k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are power engineers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do power engineers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as power engineers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are power engineer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are power engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Are power engineers happy with their salary?
Power engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.6/5. The majority of power engineers are quite happy with their salaries, with very few having complaints about their income level.
We asked power engineers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
111 power engineers
28% of power engineers rated their compensation 5 stars
33% of power engineers rated their compensation 4 stars
17% of power engineers rated their compensation 3 stars
14% of power engineers rated their compensation 2 stars
7% of power engineers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do power engineers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, power engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.5/5. The majority of power engineers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked power engineers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.5 out of 5 stars
111 power engineers
10% of power engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
13% of power engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
19% of power engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
32% of power engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
27% of power engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as power engineers?
Power engineers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.5/5. The majority of power engineers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked power engineers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
123 power engineers
22% of power engineers rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of power engineers rated their career fit 4 stars
24% of power engineers rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of power engineers rated their career fit 2 stars
7% of power engineers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a power engineer’s work environment?
As a whole, power engineers 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 power engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
123 power engineers
12% of power engineers rated their work environment 5 stars
28% of power engineers rated their work environment 4 stars
27% of power engineers rated their work environment 3 stars
24% of power engineers rated their work environment 2 stars
8% of power engineers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are power engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Former power engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Power engineers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked power engineers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
123 power engineers
11% of power engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
14% of power engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
30% of power engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
33% of power engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
12% of power engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars