Psychiatric aides 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, psychiatric aides 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 psychiatric aides 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
Diagnostic medical sonographer
3.0
$43k
Optometrist
3.0
$96k
Occupational therapist
2.9
$66k
Respiratory therapist
2.9
$63k
Ophthalmic medical technician
2.9
$21k
Psychiatric aide
2.9
$29k
Social worker
2.9
$43k
Audiologist
2.9
$92k
Orthotist
2.9
$71k
Personal care aide
2.8
$25k

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

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

Are psychiatric aides happy with their salary?

Psychiatric aides rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.5/5. Most psychiatric aides do not feel that their salaries adequately reflect their work, and are actively unhappy with their income.

We asked psychiatric aides how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

2.5 out of 5 stars

264 psychiatric aides

5 Star
7%

7% of psychiatric aides rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
16%

16% of psychiatric aides rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
26%

26% of psychiatric aides rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
25%

25% of psychiatric aides rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
27%

27% of psychiatric aides rated their compensation 1 stars

Do psychiatric aides find their jobs meaningful?

On average, psychiatric aides rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.4/5. Unlike many careers, psychiatric aides have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become psychiatric aides.

We asked psychiatric aides how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

3.4 out of 5 stars

265 psychiatric aides

5 Star
19%

19% of psychiatric aides rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
35%

35% of psychiatric aides rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
23%

23% of psychiatric aides rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
9%

9% of psychiatric aides rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
13%

13% of psychiatric aides rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as psychiatric aides?

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

We asked psychiatric aides how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.6 out of 5 stars

264 psychiatric aides

5 Star
28%

28% of psychiatric aides rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
33%

33% of psychiatric aides rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
19%

19% of psychiatric aides rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
10%

10% of psychiatric aides rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
10%

10% of psychiatric aides rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a psychiatric aide’s work environment?

As a whole, psychiatric aides rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked psychiatric aides how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

264 psychiatric aides

5 Star
17%

17% of psychiatric aides rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
30%

30% of psychiatric aides rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
22%

22% of psychiatric aides rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
15%

15% of psychiatric aides rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
16%

16% of psychiatric aides rated their work environment 1 stars

Are psychiatric aides making the best use of their abilities?

Former psychiatric aides on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Psychiatric aides tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked psychiatric aides how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

2.8 out of 5 stars

267 psychiatric aides

5 Star
13%

13% of psychiatric aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
19%

19% of psychiatric aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
26%

26% of psychiatric aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
22%

22% of psychiatric aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
19%

19% of psychiatric aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars