Surgical technologists 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, surgical technologists 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 surgical technologists 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pathologist | 3.1 | $201k |
| Dental hygienist | 3.1 | $75k |
| Dentist | 3.0 | $160k |
| Physician assistant | 3.0 | $122k |
| Immunologist | 3.0 | $201k |
| Surgical technologist | 3.0 | $49k |
| 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 surgical technologists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do surgical technologists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as surgical technologists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are surgical technologist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are surgical technologists making the best use of their abilities?
Are surgical technologists happy with their salary?
Surgical technologists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Surgical technologists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked surgical technologists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
281 surgical technologists
12% of surgical technologists rated their compensation 5 stars
18% of surgical technologists rated their compensation 4 stars
34% of surgical technologists rated their compensation 3 stars
17% of surgical technologists rated their compensation 2 stars
19% of surgical technologists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do surgical technologists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, surgical technologists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.1/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked surgical technologists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
280 surgical technologists
22% of surgical technologists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
18% of surgical technologists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
25% of surgical technologists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
19% of surgical technologists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
16% of surgical technologists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as surgical technologists?
Surgical technologists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of surgical technologists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked surgical technologists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
296 surgical technologists
35% of surgical technologists rated their career fit 5 stars
30% of surgical technologists rated their career fit 4 stars
20% of surgical technologists rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of surgical technologists rated their career fit 2 stars
5% of surgical technologists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a surgical technologist’s work environment?
As a whole, surgical technologists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. A solid majority of surgical technologists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a surgical technologist.
We asked surgical technologists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
293 surgical technologists
23% of surgical technologists rated their work environment 5 stars
29% of surgical technologists rated their work environment 4 stars
23% of surgical technologists rated their work environment 3 stars
15% of surgical technologists rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of surgical technologists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are surgical technologists making the best use of their abilities?
Former surgical technologists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.3/5. Most surgical technologists are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked surgical technologists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
296 surgical technologists
25% of surgical technologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
25% of surgical technologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
21% of surgical technologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
17% of surgical technologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
13% of surgical technologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars