Urban planners are about average in terms of 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, urban planners rate their career happiness 3.1 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 43% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy urban planners 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Green product marketer | 3.6 | $127k |
| Sustainability officer | 3.4 | $180k |
| Energy auditor | 3.2 | $75k |
| Industrial ecologist | 3.2 | $77k |
| Urban planner | 3.1 | $78k |
| Architect | 3.1 | $80k |
| Project manager | 3.1 | $55k |
| Drafter | 2.9 | $60k |
| Surveyor | 2.8 | $62k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are urban planners happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do urban planners find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as urban planners?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are urban planner’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are urban planners making the best use of their abilities?
Are urban planners happy with their salary?
Urban planners rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.1/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most urban planners having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked urban planners how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
405 urban planners
12% of urban planners rated their compensation 5 stars
26% of urban planners rated their compensation 4 stars
32% of urban planners rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of urban planners rated their compensation 2 stars
11% of urban planners rated their compensation 1 stars
Do urban planners find their jobs meaningful?
On average, urban planners 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 urban planners how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
416 urban planners
16% of urban planners rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
22% of urban planners rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
27% of urban planners rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
22% of urban planners rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
13% of urban planners rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as urban planners?
Urban planners rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of urban planners find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked urban planners how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
473 urban planners
20% of urban planners rated their career fit 5 stars
37% of urban planners rated their career fit 4 stars
28% of urban planners rated their career fit 3 stars
11% of urban planners rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of urban planners rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an urban planner’s work environment?
As a whole, urban planners rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked urban planners how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
469 urban planners
12% of urban planners rated their work environment 5 stars
35% of urban planners rated their work environment 4 stars
32% of urban planners rated their work environment 3 stars
16% of urban planners rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of urban planners rated their work environment 1 stars
Are urban planners making the best use of their abilities?
Former urban planners on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.1/5. Most urban planners are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked urban planners how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
467 urban planners
11% of urban planners rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
28% of urban planners rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
30% of urban planners rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
21% of urban planners rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
10% of urban planners rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars