Environmental engineers 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, environmental engineers rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 23% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy environmental 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Water engineer | 3.0 | $97k |
| Industrial engineering technician | 2.9 | $60k |
| Drafter | 2.9 | $60k |
| Chemical engineer | 2.9 | $106k |
| Nuclear engineer | 2.9 | $120k |
| Environmental engineer | 2.9 | $97k |
| Industrial engineer | 2.9 | $95k |
| Environmental technician | 2.9 | $46k |
| Power engineer | 2.8 | $64k |
| Energy broker | 2.8 | $55k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are environmental engineers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do environmental engineers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as environmental engineers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are environmental engineer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are environmental engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Are environmental engineers happy with their salary?
Environmental engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most environmental engineers having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked environmental engineers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
305 environmental engineers
16% of environmental engineers rated their compensation 5 stars
29% of environmental engineers rated their compensation 4 stars
27% of environmental engineers rated their compensation 3 stars
16% of environmental engineers rated their compensation 2 stars
11% of environmental engineers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do environmental engineers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, environmental engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.9/5. While most environmental engineers aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.
We asked environmental engineers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
312 environmental engineers
14% of environmental engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
20% of environmental engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
27% of environmental engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
19% of environmental engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
21% of environmental engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as environmental engineers?
Environmental engineers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of environmental engineers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked environmental engineers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
344 environmental engineers
18% of environmental engineers rated their career fit 5 stars
40% of environmental engineers rated their career fit 4 stars
26% of environmental engineers rated their career fit 3 stars
13% of environmental engineers rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of environmental engineers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an environmental engineer’s work environment?
As a whole, environmental engineers 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 environmental engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
339 environmental engineers
15% of environmental engineers rated their work environment 5 stars
31% of environmental engineers rated their work environment 4 stars
27% of environmental engineers rated their work environment 3 stars
20% of environmental engineers rated their work environment 2 stars
7% of environmental engineers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are environmental engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Former environmental engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.1/5. Most environmental engineers are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked environmental engineers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
342 environmental engineers
15% of environmental engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
23% of environmental engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
25% of environmental engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
24% of environmental engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
12% of environmental engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars