Which Jobs Make People Happiest?
A successful career is not just about earning a good salary or getting a promotion. Being content and happy with a job takes more than that. It’s also about having a sense of fulfillment. Even if you have a salary that’s through the roof, if you’re doing something that doesn’t give you a sense of purpose, chances are, you’ll get burned out through the course of your career.
Asking a career expert “I need help deciding what career to choose” may not be a guarantee that he/she will lead you to a career path that will satisfy you. A career advisor can assess your skills and interests and match them with jobs that fit your preferences and priorities, but ultimately, only you can determine what career (or whatever you make out of your career) will bring you happiness.
A University of Chicago study sheds some insight about what career you can choose to make you happy. Conducted by Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center at UC, the study showed that ‘happy jobs’ were those that involved employees helping others, or jobs that provided room to exercise technical or scientific expertise, or creative challenges. Note that income varies much in the list.
The top 10 ‘happy jobs’ included:
1) Clergy (median annual income: $44,102)
2) Firefighters (median annual income: $45,553)
3) Transportation, ticket and reservation agents (like travel agents) (median hourly rate: $14.23)
4) Architects (median income: $54,079)
5) Special Education Teachers (median income: between $41,000-$43,000 depending on level)
6) Actors and directors from stage, radio, television, motion picture etc. (median income: varies)
7) Science Technicians (median income: $72,435)
8) Miscellaneous mechanical and repairing occupations (median hourly rate: $15.26)
9) Industrial Engineers (median income: $61,729)
10) Airline pilots and navigators (median hourly rate: $63)
Granted, you don’t need to be in any of these fields to be happy with your work, especially if these fields don’t conform to your interests and capabilities. The study, however, supports the belief that there is always more to a career than just income.
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