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Look, I’m not going to lie to you, I love my job. In fact, I love it so much that I would go on record as saying that my job satisfaction is higher than at least 69 percent of the people out there (see what I did there?). Do I make millions of dollars doing what I do? No. Does it give me the flexibility to work from home, still make solid coin and leave me with opportunities to work on some entrepreneurial projects like a sports bar and my own website? Yep. For that reason, I can’t have many qualms with my job.
As an added bonus, I don’t have the headache of playing all the BS office politics like most people do. You know what I’m talking about, where you’ve got to put on a happy face and ask Cheryl in accounting how her weekend was every single Monday morning in the office kitchen. Yeah, that sounds miserable.
That said, there are two types of people in this world, those that complain and do nothing to change their bad situation, and those who complain and say “F this, I’m going to look for another gig to create better job satisfaction for myself. If you’re the latter, kudos to you, because it’s never easy to hit the reset button on a career.
Whether you’re seriously thinking about switching jobs or just want to educate yourself about what industries people are most happy, you’re in luck, ’cause I’ve got the 15 gigs with the highest job satisfaction — so it might be time to start applying to some of these ASAP!
1. Corporate Recruiter (Median Salary: $65,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.3/5
You get to talk to people all day long and search through LinkedIn to see who has the chops for open positions. It can be stressful and difficult to narrow candidates, but it seems like something worthwhile, with a significant impact on a company’s growth.
2. Reliability Engineer (Median Salary: $92,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.3/5
Are you good at analyzing key business decisions? If so, a Reliability Engineer may be your calling. Tasked with determining Loss Elimination, Risk Management and Life Cycle Asset Management, these employees play a key role in a brand’s strategy.
3. Creative Manager (Median Salary: $110,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.3/5
Helping shape a company’s creative vision by leading copywriters, artists, designers, etc., it’s no wonder Creative Manager’s have some of the highest job satisfaction out there — you get paid to put your dreams into reality.
4. Compliance Manager (Median Salary: $96,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.3/5
We’re not saying you’re a jerk if you’re a Compliance Manager, but there’s a good chance people won’t be happy to see you when you come around. Responsible for audits and reviews to ensure businesses are complying with rules and regulations, this person has to be a stickler for details.
5. Data Scientist (Median Salary: $110,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.2/5
If you love numbers and deep-diving into analytics, a Data Scientist career might be worthwhile. Using a variety of tools, this person is responsible for figuring out what and why something did or didn’t work for a company, using the results to improve the bottom line.
6. Front End Engineer (Median Salary: $100,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.2/5
As a Front End Engineer, you’ll be working with clients to oversee the entire direction of their website. This can include making small tweaks or completely overhauling the design, while also working with the presentation and structure of the information.
7. Hardware Engineer (Median Salary: $115,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.2/5
If you’ve got tech skills, you might as well become a Hardware Engineer. That’s because these people are responsible for making sure all computers are working efficiently, while trying to make the machines run faster, too.
8. Risk Manager (Median Salary: $97,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.2/5
Risk Managers have the grown up task of taking a business at the highest level, and then assessing risk for things like safety, security and financial responsibility. It’s a role that’s important on many levels to protect the overall reputation of a brand.
9. Strategy Manager (Median Salary: $135,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.2/5
Love putting together ideas and have results to show those ideas have positively impacted a company? Then a career in Strategic Management might be an option for you. You’ll be responsible for reviewing previous planning and execution goals for a company, while putting your input on how to adapt for the long-term.
10. Mobile Developer (Median Salary: $90,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.1/5
To keep it simple, Mobile Developers are responsible for building apps and developing software for companies and/or clients. It may not seem like something everyone would have high job satisfaction in, but for those who love to geek out on this type of stuff, it’s really rewarding.
11. Strategic Account Manager (Median Salary: $85,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.1/5
Similar to the Strategy Manager role above, a Strategic Account Manager is responsible for assessing risk for a client of a bigger company. For instance, you may work at a marketing agency and have a big-time client who needs to see how a social media campaign can become viral. This person would analyze information so to reduce costs and risks associated with the idea.
12. Site Reliability Engineer (Median Salary: $120,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.1/5
Site Reliability Engineers make sure that things in the cloud and with other software is up to speed and fully functioning. They also have the task of monitoring performance and reviewing technical issues.
13. Manufacturing Engineer (Median Salary: $72,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.0/5
Acting like a Swiss Army Knife, a Manufacturing Engineer has plenty of tools at his or her disposal. For instance, one day he/she may design and conduct a research program, then the rest of the week may be analyzing that data to use for operations to hit targets of clients or vendors.
14. Occupational Therapist (Median Salary: $74,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.0/5
Not only do you need to be really smart as an Occupational Therapist, but you better like being around people, and helping them, because that’s what your day’s going to be all about. You’d be responsible for working with patients and helping them recover injuries, so the job satisfaction comes from knowing a patient is back to feeling healthy.
15. DevOps Engineer (Median Salary: $105,000)
Satisfaction Rate: 4.0/5
Innovating technology for a company or client, DevOps Engineers need to think ahead when it comes to implementing strategies for online coding. They collaborate and/or oversee positions like IT pros and software developers.
Now that you’ve got an idea of the gigs with the highest job satisfaction rate, you no longer have to be Peter from Office Space and fake your way through a 40-plus-hour work week. You deserve better, bros.
There are a lot of reasons why people have job satisfaction — from perks, salary and benefits. So it’s good to know the careers out there with the happiest people.
See the full list over at Glassdoor.