Medical laboratory technicians 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, medical laboratory technicians rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 27% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy medical laboratory technicians 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Medical transcriptionist | 3.0 | $30k |
| Diagnostic medical sonographer | 3.0 | $78k |
| Optometrist | 3.0 | $124k |
| Chemical technician | 2.9 | $49k |
| Medical appliance technician | 2.9 | $45k |
| Medical laboratory technician | 2.9 | $31k |
| Radiologic technologist | 2.9 | $61k |
| Hospitalist | 2.9 | $201k |
| Respiratory therapist | 2.9 | $62k |
| Ophthalmic medical technician | 2.9 | $37k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are medical laboratory technicians happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do medical laboratory technicians find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as medical laboratory technicians?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are medical laboratory technician’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are medical laboratory technicians making the best use of their abilities?
Are medical laboratory technicians happy with their salary?
Medical laboratory technicians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Medical laboratory technicians tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked medical laboratory technicians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
761 medical laboratory technicians
9% of medical laboratory technicians rated their compensation 5 stars
24% of medical laboratory technicians rated their compensation 4 stars
28% of medical laboratory technicians rated their compensation 3 stars
23% of medical laboratory technicians rated their compensation 2 stars
16% of medical laboratory technicians rated their compensation 1 stars
Do medical laboratory technicians find their jobs meaningful?
On average, medical laboratory technicians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.8/5. While most medical laboratory technicians aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.
We asked medical laboratory technicians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
765 medical laboratory technicians
13% of medical laboratory technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
18% of medical laboratory technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
23% of medical laboratory technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
25% of medical laboratory technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
21% of medical laboratory technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as medical laboratory technicians?
Medical laboratory technicians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of medical laboratory technicians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked medical laboratory technicians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
835 medical laboratory technicians
24% of medical laboratory technicians rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of medical laboratory technicians rated their career fit 4 stars
25% of medical laboratory technicians rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of medical laboratory technicians rated their career fit 2 stars
6% of medical laboratory technicians rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a medical laboratory technician’s work environment?
As a whole, medical laboratory technicians rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. A solid majority of medical laboratory technicians enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a medical laboratory technician.
We asked medical laboratory technicians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
830 medical laboratory technicians
20% of medical laboratory technicians rated their work environment 5 stars
30% of medical laboratory technicians rated their work environment 4 stars
26% of medical laboratory technicians rated their work environment 3 stars
15% of medical laboratory technicians rated their work environment 2 stars
8% of medical laboratory technicians rated their work environment 1 stars
Are medical laboratory technicians making the best use of their abilities?
Former medical laboratory technicians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.9/5. Medical laboratory technicians tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked medical laboratory technicians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
838 medical laboratory technicians
15% of medical laboratory technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
19% of medical laboratory technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of medical laboratory technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
24% of medical laboratory technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
16% of medical laboratory technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars