Data scientists 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, data scientists rate their career happiness 3.3 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 43% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy data scientists 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Systems architect | 3.4 | $102k |
| Systems engineer | 3.4 | $90k |
| Network architect | 3.4 | $109k |
| Database architect | 3.3 | $90k |
| Computer and information research scientist | 3.3 | $118k |
| Data scientist | 3.3 | $88k |
| Web developer | 3.3 | $69k |
| Non-Destructive testing specialist | 3.3 | $62k |
| Disaster recovery specialist | 3.3 | $41k |
| Geospatial information scientist | 3.3 | $90k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are data scientists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do data scientists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as data scientists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are data scientist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are data scientists making the best use of their abilities?
Are data scientists happy with their salary?
Data scientists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.6/5. The majority of data scientists are quite happy with their salaries, with very few having complaints about their income level.
We asked data scientists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
416 data scientists
24% of data scientists rated their compensation 5 stars
34% of data scientists rated their compensation 4 stars
26% of data scientists rated their compensation 3 stars
11% of data scientists rated their compensation 2 stars
6% of data scientists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do data scientists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, data scientists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.0/5. While most data scientists aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.
We asked data scientists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
416 data scientists
14% of data scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
23% of data scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
27% of data scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
19% of data scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
17% of data scientists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as data scientists?
Data scientists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of data scientists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked data scientists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
522 data scientists
27% of data scientists rated their career fit 5 stars
41% of data scientists rated their career fit 4 stars
18% of data scientists rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of data scientists rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of data scientists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a data scientist’s work environment?
As a whole, data scientists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.7/5. A solid majority of data scientists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a data scientist.
We asked data scientists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
517 data scientists
24% of data scientists rated their work environment 5 stars
39% of data scientists rated their work environment 4 stars
23% of data scientists rated their work environment 3 stars
9% of data scientists rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of data scientists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are data scientists making the best use of their abilities?
Former data scientists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.4/5. Most data scientists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a data scientist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked data scientists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
517 data scientists
23% of data scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
29% of data scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
23% of data scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
17% of data scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
9% of data scientists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars