Engineers have the happiest job in the world, closely followed by teachers and nurses, according to analysis carried out by the Guardian.
We looked at nine different surveys conducted to find the occupations that make us happiest, and then did our own survey of these surveys, looking for the professions that appeared most often in the top 10 of each study.
Farm workers, hairdressers and beauticians narrowly missed out being included, as did members of the clergy.
Interestingly, we didn’t discover a link between a high salary and happiness, with occupations such as gardeners, personal assistants and construction workers also making it on to our list.
So what, in fact, does make a job a happy one? We spoke to workers doing the happiest jobs in the world to find out.
Engineer
Appears in: six out of nine surveys.
Highest rank: second.
Typical salary: around £40,000.
What makes you so happy? “Coming up with new designs that offer solutions to industry problems – and seeing my designs transferred into a commercial reality,” says Stuart Berry, a tooling engineer at Brandauer, a specialist precision stamper and pressworker in Birmingham. “I get a lot of freedom to test my ideas, have access to state-of-the-art technology and I’m learning new skills on a daily basis.”
“I am working in a field that significantly crosses over with my hobbies, so most of the time, my work doesn’t really feel like work,” says Adam Clayton, a test engineer for luxury and sports car manufacturers at quality and safety experts Intertek Transportation Technologies. “Every day brings a new challenge, and I find it particularly satisfying to watch or read a five-star review of a vehicle that I have had a role in testing components for, and know I had a small part in its creation.”
“I love working in a team,” says Dr Esther Hills, an engineer for BP fuels. “My role also requires a high level of precision and attention to technical detail, which I find very rewarding, and I like being able to work across a wide variety of engine projects. It all offers something different day-to-day.”
Teacher
Appears in: five out of nine surveys.
Highest rank: first.
Typical salary: around £30,000.
What makes you so happy? “The lightbulb moments – watching children make leaps in learning,” says Karina Thompson, a reception teacher at Greenleaf School. Plus, she says, working with children keeps you young: “There are many laugh out loud moments during your day, and I love the variety and creativity of the job – you can be doing drama in the morning, pretending you are a superhero, then demonstrating gymnastics jumps, then the next lesson is life in Roman Britain.”
“Young people are great to work with,” agrees Dougal Hand, head of sixth form at Emmanuel School in London. “They have humour, intelligence and generally want to make the world a better place.”
Meanwhile, Martine Monksfield, a teacher of the deaf at Whitehall Primary School, sees teaching as an opportunity to change society for the better. “As a deaf person myself, I can emphasise with deaf children easily, as I have been through ‘the system’ myself.
“When they’re looking confused or lost I know what it means to not understand what is going on around them. I like to think I am making a difference to their education and I enjoy seeing them achieve their potential.”
For Kathryn Bowers, a teacher of autistic children at the Puzzle Centre in Buckinghamshire, “there is nothing more wonderful than seeing children achieve and progress. Many of our children start with limited interaction skills and often with virtually no methods to communicate.
“Knowing that you’ve helped make a difference to that child and that family is tremendously rewarding.”
Vanessa Correia, a special education tutor for Action for Kids, agrees: “Showing the future generations that just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you can’t live a normal life like anyone else – that’s what makes me happy. Every day, I go home with a permanent smile on my face.”
Nurse
Appears in: five out of nine surveys.
Highest rank: sixth.
Typical salary: around £26,000.
What makes you so happy? “When you feel you have made a real positive impact on the patient,” says Joanne Upton, a skin cancer nurse at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Merseyside. “I meet some fantastic people every day and as cliched as it may sound, they really are inspirational people.”
For Lindsey Silker, a nurse at Cosmetic Surgery Partners, it’s “seeing patients transform and blossom”.
“For so many different reasons people are desperately unhappy with a physical feature and it’s so rewarding to see them happy, looking great and feeling confident when they come back to the clinic for their follow up consultation,” she says.
Jessica Carrodeguas, a nurse at the children’s hospice charity Shooting Star Chase, says: “Every day, you go home and you know you’ve helped a sick child and their family – you’ve made a difference. ”
Unlike other nursing jobs, the charity’s hospice nurses are allocated just one child to look after. “You really get to know the child and their family,” Carrodeguas says. “Plus, it’s less rushed than nursing in a hospital and you get to do fun activities with the children. And from a professional perspective, you are constantly learning about lots of different conditions and hospital equipment.”
Medical practitioner
Appears in: four out of nine surveys.
Highest rank: first.
Typical salary: around £70,000.
What makes you so happy? “I get the opportunity to meet fascinating patients and improve their quality of life,” says Dr Kevin Dynan, consultant geriatrician in the Ulster Hospital. “Being part of a team adds to the job satisfaction – my work is never boring and my working days are often quite different. Sometimes I lead a ward round, other days I attend outpatient clinics or I have to drop everything and rush to A&E.”
Professor David Gartry, an eye surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, finds his job equally exciting: “The progress being made [in my field of medicine] is rapid and seemingly exponential in its rate of change – and restoring or improving vision for patients must be the most rewarding surgery that any doctor can perform.”
Dr Dan Cooper, who is currently based at International Medical Corps’ Ebola Treatment Centre in Sierra Leone, agrees that a doctor’s work results in enormous personal satisfaction: “I’m getting the opportunity to use my skills and training to try to make a genuine difference to individuals and a community in great need. It is exactly the job I dreamed of doing when I was a naive and idealistic medical student.”
Gardener
Appears: three times.
Highest rank: first.
Typical salary: around £18,000.
What makes you so happy? “Gardening is so freeing – being outdoors and working with nature and the changing seasons,” says Susie Atterbury, a horticulturist for the Therapy Garden, a community garden near Guildford.
“The variety is what I love,” agrees Innes Smith, gardener at the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry. “Every hour of every day is different and the scenery is spectacular.”
Will Sandy, creator of landscape architecture and urban design company The Edible Bus Stop, agrees: “I like to create installations that challenge the norm and demonstrate that even the most brutal of landscapes can be transformed by nature. To return the next day and see the difference you’ve made is always exciting.”
For Robert Sayers, the most enjoyable aspect of his work is witnessing the therapeutic, transformative effects of gardening on others. He helps to run Putting Down Roots, a gardening group run by St Mungo’s Broadway for people who are homeless. “One client said to me recently that ‘gardening gives me a reason to get up in the morning’. It’s not hard to love going to work and hearing comments like that every day.”
Construction worker
Appears: three times.
Highest rank: second.
Typical salary: around £27,000.
What makes you so happy? “Working in the fresh air and with a wide range of skilled people,” says Hayley Chilton, a construction worker for Barratt Homes. “There is never a dull moment in construction, and a lot of satisfaction to be had in creating something from scratch. Handing over the finished product, especially to a first-time buyer, is incredibly rewarding.”
Paul Findlay, who works for Bargate Homes, agrees: “The best part for me is when you get to hand over a house, knowing that everything is how they want it. It’s quite a buzz.”
He also enjoys seeing the physical results of his labour. “I love the idea that in 20 years’ time I’ll be able to drive around the region looking at homes and saying, ‘I built that’.
“Plus, at the moment, when we’re experiencing a boom, there’s job security and the knowledge that I can provide for my family.”
Personal assistant
Appears: three times.
Highest rank: fifth.
Typical salary: around £20,000.
“As secretary to the chief executive, I get an insight into all aspects of the organisation’s work, which means I can see the big picture,” says Meaghan Kerr, who works for the charity Prostate Cancer UK. “I really enjoy supporting the chief exec, so that he can achieve more with his time. Every day is different and you have to be organised and prioritise work, which I like doing. It’s a satisfying and fulfilling job.”
Christie Hylton, a PA at TSB bank, says the key to being happy as a secretary is “finding your match”: “You spend so much time with the people you work for, arranging their lives, and it can get very intense – so it’s important they appreciate you. I am an incredibly busy person and I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping the people I work for and making their day easier. The work is very diverse, and there are new challenges everyday, but it’s the people that I work with who make me happy in my job.”
● What makes you happy at work? Do you work in one of our happiest occupations, and if so how happy are you? Do you think other occupations should be on our list? Please share your views with other Guardian readers.
* Surveys included were from the Cabinet Office, Career Bliss 2014 and 2015, City and Guild 2012 and 2013, Gallop, the University of Chicago, LV=, and research conducted for the Guardian by IBM Analytics. Some surveys were more specific about occupations they listed than others so broad definitions of each job had to be used for comparison purposes. Typical salaries based on mean incomes listed by the Cabinet Office in 2014.
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