These Are the 20 Most Satisfying Jobs Right Now, According to Employee Reviews

Choosing a career is tough. Before you head off to college you’re expected to know what you want to do with your life, with no experience working in that field and no clue how soul sucking the work might be. Whether you’re facing that initial decision now or are considering a career change, Glassdoor is taking some of the guesswork out of nailing down a career you won’t absolutely hate with its new list of the 20 jobs with the highest satisfaction rates.

The list may surprise you, as it doesn’t include your standard job fare. Careers like teacher, doctor, journalist, and politician (OK, maybe that one’s not really surprising) are nowhere to be found on the long list of happy-making gigs. Topping the list are professions like recruiting manager, dental hygienist, and sales operations manager. Many of them don’t sound like the kinds of jobs you’d assume would spark a whole lot of joy, but what do we know? The only creative gigs listed are executive chef and product designer, perhaps because of the uncertainty many creatives face in their fields.

In addition to high satisfaction rates, many of the jobs included on Glassdoor’s list include salaries that will surely bring satisfaction to at least your bank account. Money can’t buy happiness, but it can help you pay off your student loans and that’s basically the same thing. The highest paying gig that also doesn’t totally suck, according to Glassdoor’s research, pays a median base salary of $140,000, while the lowest offers $34,000. Depending where you live and what kind of expenses you have, not being stuck in a career you hate may just be worth sacrificing on your starting salary.

Check out Glassdoor’s full report for all the details, but here are the 20 jobs with the highest satisfaction rates:

1. Recruiting Manager
2. Dental Hygienist
3.Sales Operations Manager
4. Product Designer
5. Marketing Assistant
6. Construction Manager
7. Brand Manager
8. Data Scientist
9. Customer Success Manager
10. HR Coordinator
11. HR Manager
12. Communications Manager
13. Marketing Manager
14. Software Development Manager
15. Financial Consultant
16. Enterprise Account Executive
17. Executive Chef
18. Product Engineer
19. Law Clerk
20. Sales Engineer

The list is ranked from most satisfactory, a 4.6 overall rating, to least satisfactory, at 4.1. To put together the job satisfaction rating, Glassdoor leveraged data from its Best Jobs in America report for 2019. To be considered, each job had to have at least 100 salary reports and at least 100 job satisfaction ratings shared on Glassdoor from employees in the United States from January 2, 2018 to January 1, 2019. The list took into account variation in job titles, grouping similar types of work together.

Hopefully this list helps you choose a career you can stick with for the rest of your life. If not, well… there are plenty to pick from when you’re ready for a change.