In a previous IT Dojo post, I asked TechRepublic members whether their IT career had turned out better, worse or about the same as they expected when first starting out. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the vast majority, 76 percent, reported their IT career being the same or better than they initially predicted.

As of this writing, 69 people had responded to the poll. As Figure A shows, 40 percent of respondents reported their IT career was better than they expected, 35 percent reported their career being about the same as expected, and 25 percent reported careers that had turned out worse than they initially expected.

Figure A

Although my poll was more a measure of career expectation than job satisfaction, I thought it would be interested to see how IT stacked up against other careers. According Tom W. Smith’s report, “Job Satisfaction in the United States,” 12 occupations rank highest in job satisfaction, see Table A. Smith used data from the National Opinion Research Center’s (NORC) General Social Survey (GSS) to measure job satisfaction and general happiness.

Table A

Occupations % Very Satisfied
Clergy

 87.2
Physical Therapists

78.1
Firefighters

80.1
Education Administrators

68.4
Painter, Sculptors, Related

67.3
Teachers

69.2
Authors

74.2
Psychologists

66.9
Special Education Teachers

70.1
Operating Engineers

64.1
Office Supervisors

60.8
Security & Financial Services Salespersons

65.4