WHEN it comes to measuring career success, happiness and well-being are rarely mentioned in the same breath as income, status, expertise and the like. This is curious, given that most people鈥檚 lives are to some extent defined by the quest for happiness, and you鈥檙e more likely to be successful by any measure if you鈥檙e happy in your work.
So how to find it? For academics, there鈥檚 one way sure to help: win a Nobel prize. It is the highest social status an academic can hope to gain, and is a crucial factor in determining the well-being of many a scientist. Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick found that scientists who win a Nobel tend to live on average nearly two years longer than those who are merely nominated.
Clearly this option is only available to a fortunate few. An easier way to improve your happiness is to stop competing altogether: worrying about the status and income of others is a sure-fire way of making you dissatisfied with your own life. Economist Erzo Luttmer at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found that people are less happy when their neighbours earn more than them. 鈥淐omparisons lower our well-being by reminding us that we are not the biggest monkey in the pack,鈥� says Oswald. 鈥淪ubconsciously, we would all love to be that monkey.鈥�
Advertisement
It is far wiser to put your energies into finding your social niche in a work environment. Numerous studies have shown that people with strong support networks of friends, colleagues or family are better off than those who 鈥渇loat鈥�. Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that slum-dwellers in Calcutta were just as satisfied with their lives as a group of middle-class students in the city, despite their poverty and dire living conditions, largely because of their strong social networks. The lesson for graduates? Seek out a lab or company where you feel part of the fabric.
Finally, realise that traditional markers for happiness can set your expectations too high. You might think that money and intelligence should lead to higher status and greater happiness, but studies consistently show that money doesn鈥檛 make people significantly happier once their basic needs are met, and having a higher IQ doesn鈥檛 seem to help either.
The science of happiness has its curiosities, perhaps none more surprising than the finding that engineers tend to be the most satisfied of all professions. Andrew Clark, an economist at Paris-Jourdan Economic Sciences in Paris, found that those working in engineering and technology, along with health professionals, were 鈥渟ignificantly happier鈥� than any other workers. But take this with a pinch of salt: if you鈥檙e set on a different path, throwing it all in to become an engineer will likely make you miserable. And in the end, however you define success, doing what makes you happy is probably the quickest way to achieve it.
聯People had to cooperate. We had terrific graduate students, a sense of community. We were in it together聰
Money may not equal happiness, but it鈥檚 still nice to know how much you can expect to earn.
Careers 鈥� Find out how to make the most of your career in our comprehensive special report.