A simple rule of thumb
Hello!
5,000+ career satisfaction survey responses have kept me busy this week! I hope you've had a good one too.
We’ve also been busy in front of the camera filming some new career planning masterclasses.
And as part of putting that content together, we found ourselves digging back into numbers and stories from 5,000+ professionals in consulting & 24 other industries (typically post-consulting) who responded to our career satisfaction survey.
While sifting through the spreadsheets, a striking pattern caught my eye.
We asked people for their actual salaries and working hours, and then asked them to rate their satisfaction across those same things on a scale out of 10.
What the data revealed was a trap that can be easy to falling into: optimising for one variable at the expense of others.
I’ve seen people chase headline compensation, only to end up in a role that completely drains their energy. On the flip side, I’ve seen people minimise hours, only to feel under-challenged and unsatisfied with their growth.
To help harmonise these trade-offs, I want to share a really simple rule of thumb: Pay Per Happy Hour.
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The "Pay Per Happy Hour" rule
Think of it as a quick sanity check.
Any real career move involves a lot more nuance. If you've done my Career Wheel exercise, you'll know we look at 10 holistic dimensions to properly evaluate options.
But as a quick mental model to keep in your back pocket, "Pay Per Happy Hour" is great.
> Rule: Take your hourly pay and multiply it by your overall job satisfaction score out of 10.
Look at how this can play out:
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Someone earning $30 per hour who rates their job satisfaction at 10/10 gets a score of 300.
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Someone earning $150 per hour who rates their job satisfaction at a miserable 2/10 gets the exact same score of 300.
On paper, the second role can look five times better. In reality, the feeling of value you extract from your time is identical.
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What the data tells us
When you look across 25 different industries, the disconnect between actual numbers and how people feel about their work is apparent:
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Banking: Actual salaries were 15% above average, but satisfaction with salary was 5% below average (20% negative delta). Working hours were 6% below average, yet satisfaction with those hours was 12% below average (6% negative delta).
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Professional Services: Actual salaries were right on par with average, but satisfaction with salary was 19% below average. Working hours were 3% below average, but satisfaction with those hours was 12% below average. Sum the deltas for the two and you get to 27% negative delta.
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Startups: Actual compensation was 23% below average, yet satisfaction with pay was 3.5% above average. Working hours were bang-on average, but satisfaction with those hours was 4% above average. This sums to a positive delta of ~32%.
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Explaining the delta
It's important not to generalise. We're all different and will suit different career paths. I'm certainly not implying that everyone should join a startup!
But what does the delta between actual and satisfaction come down to? When you read the free text comments in the survey, no matter the industry...
...it comes down to connection.
- Feeling valued.
- Doing work they enjoy that plays to their strengths.
- Feeling genuinely aligned with the organisational mission, culture.
- Finding purpose in their work.
In these circumstances, the hours feel lighter—and the pay feels fairer.
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Keeping It in perspective
Now, to be clear: this is just a simple rule of thumb!
Careers need to solve for many more dimensions than this (my Career Wheel looks at 10!) And there can be very good reasons why anyone needs to prioritise a certain dimension at the expense of others - getting paid sufficiently to make ends meet perhaps being the most obvious.
But as you look at your calendar and your pay-check this month and think about whether your work has energised or drained you, ask yourself: what is the holistic return on your time?
Best wishes,
Rich
