Job satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentedness with their job. Job satisfaction is correlated with career success, and is often intrinsically desired independently of its impact on career outcomes.

Job satisfaction appears to have only a weak link to being well paid, and “passion” for an area is a poor predictor of levels of satisfaction when working in that area. 80,000 Hours conducted an analysis of the literature on job satisfaction and identified a number of key determinants of job satisfaction (Todd 2014). These include work that the worker is good at; work that the worker perceives to helps others; and work with supportive conditions, including work that allows for flow-like states, that meet the worker's basic needs, that fits the worker's personal life, and that involves interactions with helpful colleagues.