Dive Brief:
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When 383,000 American workers were asked to rank themselves on confidence, it might surprise even the more savvy HR leaders to find out that the top three most confident job holders are private household cooks (74%), chief executives officer (72%) and art directors (65%).
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The report from PayScale, “America's Biggest Ego Workers: Professional Confidence Explored,” also found that 43% of U.S. workers believe they are the top performer in their job; a higher salary generally coincides with a greater level of confidence, and millennials report the lowest generational self-assessment of performance level.
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The study examined which workers have the healthiest egos when it comes to their job performance by considering factors such as education levels, gender, generations and income.
Dive Insight:
“Beyond simply being curious as to which workers are the most confident in their professional ability—which we tied to ego—we also wanted to see whether there was a tie to salary and confidence,” said Sean Leslie, senior content strategist at PayScale. “And in general, it turns out there is.”
One strong and expected correlation found that as pay rises, confidence is right there with it. While only 37% of workers making under $25,000 a year reported being the top performer at their company for jobs similar to theirs—the lowest of any salary group surveyed—56% of workers making more than $200,000 a year—the highest salary group surveyed—reported the same.
PayScale’s “America's Biggest Ego Workers: Professional Confidence Explored” also found that 48% of baby boomers reported being the top performer at their employer for jobs similar to theirs, the highest of any generation surveyed, while 40% of millennials reported being the top performer, the lowest of any generation surveyed.
