Advertising sales agents are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, advertising sales agents rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 10% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy advertising sales agents are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Executive assistant | 2.8 | $49k |
| Bank manager | 2.8 | $62k |
| Compensation and benefits manager | 2.7 | $73k |
| Recruiter | 2.7 | $55k |
| Account manager | 2.7 | $67k |
| Advertising sales agent | 2.7 | $33k |
| Financial advisor | 2.7 | $49k |
| Cost estimator | 2.7 | $62k |
| Retail manager | 2.6 | $35k |
| Sales representative | 2.5 | $41k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are advertising sales agents happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do advertising sales agents find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as advertising sales agents?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are advertising sales agent’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are advertising sales agents making the best use of their abilities?
Are advertising sales agents happy with their salary?
Advertising sales agents rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Advertising sales agents tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked advertising sales agents how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
435 advertising sales agents
13% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 5 stars
22% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 4 stars
30% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 2 stars
16% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 1 stars
Do advertising sales agents find their jobs meaningful?
On average, advertising sales agents rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.2/5. The majority of advertising sales agents struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked advertising sales agents how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.2 out of 5 stars
438 advertising sales agents
8% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
10% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
19% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
26% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
37% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as advertising sales agents?
Advertising sales agents rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.5/5. The majority of advertising sales agents find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked advertising sales agents how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
478 advertising sales agents
24% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 5 stars
32% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 4 stars
22% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 2 stars
10% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an advertising sales agent’s work environment?
As a whole, advertising sales agents rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked advertising sales agents how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
477 advertising sales agents
16% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 5 stars
31% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 4 stars
24% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 3 stars
17% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 2 stars
12% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 1 stars
Are advertising sales agents making the best use of their abilities?
Former advertising sales agents on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.7/5. Advertising sales agents tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked advertising sales agents how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.7 out of 5 stars
481 advertising sales agents
10% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
21% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
23% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
24% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
22% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars