Live sound engineers are one of the happiest 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, live sound engineers rate their career happiness 3.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 16% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy live sound engineers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Recording engineer | 3.9 | $34k |
| Music promoter | 3.8 | $31k |
| Piano accompanist | 3.8 | $47k |
| Live sound engineer | 3.8 | $31k |
| Luthier | 3.7 | $31k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are live sound engineers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do live sound engineers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as live sound engineers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are live sound engineer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are live sound engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Are live sound engineers happy with their salary?
Live sound engineers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.1/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most live sound engineers having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked live sound engineers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
163 live sound engineers
17% of live sound engineers rated their compensation 5 stars
18% of live sound engineers rated their compensation 4 stars
39% of live sound engineers rated their compensation 3 stars
13% of live sound engineers rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of live sound engineers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do live sound engineers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, live sound engineers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.5/5. Unlike many careers, live sound engineers have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become live sound engineers.
We asked live sound engineers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
169 live sound engineers
31% of live sound engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
21% of live sound engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
25% of live sound engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
14% of live sound engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
9% of live sound engineers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as live sound engineers?
Live sound engineers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.1/5. The majority of live sound engineers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked live sound engineers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
184 live sound engineers
40% of live sound engineers rated their career fit 5 stars
36% of live sound engineers rated their career fit 4 stars
18% of live sound engineers rated their career fit 3 stars
3% of live sound engineers rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of live sound engineers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a live sound engineer’s work environment?
As a whole, live sound engineers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.9/5. A solid majority of live sound engineers enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a live sound engineer.
We asked live sound engineers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
187 live sound engineers
34% of live sound engineers rated their work environment 5 stars
36% of live sound engineers rated their work environment 4 stars
17% of live sound engineers rated their work environment 3 stars
10% of live sound engineers rated their work environment 2 stars
4% of live sound engineers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are live sound engineers making the best use of their abilities?
Former live sound engineers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.7/5. Most live sound engineers surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a live sound engineer, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked live sound engineers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
187 live sound engineers
30% of live sound engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
26% of live sound engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of live sound engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
14% of live sound engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
3% of live sound engineers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars