Session musicians 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, session musicians rate their career happiness 4.1 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 8% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy session musicians 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Composer | 4.2 | $33k |
| DJ | 4.1 | $27k |
| Musician | 4.1 | $9k |
| Audio engineer | 3.9 | $28k |
| Recording engineer | 3.9 | $34k |
| Music promoter | 3.8 | $31k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are session musicians happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do session musicians find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as session musicians?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are session musician’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are session musicians making the best use of their abilities?
Are session musicians happy with their salary?
Session musicians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most session musicians having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked session musicians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
50 session musicians
22% of session musicians rated their compensation 5 stars
16% of session musicians rated their compensation 4 stars
34% of session musicians rated their compensation 3 stars
16% of session musicians rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of session musicians rated their compensation 1 stars
Do session musicians find their jobs meaningful?
On average, session musicians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 4.0/5. Unlike many careers, session musicians have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become session musicians.
We asked session musicians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
52 session musicians
44% of session musicians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
27% of session musicians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
13% of session musicians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
12% of session musicians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
4% of session musicians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as session musicians?
Session musicians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.2/5. The majority of session musicians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked session musicians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.2 out of 5 stars
51 session musicians
47% of session musicians rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of session musicians rated their career fit 4 stars
14% of session musicians rated their career fit 3 stars
2% of session musicians rated their career fit 2 stars
2% of session musicians rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a session musician’s work environment?
As a whole, session musicians rated their enjoyment of their work environment 4.0/5. A solid majority of session musicians enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a session musician.
We asked session musicians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
50 session musicians
40% of session musicians rated their work environment 5 stars
36% of session musicians rated their work environment 4 stars
16% of session musicians rated their work environment 3 stars
4% of session musicians rated their work environment 2 stars
4% of session musicians rated their work environment 1 stars
Are session musicians making the best use of their abilities?
Former session musicians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 4.1/5. Most session musicians surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a session musician, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked session musicians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
51 session musicians
47% of session musicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
35% of session musicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
6% of session musicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
8% of session musicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
4% of session musicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars