Technical artists 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, technical artists rate their career happiness 3.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 15% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy technical artists 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cartoonist | 4.0 | $30k |
| Game artist | 3.9 | $90k |
| Illustrator | 3.9 | $15k |
| Audio engineer | 3.9 | $28k |
| Recording engineer | 3.9 | $34k |
| Live sound engineer | 3.8 | $31k |
| Art director | 3.8 | $64k |
| Videographer | 3.8 | $50k |
| Exhibit designer | 3.7 | $54k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are technical artists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do technical artists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as technical artists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are technical artist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are technical artists making the best use of their abilities?
Are technical artists happy with their salary?
Technical artists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.3/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most technical artists having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked technical artists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
54 technical artists
26% of technical artists rated their compensation 5 stars
20% of technical artists rated their compensation 4 stars
22% of technical artists rated their compensation 3 stars
24% of technical artists rated their compensation 2 stars
7% of technical artists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do technical artists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, technical artists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.3/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked technical artists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
55 technical artists
22% of technical artists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
24% of technical artists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
25% of technical artists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
22% of technical artists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
7% of technical artists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as technical artists?
Technical artists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.9/5. The majority of technical artists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked technical artists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
56 technical artists
30% of technical artists rated their career fit 5 stars
36% of technical artists rated their career fit 4 stars
25% of technical artists rated their career fit 3 stars
7% of technical artists rated their career fit 2 stars
2% of technical artists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a technical artist’s work environment?
As a whole, technical artists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.8/5. A solid majority of technical artists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a technical artist.
We asked technical artists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
55 technical artists
24% of technical artists rated their work environment 5 stars
47% of technical artists rated their work environment 4 stars
22% of technical artists rated their work environment 3 stars
2% of technical artists rated their work environment 2 stars
5% of technical artists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are technical artists making the best use of their abilities?
Former technical artists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.5/5. Most technical artists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a technical artist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked technical artists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
55 technical artists
27% of technical artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
25% of technical artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
27% of technical artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
15% of technical artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
5% of technical artists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars