Publicists are below average when it comes to happiness.

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, publicists rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 27% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy publicists 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
Advertising manager
3.1
$127k
Digital marketing specialist
3.1
$39k
Search engine marketing specialist
3.0
$43k
Public relations specialist
3.0
$63k
Market research analyst
2.9
$64k
Publicist
2.9
$63k
Customer success manager
2.9
$46k
Fundraiser
2.9
$61k
Street vendor
2.9
$29k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are publicists happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do publicists find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as publicists?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are publicist’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are publicists making the best use of their abilities?

Are publicists happy with their salary?

Publicists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.5/5. Most publicists do not feel that their salaries adequately reflect their work, and are actively unhappy with their income.

We asked publicists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

2.5 out of 5 stars

311 publicists

5 Star
9%

9% of publicists rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
14%

14% of publicists rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
24%

24% of publicists rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
28%

28% of publicists rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
25%

25% of publicists rated their compensation 1 stars

Do publicists find their jobs meaningful?

On average, publicists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.6/5. The majority of publicists struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.

We asked publicists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

2.6 out of 5 stars

318 publicists

5 Star
13%

13% of publicists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
14%

14% of publicists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
20%

20% of publicists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
27%

27% of publicists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
25%

25% of publicists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as publicists?

Publicists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.5/5. The majority of publicists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked publicists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.5 out of 5 stars

354 publicists

5 Star
25%

25% of publicists rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
29%

29% of publicists rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of publicists rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
14%

14% of publicists rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
7%

7% of publicists rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a publicist’s work environment?

As a whole, publicists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked publicists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.3 out of 5 stars

355 publicists

5 Star
18%

18% of publicists rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
26%

26% of publicists rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of publicists rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
21%

21% of publicists rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
7%

7% of publicists rated their work environment 1 stars

Are publicists making the best use of their abilities?

Former publicists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.0/5. Publicists tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked publicists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

356 publicists

5 Star
13%

13% of publicists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
21%

21% of publicists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
29%

29% of publicists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
23%

23% of publicists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
14%

14% of publicists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars