On a scale of one to ten—ten being very happy and one being not happy at all—how happy are you with your job? Chances are, you’ll respond with a number in the one-to-five range. Job satisfaction in the U.S. is at a ten-year high, yet, still less than half of workers (49.6 percent) say they’re actually happy at work.
So, if your job isn’t floating your boat and you want a change, what’s the key to a happy professional life? Money? Work/life balance? Prospects? Location? Perhaps. But here’s something: the secret to a happy career could lie in the power of creativity.
The most enriching careers are the most creative ones
Sokanu, the career-discovery platform designed to help people find their ideal career based on their personality traits, interests, and abilities, has published a definitive list of the happiest careers in America, drawing on data from more than 250,000 workers across more than 250 career paths.
According to Sokanu, the most satisfying careers are:
- Film director
- Athlete
- Motivational speaker
- Music artist
- Singer
- Horse trainer
- Performer
- Zoologist
- Marine biologist
- Choreographer
And the least satisfying are:
- Post office clerk
- House cleaner
- Food preparation worker
- Cashier
- Bill and account collector
- Stock clerk
- Correctional officer
- Janitor
- Medical and clinical laboratory technologist
- Telemarketer
What factors contribute to career satisfaction?
Take a look at that list of the top ten most satisfying careers. At least six (filmmaker, motivational speaker, musician, singer, performer, and choreographer) are definitely roles that offer creative expression. Perhaps just as important, they all offer control over one’s work—free rein to explore and do what one wants.
Notably, the list of the least satisfying careers features jobs that offer little ownership and little or no room for creativity. Manual roles afford scant opportunities for creative thinking, and tend to be positions where one is told what to do by a supervisor.
“Control is something we tend to undervalue,” says Spencer Thompson, the founder of Sokanu and an expert in education technology. “Most people are told what to do, when to do it, and what to do it with. It’s not an accident that the most highly rated careers have atypical schedules, or even set their own.”
More money, more problems
Surprisingly, money isn’t really a deciding factor in workplace happiness. According to the Sokanu research, only one career position with a six-figure salary (chief executive officer, in case you were wondering) has a high satisfaction rating. Money might allow us to buy more things, but when it comes to being professionally comfortable, it won’t buy us happiness.
“Creativity is vital to a satisfying career,” Spencer adds.
“The unhappiest category of careers on our list is law, with its notoriously stringent and unbending devotion to rules and exactness. On the other end of the scale, highly creative careers, like those in film, music, and performing arts, rate highly in satisfaction. The opportunity for creativity in a career may be more than just a bonus—it could be vital to your overall happiness.”
While there will never be a definitive answer, a magic formula, to what represents a satisfying career, it’s safe to assume that one that challenges us, makes us think, and requires us to come up with new ideas, while giving us a degree of ownership over our work, is more fulfilling than those roles that don’t.
If you’d like to change your career, take Sokanu’s Free Career Test—the results might surprise you.
