Advertising sales agents are one of the least happy 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, advertising sales agents rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 10% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy advertising sales agents 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
Executive assistant
2.8
$62k
Bank manager
2.8
$132k
Compensation and benefits manager
2.7
$128k
Recruiter
2.7
$62k
Account manager
2.7
$47k
Advertising sales agent
2.7
$52k
Financial advisor
2.7
$94k
Cost estimator
2.7
$65k
Retail manager
2.6
$39k
Sales representative
2.5
$62k

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

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

Are advertising sales agents happy with their salary?

Advertising sales agents rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Advertising sales agents tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.

We asked advertising sales agents how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

435 advertising sales agents

5 Star
13%

13% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
22%

22% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
30%

30% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
19%

19% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
16%

16% of advertising sales agents rated their compensation 1 stars

Do advertising sales agents find their jobs meaningful?

On average, advertising sales agents rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.2/5. The majority of advertising sales agents struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.

We asked advertising sales agents how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

2.2 out of 5 stars

438 advertising sales agents

5 Star
8%

8% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
10%

10% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
19%

19% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
26%

26% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
37%

37% of advertising sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as advertising sales agents?

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

We asked advertising sales agents how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.5 out of 5 stars

478 advertising sales agents

5 Star
24%

24% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
32%

32% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
22%

22% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
12%

12% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
10%

10% of advertising sales agents rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is an advertising sales agent’s work environment?

As a whole, advertising sales agents rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked advertising sales agents how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

477 advertising sales agents

5 Star
16%

16% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
31%

31% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
24%

24% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
17%

17% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
12%

12% of advertising sales agents rated their work environment 1 stars

Are advertising sales agents making the best use of their abilities?

Former advertising sales agents on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.7/5. Advertising sales agents tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked advertising sales agents how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

2.7 out of 5 stars

481 advertising sales agents

5 Star
10%

10% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
21%

21% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
23%

23% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
24%

24% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
22%

22% of advertising sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars