Music therapists are about average in terms of 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, music therapists rate their career happiness 3.2 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 48% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy music therapists 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Piano tuner | 3.5 | $37k |
| Recreational therapist | 3.4 | $48k |
| Music teacher | 3.2 | $76k |
| Music therapist | 3.2 | $48k |
| School psychologist | 3.0 | $80k |
| Speech language pathologist | 2.7 | $79k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are music therapists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do music therapists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as music therapists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are music therapist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are music therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Are music therapists happy with their salary?
Music therapists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Music therapists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked music therapists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
72 music therapists
15% of music therapists rated their compensation 5 stars
21% of music therapists rated their compensation 4 stars
19% of music therapists rated their compensation 3 stars
28% of music therapists rated their compensation 2 stars
17% of music therapists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do music therapists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, music therapists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.8/5. Unlike many careers, music therapists have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become music therapists.
We asked music therapists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
72 music therapists
33% of music therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
32% of music therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
21% of music therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
11% of music therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
3% of music therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as music therapists?
Music therapists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of music therapists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked music therapists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
80 music therapists
38% of music therapists rated their career fit 5 stars
30% of music therapists rated their career fit 4 stars
23% of music therapists rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of music therapists rated their career fit 2 stars
How enjoyable is a music therapist’s work environment?
As a whole, music therapists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.5/5. A solid majority of music therapists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a music therapist.
We asked music therapists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
76 music therapists
25% of music therapists rated their work environment 5 stars
32% of music therapists rated their work environment 4 stars
17% of music therapists rated their work environment 3 stars
22% of music therapists rated their work environment 2 stars
4% of music therapists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are music therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Former music therapists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.5/5. Most music therapists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a music therapist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked music therapists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
77 music therapists
22% of music therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
30% of music therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
22% of music therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
25% of music therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
1% of music therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars