Medical records technicians 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, medical records technicians rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 14% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy medical records technicians 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pharmacy technician | 2.8 | $30k |
| Medical secretary | 2.8 | $27k |
| Neurodiagnostic technologist | 2.8 | $43k |
| Clinical nurse specialist | 2.8 | $73k |
| Healthcare social worker | 2.8 | $57k |
| Medical records technician | 2.7 | $40k |
| Speech language pathologist | 2.7 | $82k |
| Registered nurse | 2.7 | $66k |
| Nurse | 2.7 | $44k |
| Nuclear medicine technologist | 2.7 | $78k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are medical records technicians happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do medical records technicians find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as medical records technicians?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are medical records technician’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are medical records technicians making the best use of their abilities?
Are medical records technicians happy with their salary?
Medical records technicians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Medical records technicians tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked medical records technicians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
381 medical records technicians
9% of medical records technicians rated their compensation 5 stars
24% of medical records technicians rated their compensation 4 stars
26% of medical records technicians rated their compensation 3 stars
22% of medical records technicians rated their compensation 2 stars
19% of medical records technicians rated their compensation 1 stars
Do medical records technicians find their jobs meaningful?
On average, medical records technicians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.4/5. The majority of medical records technicians struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked medical records technicians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.4 out of 5 stars
384 medical records technicians
8% of medical records technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
12% of medical records technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
20% of medical records technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
27% of medical records technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
33% of medical records technicians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as medical records technicians?
Medical records technicians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of medical records technicians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked medical records technicians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
417 medical records technicians
26% of medical records technicians rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of medical records technicians rated their career fit 4 stars
21% of medical records technicians rated their career fit 3 stars
10% of medical records technicians rated their career fit 2 stars
8% of medical records technicians rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a medical records technician’s work environment?
As a whole, medical records technicians rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. A solid majority of medical records technicians enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a medical records technician.
We asked medical records technicians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
415 medical records technicians
20% of medical records technicians rated their work environment 5 stars
31% of medical records technicians rated their work environment 4 stars
25% of medical records technicians rated their work environment 3 stars
14% of medical records technicians rated their work environment 2 stars
9% of medical records technicians rated their work environment 1 stars
Are medical records technicians making the best use of their abilities?
Former medical records technicians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.5/5. Most feel that their skills are being underutilized in the career, probably leading to more general dissatisfaction with being a medical records technician.
We asked medical records technicians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.5 out of 5 stars
416 medical records technicians
10% of medical records technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
12% of medical records technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
21% of medical records technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
29% of medical records technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
29% of medical records technicians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars