Somewhere between the laptop, the controller and the aux-cord dictator at every house party, America has made up its mind.According to a new study from financial services firm Remitly, DJ is the most-searched dream job in the United States.
Ad 0:00 Click for sound 0:00 / 0:00 The report analyzed Google queries with “how to be a…” and “how to become a…” across 145 countries between May 2025 and 2026, isolating the language of people still in the daydreaming stage.DJ topped the list in the U.S.
and reigned across a cluster of countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.Globally, DJ landed at No.
10 by netting over 97,000 searches, a 14-spot jump from 2024 and the profession’s clearest sign yet of mainstream pull.For context, that puts aspiring DJs ahead of aspiring doctors (No.
16) and nurses (No.17).
DJing also outpaced the study’s newcomer category.In the year AI was supposed to eat creative work, “prompt engineer” pulled just over 5,500 searches worldwide.
The catch, to the extent there is one, is that the dream and the job have drifted apart.A 2025 survey of 15,000 artists conducted by the Pete Tong DJ Academy found 61% of emerging DJs believe social media numbers now matter more than musical skill, while 62% called the industry a “closed club.” So yes, the whole country wants your Boiler Room slot, but whether the algorithm will let them have it is another question entirely.
You can read the report from Remitly here....