Contrary to what your high school experiences may have you believe, guidance counselors aren't there for when you get in trouble. Their job is to offer helpful advice to students who are having a tough time. Counselors are also responsible for helping parents help their kids.
They help kids navigate the confusing phase of adolescence and the impending changes from finishing school. These professionals aren't just there for emotional and mental support, however. Guidance counselors also help students with academic, career, social, and even personal issues.
Guidance counseling is a challenging and rewarding career path, and it begins with a major in any field related to human services and psychology. A background in statistics may also help interpret standardized test results and guide students on a suitable career path. Most states also require a master's degree in counseling and sufficient work experience.
How to Become a Guidance Counselor
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a guidance counselor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $22.08 an hour? That's $45,936 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 27,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Guidance Counselor Do
There are certain skills that many guidance counselors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, interpersonal skills and listening skills.
How To Become a Guidance Counselor
If you're interested in becoming a guidance counselor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 51.2% of guidance counselors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 37.8% of guidance counselors have master's degrees. Even though most guidance counselors have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a guidance counselor. When we researched the most common majors for a guidance counselor, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on guidance counselor resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a guidance counselor. In fact, many guidance counselor jobs require experience in a role such as teacher. Meanwhile, many guidance counselors also have previous career experience in roles such as counselor or internship.
Guidance Counselor Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a guidance counselor can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as assistant principal, progress to a title such as principal and then eventually end up with the title center director.
Average Salary for a Guidance Counselor
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Guidance Counselors
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
5. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
6. New York University
New York, NY • Private
7. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
10. University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD • Private
Top Skills For a Guidance Counselor
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 7.9% of guidance counselors listed crisis intervention on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Guidance Counselor Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Guidance Counselor templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Guidance Counselor resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Guidance Counselor Demographics
Guidance Counselor Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among guidance counselors, 68.7% of them are women, while 31.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among guidance counselors is White, which makes up 69.8% of all guidance counselors.
- The most common foreign language among guidance counselors is Spanish at 61.8%.
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Best States For a Guidance Counselor
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a guidance counselor. The best states for people in this position are California, Alaska, North Dakota, and Connecticut. Guidance counselors make the most in California with an average salary of $57,994. Whereas in Alaska and North Dakota, they would average $54,571 and $52,617, respectively. While guidance counselors would only make an average of $51,216 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$57,994
Avg. Salary
2. Alaska
$54,571
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$51,216
Avg. Salary
How Do Guidance Counselor Rate Their Jobs?
Top Guidance Counselor Employers
Most Common Employers For Guidance Counselor
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baltimore City Public Schools | $50,733 | $24.39 | 9 |
| 2 | Chicago Public Schools | $50,626 | $24.34 | 12 |
| 3 | Los Angeles Unified School District | $50,415 | $24.24 | 9 |
| 4 | The School District of Philadelphia | $50,204 | $24.14 | 11 |
| 5 | Detroit Public Schools Community District | $50,105 | $24.09 | 9 |
| 6 | Duval County Public Schools | $49,189 | $23.65 | 9 |
| 7 | Boston Public Schools | $48,245 | $23.19 | 9 |
| 8 | Clark County School District | $45,936 | $22.08 | 19 |
| 9 | Broward County Public Schools | $45,936 | $22.08 | 19 |
| 10 | Ramsey County | $45,936 | $22.08 | 11 |
Guidance Counselor Videos
