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Resume guide · Job Zone 5

Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisorsresume guide.

Advise and assist students and provide educational and vocational guidance services. A strong Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors resume shows active listening, social perceptiveness and speaking, and names the tools you have worked with, such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Project and Microsoft Outlook.

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Sample resume

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A Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors resume built in ResumeXRays, annotated against the data below. Flip the pages, try a template, then make it yours.

  1. 1Give your caseload size.School counselors nationally carry far more students than the recommended 250 each. A real caseload number, and what you still got done with it, tells a principal you can handle the job as it is.
  2. 2Turn record checks into a result."Review transcripts to ensure that students meet graduation or college entrance requirements" is a core task in this guide. Showing how the on-track rate moved proves the reviews changed something.
  3. 3Show your career readiness work.Schools are putting more weight on career readiness, and the guide asks counselors to share information on trade schools and apprenticeship programs. Employer partners and a participation rate make that work concrete.
  4. 4Show the time you won back for students.Advising offices are using more software to handle routine paperwork. Microsoft SharePoint is a hot tool in this guide, so name it and say what the saved hours went to.
  5. 5Name the student systems you know.Student information systems SIS software is in demand in this guide, and Naviance Succeed and Oracle PeopleSoft appear on its software list. Use the names the way postings write them.
  6. 6Give your license its full name.Public schools require a state counseling license. Write the full license name, the issuing board, the state and that it is active, so a district can check it in one step.
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Sample resume. The candidate is fictional; the layout and templates are real.

Casimir Novak

School Counselor, College and Career Readiness

[email protected] / (541) 555-0151 / Eugene, OR

Summary

Licensed school counselor with nine years advising students, six at the high school level and four before that as a community college academic advisor. Carry a full caseload while running graduation audits, career pathways and crisis response. Known for getting seniors on track, connecting students with local employers and freeing up counselor time for the students who need it most.

Experience

School Counselor
Gorsefield High School, Upper Talwick School District / Eugene, OR
Aug 2020 - Present
Counsel a caseload of 395 students in grades 9 to 12, meeting each student at least twice a year on course selection and four-year plans; every student on the caseload has a current plan on file.
Review every senior transcript each semester against graduation and college entrance requirements; the share of seniors on track to graduate rose from 84% to 92% in three years. Write about 60 letters of recommendation a year.
Launched a career pathways program using Naviance Succeed interest surveys and job shadows with 28 local employers and two apprenticeship programs; juniors completing a work-based learning experience rose from 12% to 41%.
Ran monthly financial aid nights with the college access team; FAFSA completion for seniors rose from 48% to 67% in two years.
Provide crisis intervention and about 70 suicide risk assessments a year under district protocol, and refer students to outside counseling; 90% of referred students attended a first appointment within two weeks.
Moved schedule-change requests to a Microsoft SharePoint form linked to student information system reports, cutting turnaround from five school days to one and giving back about three hours a week for student meetings.
Academic Advisor
Sedgeworth Community College / Springfield, OR
Sep 2016 - Jun 2020
Advised about 300 students a term on degree plans, transfer requirements and class registration in Oracle PeopleSoft.
Ran early-alert outreach to students with failing midterm grades; fall-to-spring retention for my advisees was 78% against 71% college-wide.
Taught a transfer planning workshop each term for 20 to 30 students; 85% of attendees left with a written transfer plan.

Skills

Systems:Student information systems SIS software, Naviance Succeed, Oracle PeopleSoft, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Google Meet
Counseling:Academic and career counseling, crisis intervention, suicide risk assessment, small-group counseling, referral to outside services, family conferences
College and career:Graduation audits and transcript review, four-year planning, work-based learning, apprenticeship and trade school guidance, FAFSA and financial aid, letters of recommendation

Licenses & Certifications

School Counselor License, Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC), active
National Certified Counselor (NCC), National Board for Certified Counselors, active
QPR Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention, QPR Institute

Education

Master of Education (M.Ed.), School Counseling
Ouzel Falls University
2016

01Also called

O*NET
Academic AdvisorAcademic CounselorAdmissions CounselorCareer CounselorCollege CounselorElementary School CounselorGuidance CounselorSchool CounselorStudent Services CoordinatorVocational Counselor

02Skills employers expect

O*NET

Importance is how much the skill matters to the job; level is how much of it the job demands. Both are worth naming on the resume, in this order.

SkillImportanceLevel
Active ListeningVery highAdvanced
Social PerceptivenessVery highAdvanced
SpeakingVery highAdvanced
Service OrientationVery highAdvanced
Critical ThinkingHighAdvanced
Reading ComprehensionHighAdvanced
WritingHighAdvanced
Active LearningHighAdvanced
Complex Problem SolvingHighIntermediate
Learning StrategiesHighIntermediate

03Knowledge areas

O*NET
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • English Language
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Education and Training
  • Psychology
  • Administrative
  • Administration and Management
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Public Safety and Security

04Common responsibilities

O*NET

Ordered by importance. Each one is a bullet waiting for a result and a number.

  1. Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
  2. Counsel students regarding educational issues, such as course and program selection, class scheduling and registration, school adjustment, truancy, study habits, and career planning.
  3. Provide crisis intervention to students when difficult situations occur at schools.
  4. Counsel individuals or groups to help them understand and overcome personal, social, or behavioral problems affecting their educational or vocational situations.
  5. Review transcripts to ensure that students meet graduation or college entrance requirements, and write letters of recommendation.
  6. Prepare students for later educational experiences by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
  7. Refer students to outside counseling services.
  8. Refer students to degree programs based on interests, aptitudes, or educational assessments.
  9. Evaluate students' or individuals' abilities, interests, and personality characteristics, using tests, records, interviews, or professional sources.
  10. Provide students with information on topics such as college degree programs and admission requirements, financial aid opportunities, trade and technical schools, and apprenticeship programs.

05Software and tools

O*NET

76 tools across 30 categories. The six largest categories are below; Hot marks a hot technology, In demand a tool employers ask for most often.

Data base user interface and query software21
  • Microsoft AccessHotIn demand
  • Student information systems SIS softwareIn demand
  • Database software
  • FileMaker Pro
  • Blackboard software
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC WONDER
  • O*NET OnLine
  • Social Solutions ETO
  • Career management systems CMS
  • Database application software
  • ACT Discover
  • Career Cruising
  • Career decision-making programs
  • Career Zone
  • Coin Educational Products Climb K-5 Online
  • Coin Educational Products Coin Jr.
  • College Central Network Career Services Central
  • Computer-assisted career guidance software
  • Kuder Navigator
  • Naviance Succeed
  • Zoomerang
+ 16 more
Analytical or scientific software7
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epi Info
  • ACT WorkKeys
  • Career Dimensions Focus 2
  • Computerized diagnostic programs
  • Computerized statistical packages
  • Computerized testing programs
  • Counseling software
+ 2 more
Computer based training software4
  • Moodle
  • Schoology
  • Padlet
  • Common Curriculum
Project management software4
  • Microsoft ProjectHotIn demand
  • Productivity softwareIn demand
  • Google Classroom
  • Palm Pal Transana
Web page creation and editing software4
  • FacebookHot
  • LinkedIn
  • Web page design and editing software
  • Orbius
Electronic mail software3
Presentation software3
Enterprise resource planning ERP software2
Graphics or photo imaging software2
Internet browser software2
Medical software2
  • Healthcare common procedure coding system HCPCS
  • Athena Software Penelope Case Management
Spreadsheet software2
Video conferencing software2
  • Google MeetIn demand
  • LogMeIn GoToMeeting
Word processing software2
Cloud-based data access and sharing software1
  • Google Drive
Customer relationship management CRM software1
  • Blackbaud The Raiser's EdgeIn demand
Desktop communications software1
  • Bloomz
Desktop publishing software1
Development environment software1
  • Adobe ActionScript
Document management software1
Human resources software1
  • Oracle Taleo
Information retrieval or search software1
  • LexisNexis
Instant messaging software1
  • GroupMe
Mobile messaging service software1
  • Intrado SchoolMessenger
Network conferencing software1
  • Chat software
Network monitoring software1
  • Computer-assisted live supervision
Object or component oriented development software1
  • Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services SSRSHot
Office suite software1
Video creation and editing software1
  • Screencastify
Web platform development software1
  • Ext JS

06Education and preparation

O*NET
Typical education
Bachelor's Degree
56% of surveyed workers. Others report Master's Degree (41%) and Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree (3%).
Preparation level
Job Zone 5 · Extensive preparation
Usually a graduate degree and extensive related experience.

07Putting it on your resume

ResumeXRays guidance
BEE · How to show it

Lead with what you built. For a Job Zone 5 role, hiring managers and parsers both look for outcomes before credentials. Put two or three results at the top of each job entry, with the scale or effect stated plainly.

Name the tools exactly. This occupation is heavy on named software. A skills section that says "Microsoft Access, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint" matches more job descriptions than a general phrase. Use the spelling employers use.

Show social perceptiveness and speaking, not just active listening. Social perceptiveness and speaking rank close to active listening for this occupation. One bullet per role that shows a decision, a tradeoff or a result covers them.

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