Getting hired as a school counselor can be difficult in today's job market. However, difficult does not mean impossible! There are a lot of really good suggestions for school counselors who are looking for a job on some of the school counseling blogs in the blog o'sphere.
A job with a low stress level, good work-life balance and solid prospects to improve, get promoted and earn a higher salary would make many employees happy. Here's how School Counselors job satisfaction is rated in terms of upward mobility, stress level and flexibility.
Vacation TimeSchool counselors usually work for nine months out of the year and have the summers off, which can be particularly beneficial for working parents who must arrange for child care during the school year.
As a part of their work, school counselors often incur high levels of stress that may result from multiple job responsibilities, role ambiguity, high caseloads, limited resources for coping and limited clinical supervision (DeMato & Curcio, 2004; Lambie, 2007; McCarthy, Kerne, Calfa, Lambert, & Guzmán, 2010).
School counselors may experience chronic fatigue, depersonalization, or feelings of hopelessness and leave their jobs because of the rigidity of school systems and limited support (Young & Lambie, 2007).
Career Options for Individuals with a Master's Degree in School Counseling
- School and Career Counselor.
- School Psychologist.
- Postsecondary Teacher.
- Marriage and Family Therapist.
- Substance Abuse Counselor.
The states and districts that pay School Counselors the highest mean salary are California ($78,250), New Jersey ($73,160), Maryland ($70,380), New York ($68,890), and District of Columbia ($68,810).
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual salary of $56,310 per year in 2018 for school and career counselors. Employment in this field is expected to grow 23 percent through 2026, which is much faster than average compared to all occupations.
In Alberta, the 4033: Educational counsellors occupational group is expected to have a below-average annual growth of 1.4% from 2019 to 2023.
University of Calgary.
| Average Wage | $35.62 / hr |
|---|
| Average Salary | $62,470.00 / yr |
| Hours Per Week | 35.4 hrs |
How much does a Therapist make? While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $52.40 and as low as $12.74, the majority of Therapist wages currently range between $20.91 (25th percentile) to $31.01 (75th percentile) across the United States.
Money for mental health services is short and counselors -- who works at places like veteran's administration hospitals and outpatient care centers -- are often underpaid. That's despite years of education and training: about two-thirds of mental health counselors have master's degrees or higher.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the median annual tuition cost for a Master's in counseling is about $12,170 for public tuition and fees for the 2019-2020 academic year for in-state graduate students.
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- Write a Book.
- Contribute to a Publication or Blog.
- Consider Public Speaking.
- Teach a Class In Person.
- Teach a Class Online.
- Create a Website and Blog.
- Offer Group Therapy Sessions.
- Become a Consultant.
If you enjoy working with people and helping them achieve their full potential, then becoming a psychologist can be extremely rewarding. While you will often face challenges, seeing your clients make real progress and work towards their goals can give you a feeling of accomplishment.
Best-paying master's degrees
- Nurse anesthesia. Median pay: $165,000 per year.
- Telecommunications engineering. Median pay: $141,000 per year.
- Finance and economics. Median pay: $134,000 per year.
- Electrical engineering.
- Computer engineering.
- Biomedical engineering.
- Mathematics and statistics.
- Technology management.
The ASCA recommends that schools maintain a ratio of 250 students per school counselor, and that school counselors spend at least 80 percent of their time working directly with or indirectly for students.
Teachers get much more face time with students and get to see more students on a regular basis. Your school counseling master's program will help you understand all of the ways you will be contributing to your district, where you will be able to have a more broad impact than you may have as a teacher.
However, a school counselor's responsibilities focus primarily on the academic side of the school experience. A guidance counselor can help with academics, but their work also deals with the personal and social aspects of middle and high school life. Guidance counselors don't always have to work in a school.
The most rewarding and valuable thing about being a school counselor is that you help to change lives. It's amazing to help students and families get excited about the future and all of the great possibilities that life has to offer.
In fact, most states require that school counselors possess a Master's Degree in School Counseling or a related field. Depending on the state, you may even be required to complete one to two years of teaching in a classroom or hold a teaching credential prior to being certified in school counseling.
Degrees matter because counselors typically earn more than teachers in elementary and secondary schools. However, in institutions of higher learning, teachers earn more.
School counselors focus more on improving mental health and behavioral symptoms through individual and group counseling and education. Typically, they serve the entire school population. School psychologists focus on understanding behavioral symptoms and academic issues via testing, researching, and assessing.
The work of school counselors has some similarities as well as differences related to the work of teachers. As a teacher, you teach classes, create lesson plans, grade homework, assign presentations and serve as a mentor for your students.
