Community and social service
Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors
Advise and assist students and provide educational and vocational guidance services.
Median pay
$64,330
Growth to 2035
+3%
about as fast as average
Openings a year
27,800
Time to qualify*
2 years
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- Master's degree
- On-the-job training
- None
- Prior experience
- None
Calculate your switch to educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Exposure to disease
Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors: 40% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Counsel students regarding educational issues, such as course and program selection, class scheduling and registration, school adjustment, truancy, study habits, and career planning.
- Provide crisis intervention to students when difficult situations occur at schools.
- Counsel individuals or groups to help them understand and overcome personal, social, or behavioral problems affecting their educational or vocational situations.
- Review transcripts to ensure that students meet graduation or college entrance requirements, and write letters of recommendation.
- Prepare students for later educational experiences by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
- Refer students to outside counseling services.
- Refer students to degree programs based on interests, aptitudes, or educational assessments.
Also called: Academic Advisor · Academic Counselor · Admissions Counselor · Career Counselor · College Counselor · Elementary School Counselor · Guidance Counselor · School Counselor
Outlook and AI
Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors held 389,500 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 400,900 by 2035 (+3%, about as fast as average; all jobs: +3.5%).
Compare with
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Rehabilitation counselor
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. School psychologist
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Instructional coordinator
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Education teachers, postsecondary
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Social worker
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Social and human service assistants
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Career/technical education teachers, middle school
- Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors vs. Health education specialist