What does a career advisor do?
A career advisor inspects the clients' career uncertainties, concerns, and aspirations and guides them through the adjacent test completion, personality, and aptitude test completion. They review the clients' educational undertaking and personal undertakings and how their manifestation can affect their job choices. Besides proposing career options congruent with the clients' substantiated insights, career advisors also inform clients about their potential skill set shortcomings and devise strategies to correct these shortcomings. Moreover, career advisors advise clients on the right way to compile and present their resumes.
Career advisor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real career advisor resumes:
- Develop and facilitate outplacement programs across healthcare, scientific research and higher education sectors.
- Contract to provide MBTI workshops for corporations.
- Identify personal abilities, individual strengths and transferable skills for government, private and non-profit sectors.
- Perform system conversion from Quickbooks to Yardi accounting and property management software.
Career advisor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 12% of Career Advisors are proficient in Customer Service, Career Development, and Professional Development. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Listening skills, and Speaking skills.
We break down the percentage of Career Advisors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 12%
Networked and developed professional relationships to generate personally-developed inquiries * Provided excellent customer service to students through application and enrollment process
- Career Development, 9%
Designed, authored, and edited training materials, including certifications, management development and other career development programs and workshops.
- Professional Development, 7%
Mentor civilian and military personnel in developing short and long term plans for personal and professional development/goal attainment.
- Social Work, 6%
Increase social work knowledge by reviewing current literature, and attending seminars and training workshops.
- Career Services, 6%
Developed career services and career counseling approaches for changing student populations including minority students, non-traditional students, and returning students.
- Career Planning, 4%
Developed and implemented career planning curriculum that is in line with national objectives.
Most career advisors use their skills in "customer service," "career development," and "professional development" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential career advisor responsibilities here:
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a career advisor to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "school and career counselors and advisors must be able to work with people of all backgrounds and personalities." Additionally, a career advisor resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "facilitated workshops ranging from career guidance to interpersonal skills for corporate offices as well as school student bodies. "
Listening skills. Many career advisor duties rely on listening skills. "school and career counselors and advisors need to give full attention to students and clients in order to understand their problems.," so a career advisor will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways career advisor responsibilities rely on listening skills: "communicated with project crews, public works departments, hr offices, and grant administrators. "
Speaking skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of career advisors is speaking skills. This skill is critical to many everyday career advisor duties, as "school and career counselors and advisors must communicate effectively with clients and students." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "developed, organized, and presented original career planning workshops. "
Analytical skills. career advisor responsibilities often require "analytical skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "school and career counselors and advisors interpret student records, schoolwide data, and assessments to match interests and abilities with potential careers. ." This resume example shows what career advisors do with analytical skills on a typical day: "provided intensive individual-based career planning and coaching and tracked, recorded, and reported all client activity into hra databases daily. "
The three companies that hire the most career advisors are:
- Colgate University
79 career advisors jobs
- Res-Care Premier22 career advisors jobs
- Telamon13 career advisors jobs
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Career advisor vs. Academic coordinator
An academic coordinator is primarily in charge of spearheading and overseeing the development of curriculums in public and private learning institutions. They may also participate in the creation of effective teaching materials and programs in adherence to the educational standards. Moreover, an academic coordinator manages the teaching staff, monitoring their progress, and making recommendations for improvements. Above all, an academic coordinator enforces the institution's policies and regulations to ensure a safe and efficient learning environment for the students.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, career advisor responsibilities require skills like "customer service," "social work," "career services," and "supportive services." Meanwhile a typical academic coordinator has skills in areas such as "academic support," "curriculum development," "academic programs," and "student athletes." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Academic coordinators tend to make the most money working in the education industry, where they earn an average salary of $51,585. In contrast, career advisors make the biggest average salary, $43,122, in the government industry.On average, academic coordinators reach higher levels of education than career advisors. Academic coordinators are 7.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 2.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Career advisor vs. Student coordinator
A student coordinator is responsible for supporting the school administration in running daily operations and disseminating necessary information across the institution. Student coordinators serve as a liaison between the student body and the school management to address inquiries and concerns and process requests. They perform administrative and clerical duties, help the faculty in designing programs and educational activities, and conduct students' counseling to identify their difficulties and struggles with the courses. A student coordinator must be highly communicative and organizational, especially in sorting student documents and maintaining the data system.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real career advisor resumes. While career advisor responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "career development," "social work," and "career services," student coordinators use skills like "coordinators," "student services," "alumni," and "student life."
Student coordinators may earn a higher salary than career advisors, but student coordinators earn the most pay in the education industry with an average salary of $39,669. On the other hand, career advisors receive higher pay in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $43,122.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Student coordinators tend to reach similar levels of education than career advisors. In fact, they're 3.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 2.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for career advisors in the next 3-5 years?
Associate Dean of Professional and Career Development, Quinnipiac University
Career advisor vs. Student support counselor
A student support counselor is responsible for identifying the students' strengths and challenges through one-on-one counseling and establishing solutions to help them overcome difficulties and achieve their educational goals and aspirations. Student support counselors assist the faculty in determining appropriate programs and activities to develop the students' capabilities, especially as a way of preparing them with their career objectives. They also coordinate with the students' families for extended guidance and support for their growth and development.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, career advisors are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "career development," "social work," and "career services." But a student support counselor is more likely to have skills like "student support," "mental health," "crisis intervention," and "behavioral issues."
Student support counselors earn the highest salary when working in the education industry, where they receive an average salary of $44,149. Comparatively, career advisors have the highest earning potential in the government industry, with an average salary of $43,122.student support counselors typically earn similar educational levels compared to career advisors. Specifically, they're 2.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Career advisor vs. Enrollment counselor
An enrollment counselor is primarily in charge of recruiting potential students for a college or university. Serving as the students' primary point of contact, their responsibilities involve developing recruitment strategies, conducting student interviews and assessments, gathering and validating applications, arranging appointments and schedules, and facilitating campus tours. They must also answer inquiries, address concerns, and update students on the status of their applications. Furthermore, an enrollment counselor must represent their university or college at recruitment events and college fairs, utilizing the opportunity to promote the institution and reach out to potential students.
Types of career advisor
Updated January 8, 2025











