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Career development counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Hassan Akmal,

Michael Van Lear

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical career development counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for career development counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 21.0% of career development counselor resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a career development counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 career development counselor skills for your resume and career

2. Rehabilitation

Here's how career development counselors use rehabilitation:

Negotiated salaries with employers for individuals being served by Vocational Rehabilitation.
Ensured proper documentation standards to maintain Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) accreditation.

3. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how career development counselors use community resources:

Integrate Youth into the community by helping them use community resources and recreational activities.
Maintained contact with student s family; utilizing community resources as needed.

4. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how career development counselors use mental health:

Completed student intakes and submitted referrals to the Mental Health Consultant for evaluation when necessary.
Provided one on one solution focused counseling to clients for crisis intervention, mental health issues, and life skills training.

5. Career Development

Career development is a term referring to the process and idea of furthering one's career or otherwise altering its path by a number of processes and methods. A career development plan can be unique to the individual and might simply be to continue working the job one does in a singular company and moving up, in terms of positions and salary. Or it might be an entirely different plan, such as moving on from the position, the company, and perhaps even the industry as a whole, and doing other work somewhere else.

Here's how career development counselors use career development:

Developed course curriculum and facilitated career development workshops, seminars and forums, located continuing education courses.
Provided career development, occupational, labor market, non-traditional career, and post secondary information.

6. Career Planning

Here's how career development counselors use career planning:

Administered and interpreted skills and career related assessments to coach students with career planning and college entrance process.
Researched, compiled and edited a 40 page career planning manual that established guidelines for job development program.

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7. Crisis Intervention

Here's how career development counselors use crisis intervention:

Coordinated case management, crisis intervention, behavior modification, and reported to corporate and regional offices statistical outcome measurements.
Managed a clinical caseload plus crisis intervention.

8. Career Services

Career services may refer to a center dedicated to helping individuals (often college students) prepare for the job market. This may include assisting with a resume, suggesting potential companies to interview with, or conducting surveys to find out an ideal career for the individual.

Here's how career development counselors use career services:

Develop career services and career counseling approaches for changing student populations including minority students, non-traditional students, and returning students.
Assisted in planning, policy and procedural development, technical/web utilization and products of career services.

9. Community Outreach

Here's how career development counselors use community outreach:

Partner with other agencies and community outreach.
Collaborated with partner agencies for community outreach and awareness for students.

10. Career Fairs

Here's how career development counselors use career fairs:

Coordinated career fairs and tours for incoming graduating students.
Developed relationships with corporate recruiters to facilitate recruiting process and attend career fairs.

11. Vocational Training

Here's how career development counselors use vocational training:

Assist in viable placement according to the students' vocational training.
Referred customers to different agencies and resources in the community and addressing individual vocational training expectations.

12. Career Exploration

Career Exploration refers to the process of learning about and investigating various jobs and long-term careers. This exploration is typically seen in younger individuals about to enter the job market or in people attempting to change their career paths. Career exploration may include taking personality tests to see what job may be best suited to one person, or even simply discussing various opportunities with a career specialist or guidance counselors.

Here's how career development counselors use career exploration:

Research job industry for salary, and required skills Educate students on decision-making, research and career exploration.
Middle School Career Academy/Career Guidance Career Academy Promotional Coordinator Graphic Design - Video Tutorials Ninth Grade Career Exploration Coordinator Junior Achievement Coordinator

13. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how career development counselors use community agencies:

Develop individual employment plans for each customer to include referrals to appropriate community agencies for remediation of identified barriers to employment.
Developed, maintained and expanded community partnerships with local businesses, school districts, community colleges, community agencies and organizations.

14. Leadership Development

Leadership Development is a term for the process of improving the leadership, management, organizational, and similarly relevant skills of somebody working in a managerial or other leadership skill.

Here's how career development counselors use leadership development:

Selected to participate and completed Ford's New Business Leadership development program.
Developed and delivered 3 day leadership development training program.

15. Student Retention

Here's how career development counselors use student retention:

Planned and implemented student retention strategies and if needed, intervention strategies to ensure retention.
Implemented new program in 2013 for freshman to improve student retention.

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What skills help Career Development Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on career development counselor resumes?

Hassan Akmal

Executive Director of the UCLA Career Center, University of California, Los Angeles

Transferable skills. Soft and hard. The soft skills are now referred to as "success skills" and include skills such as creativity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking and problem solving, analytics skills, and people management.
Active learning, agility, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility are additional skills in demand that graduates need to consider.

What career development counselor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Michael Van Lear

Director, Hawaii Pacific University

If taking a gap year, joining a professional organization related to area studies would be advised. Joining such organizations provides further insight into this field and offers graduates professional networking opportunities. Being an active member is key to making the most of this experience. Attend virtual workshops, professional development, etc.

What type of skills will young career development counselors need?

Melissa Duncan

Assistant Dean for Career and Student Development, Elon University School of Law

Graduates need to be adaptable, to work in multi-generational settings, and familiar with the law and technology and business, and how those enhance law practice in today's world. Graduates should also be familiar with interviewing and counseling and should understand their role in society as lawyer-leaders who can provide both counseling and advocate for those who may not be able to do so for themselves.

What soft skills should all career development counselors possess?

Loren Collins

Faculty support Coordinator for Service Learning and Career Education, Humboldt State University

According to NACE - the National Association of Colleges and Employers - the top ten skills employers want from college grads are: 1) Communication 2) Teamwork 3) Make Decisions and Solve Problems 4) Organize and Prioritize 5) Obtain and Process Information 6) Analyze Quantitative Data 7) Technical Skills related to the Position 8) Ability to Work with Computers 9) Creating Written Reports 10) Sell and Influence Others.
We share these and talk a lot with students about them. Including history students and helping them see where they've gotten these skills, like myself, through the major. Only one of the above is specific to any given job! The softer skills include showing up on time, interpersonal communication, and staying committed to a position for a reasonable amount of time!

What hard/technical skills are most important for career development counselors?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

It is important that counselors are able to effectively take notes and summarize progress, interpret assessments, memorize and recall information, and keep clear yet concise records.

Do you want to know more?

List of career development counselor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a career development counselor resume and required skills for a career development counselor to have include:

Social Work
Rehabilitation
Community Resources
Mental Health
Career Development
Career Planning
Crisis Intervention
Career Services
Community Outreach
Career Fairs
Vocational Training
Career Exploration

Community Agencies
Leadership Development
Student Retention
Substance Abuse
Support Services
Personal Career
ESP
Group Sessions
Professional Development
GED
Retention Efforts
PowerPoint

Business Development
Anger Management
Career Preparation
Crisis Management
Social Development
Law Enforcement
Independent Living
TANF
Behavioral Problems
Leadership

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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