How To Become A Work Counselor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a work counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Juleen Buser Ph.D.

These experts are professional consultants who look at the education level, work history, skills, and interests of an individual to suggest potential work paths. They match people with jobs that will give them both financial payoff and job satisfaction. Aside from that, they work with people who have lost their jobs, are between jobs, are unhappy with their work, or experiencing other types of job stress. Furthermore, they review clients' records, interview them, and conduct aptitude and achievement tests to gather relevant information.

For this role, you must have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in a related field as well as professional experience. You may be required to have a state license. Also, you must possess communication, attention to detail, interpersonal, and listening skills. This personnel can find employment in the education industry, vocational rehabilitation services, government institutions, and so on. Annually, you'll earn an average salary of $43,271. This falls between $28,000 and $66,000.

What general advice would you give to a work counselor?

Juleen Buser Ph.D.

Professor and Director, School Counseling and Coaching Programs, Rider University

Counseling Services (school counseling concentration) and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (we have a CMHC concentration and a Dance Movement Therapy concentration in this program). The general advice I would give to graduates starting positions in the counseling field would be to understand the critical importance of the work of helping professionals. Counselors optimally provide a safe space for clients to discuss their fears, worries, anxieties, joys, traumas, insecurities, accomplishments, etc. This ability to be an empathic, listening, accepting presence will be even more crucial for clients in our current situation.

ScoreWork CounselorUS Average

Salary

4.3

Avg. Salary $55,384

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.4

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.66%

Asian 2.90%

Black or African American 13.69%

Hispanic or Latino 10.79%

Unknown 4.56%

White 66.39%

Gender

female 63.02%

male 36.98%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

7.4

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a work counselor

Explore work counselor education requirements

Most common work counselor degrees

Bachelor's

55.9 %

Master's

26.2 %

Associate

9.9 %

Start to develop specific work counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	38.02%
Discharge Planning	10.12%
Substance Abuse	5.34%
Community Resources	5.29%
Mental Health	3.98%

Complete relevant work counselor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New work counselors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a work counselor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real work counselor resumes.

Research work counselor duties and responsibilities

Manage litigation involving the agency, and drafts bills and amendments for legislative consideration.
Complete FARS, PERFS, and ASAMS as required.
Train in OMRDD requirements such as S.K.I.P, compass one, first aid, and CPR
Work as an in-home counselor for high intensity children's cases.

Prepare your work counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your work counselor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a work counselor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable work counselor resume templates

Build a professional work counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your work counselor resume.

Apply for work counselor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a work counselor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do work counselors rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Work counselor reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Cons

The over documentation required by DHS that robs the quality time needed in intervention and treatment. This lopsided demand makes the term “best practices” mere bureaucratic lip service without the means to actually deliver quality hands on services.

Pros

Change agent when people are stuck and need support in the process of restoration. One on one and group processing is powerful.