You have a big impact on student success. Whether you’re helping students enroll in the right classes, set goals, or prepare for college, you know schools will benefit from having you as a counselor.
So, have you chosen a resume template to help achieve your career goals?
While helping students succeed academically is a breeze, looking for the best free resume builder for today’s job market can seem more challenging. We’ve researched for you, created our school counselor resume examples, and researched cover letter writing tips that’ll get you back to what you do best faster.
Why this resume works
- The main expectation from you is to help children explore their talents and improve their overall well-being. If you’ve already accomplished this then you’re as good as hired.
- Enrich your school counselor resume with keywords such as improved well-being and increased focus to instill some confidence in your to-be employer. Such phrases indirectly shout “I’ve got just the type of experience you’re looking for!”
Related resume examples
What Matters Most: Your School Counselor Skills & Work Experience
School counselors may take on various roles, from supporting struggling students to resource coordination. So, narrowing down the right job skills for your resume can feel challenging.
A great place to start is the job description. Each school will have some primary skills they’re seeking that you should emphasize on your resume. For example, one school may want you to help with test prep and administration, and another may have you leading enrollment and orientation efforts.
Here are some top industry skills for school counselors to get you started.
9 top school counselor skills
- Academic Planning
- Student Relations
- Resource Coordination
- PowerSchool
- Google Classroom
- Confidentiality
- Enrollment
- Behavioral Health
- Test Preparation
Sample school counselor work experience bullet points
Before a school hires you as their counselor, they’ll want to ensure you’ll get the best results for your students.
You can showcase your success in your work experience bullet points by including actionable achievements, such as how you revamped the orientation program to help new students integrate with daily activities 55% faster.
Additionally, remember schools operate quickly, so keeping these examples short will help hiring managers identify the top academic planning skills they’re seeking in applicants.
Here are a few samples:
- Provided academic counseling services to 201 students with a GPA below 2.0, resulting in a 25% boost in grades the following semester.
- Ran a seminar that helped teachers identify bullying and stress in the classroom, increasing overall student well-being by 46%.
- Implemented PowerSchool to help parents stay current on students’ grades, leading to 59% earlier intervention for struggling students.
- Led MBTI assessments and discussed the results individually with students to help them understand potential career interests, improving goal setting by 78%.
Top 5 Tips for Your School Counselor Resume
- Use a mix of interpersonal and technical skills
- School counselors take on a significant role, working directly with students and behind the scenes to achieve great results. So, include a mix of job skills on your resume, such as student relations and resource allocation.
- Add measurable impacts
- While school counseling can feel more qualitative, there are still numbers you can put to what you achieved to better illustrate it to hiring managers. For example, you could write about how you boosted GPAs or attendance rates.
- Include action verbs for more impact
- Action verbs like “assisted” or “presented” will make your examples sound more engaging. For instance, you could write about how you “assisted 256 students who were applying for college to make the enrollment process 35% more efficient.”
- Use reverse chronological formatting
- As you’ve grown in your career, your test preparation and academic planning skills will have improved quite a bit. So, listing your most recent experiences first will help showcase your most relevant abilities to school hiring managers.
- Proofread thoroughly
- School counselors need to be accurate since compliance and deadlines are vital to get the best results for students. Submitting an accurate and grammatically correct resume will ensure your professional skill set stands out immediately.
It’s best to stick to a one-page resume. Hiring managers skim over resumes since they receive many applicants, so a concise overview of your abilities in PowerSchool and behavioral health will help them quickly identify that you’re a great candidate for the role.
School counselors should limit resumes to three or four jobs. List your most recent jobs and those that use a relevant skill set to the school’s needs, such as your abilities in behavioral and mental health treatment for a position focused on special education students.
A resume summary will work well for school counselors with ten or more years of experience. It’ll help you present some relevant abilities immediately, such as how you’ve worked individually with over 500 at-risk students in your career, leading to an average of 57% better academic performance and goal setting.
