School Counselor Resume Examples
Years of Experience
- Entry-level
- Mid-career
- Senior-level
Rod Schmidt
(342) 267-3321
[email protected]
3241 Pacific Avenue, Spokane, WA 99208
Profile
School Counselor with strong recent experience guiding and supporting students’ personal and academic development. Certified in substance use disorder and experienced in counseling students facing addiction issues.
Professional Experience
Guidance Counselor, Canton Academy, Bellevue Washington
August 2017 to Present
- Provide counseling services including IEP meetings, academic and social guidance to an assigned cohort of students at a private middle school
- Meet with parents, staff, students and other professionals to create appropriate plans in the best interest of students
- Coordinate workshops to address topics such as bullying, sexual harassment, and drug and alcohol abuse
- Facilitate weekly meetings for students dealing with substance abuse issues in their family or peer group
- Administer and interpret testing to help identify appropriate career and academic path for each student
Tour Guide, See Seattle, Seattle, WA
October 2015 — March 2017
- Research and plan tours for visitors to Seattle, Washington
- Lead walking excursions of groups of up to 12 individuals at a time through Downtown Seattle
- Prepare and give presentations
- Offer sightseeing, shopping and restaurant advice
Education
Master of Arts in Education (M.A. Ed) in School Counseling
Seattle University, Seattle, WA, September 2015 to May 2017
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology
Reed College, Portland, OR, August 2011 to May 2015
Certification
- Substance Use Disorder Professional – 2017
- Professional ESA Certificate – 2017
Nicole Michaels
(452) 999-2209
[email protected]
Kansas City, MO 64030
Profile
Compassionate School Counselor with 7+ years of positive direction of students’ emotional and academic needs. Active advocate on behalf of students facing bullying. Initiated anti-bullying workshops for students and webinar for parents.
Professional Experience
Middle School Counselor, Overland Park Junior High, Overland Park, MO
August 2017 — Present
- Coordinate educational assessment strategies leading to appropriate placement of students
- Help execute Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and Student Study Teams (SST)
- Provide individual and group counseling to students struggling with bullying
- Coordinate services to meet the developmental and remedial needs of students with learning disabilities including Down syndrome, sensory integration disabilities, and spectrum disabilities
- Collaborate with school psychologists, teachers, and other personnel to meet student needs
- Actively communicate and work with parents
Anti-Bullying Specialist/Counselor, YMCA, Kansas City, MO
August 2014 — June 2017
- Implemented anti-bullying program focused on conflict resolution, character education, self-esteem, and peer mediation
- Communicated with local school administrators and counselors to update and involve them regarding activities
- Coached educators in best practices to protect at-risk students and intervene where appropriate
- Presented at local schools to educate students about the dangers of bullying and guide them through acquisition of the skills to become responsible advocates
Education
M.A., School Counseling Program
Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO, August 2012 to May 2014
B.A. Psychology
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO, September 2008 to May 2012
Key Skills
- Emphasizing family-community-school relationships to end bullying
- Counseling based on student needs
- Presentation
- Learning strategies
- Teaching self-management and autonomy skills
- Social skill coaching
- Career planning
- Encouraging students to achieve academic success and fulfilling their potential
- Identify systemic barriers deterring equitable access
Certifications
- Missouri Initial School Counseling Certification — 2019
- American School Counselor Association Certification (ASCA) — 2019
- Missouri Licensed Professional Counselor — 2014
D.J. Cantera
(217) 615-5982
[email protected]
334 El Paso Drive, Dallas, TX 75061
Profile
Experienced, licensed guidance professional with expertise in testing, education, career counseling, and family issues in both middle school and high school educational settings. Actively engaged with students in at-risk populations, including coordinating individualized and small group instruction and conflict resolution. Accomplished mentor and character coach. Bilingual: Fluent in English and Spanish.
Professional Experience
School Counselor, Plano High School, Plano, TX
September 2015 — Present
- Provide guidance in areas of academic performance, social skills, self-esteem, and attendance to students in grades 9-12 using person-centered, solution-focused technologies
- Counsel students dealing with friendship issues, bullying, classroom behavior issues, and issues in their home environment
- Coordinated biweekly “Boys-to-Men” group focused on conflict resolution, responsibility, anger management, and behavior
- Coordinate with other school staff to organize events including “Career Night,” “College Night,” and “‘You Can Win a Scholarship’ Night”
- Collaborate with college guidance counselor to assess potential colleges for individual students
- Facilitate, administer, and evaluate testing for students
- Coordinate and participate in team meetings regarding IEPs, truancy, student classroom performance, and crisis management
School Counselor, South Lake Middle School, Fort Worth, TX
August 2009 — June 2015
- Identified students’ social, emotional, and academic needs, and provided compassionate assistance, guidance, and interventions
- Supported students through the unique challenges presented by their developmental stage
- Created proactive programming to engage students in leadership and advocacy. Project involved collaboration with multiple stakeholders in the school community
- Assessed students’ talents and interests to help guide them in decisions regarding curriculum
- Counseled students challenged by stress of bullying, family transitions, or other issues impeding their success and wellbeing. Referred students to appropriate outside resources
Education
Master of Education (M.Ed.) in School Counseling
The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, September 2007 to May 2009
Bachelor of Arts in Special Education
Drexel University School of Education, Philadelphia, PA, August 2003 to May 2007
Key Skills
- Advocacy for students at Individual Education Plan meetings and other student-oriented meetings
- Data analysis to identify student issues, needs, and challenges
- Crisis counseling
- Application of academic achievement strategies
- Referrals for long-term support
- Collaboration with families/teachers/administrators/community to assure student success
- Multilingual (English, Spanish, Arabic)
Certifications
- Dyslexia Specialist Certificate – 2009
- Graduate Certificate in Bilingual Counseling – 2014
- Texas School Counselor Certificate – 2009
Common Key Skills and Action Verbs for School Counselor Resumes
School counselors are integral members of the schools or programs where they work, and hiring managers have very specific attributes and strengths that they look for. In most cases, school districts and private schools take advantage of Applicant Tracking Systems to help them distinguish those candidates whose experience and skills most closely align with their needs. These systems scan for keywords that have been programmed into them, and this makes the process of crafting a resume a much more technical exercise than ever before. Resumes that fail to incorporate these words can easily be filtered out by the computerized program, so it’s important for you to know the words and apply them to your profile, your key skills, and your descriptions of your previous experience. To help you as you prepare your resume, we’ve assembled the lists below of the skills and action verbs that you should include in your resume.
| Key Skills & Proficiencies | |
|---|---|
| Academic counseling | Achievement focused |
| Anti-bullying expertise | Career guidance |
| Community Resource coordination | Conflict intervention |
| Crisis intervention | Curriculum guidance |
| Diversity training | High School counseling |
| K-5 counseling | Learning disability strategies |
| Mediation | Mental health referrals |
| Middle School guidance | Small group coordination |
| Special Education strategies | Substance abuse intervention |
| Testing and assessment | |
| Action Verbs | |
|---|---|
| Assess | Collaborate |
| Communicate | Connect |
| Coordinate | Empathize |
| Evaluate | Facilitate |
| Intervene | Listen |
| Meet | Test |
Tips for Writing a Better School Counselor Resume
Highlight your work on new challenges
School counselors have the skills to help guide students’ personal and academic development. But today’s counselors must also help students face newer challenges such as cyberbullying and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. If you’ve gained a specialized certificate or dedicated experience in one or more of those areas, you’ll make yourself more attractive to potential employers by featuring those details on your resume.
Example
Coordinated school-wide, anti-bullying campaign including mediation, roleplaying, and leadership training for students and staff members
Write an eye-catching professional profile
Your resume is more than just a list of your degrees and experiences. It’s your first impression on a potential employer. Make sure the profile you write captures what makes you stand out from other candidates. Highlight your accomplishments, your qualifications, and the attributes that will be most important to your success in the role.
Examples
- Dedicated and compassionate school counselor focused on facilitating student success in all aspects of life. Experience with helping vulnerable students transition from middle school into high school environment, bullying prevention, and mental health interventions. Instituted highly successful teacher/student mentoring program for at-risk students.
- Proactive, engaged school counselor with a mission to guide students to realizing their true potential. Focus on partnering with parents/guardians, school staff, community members and the student to encourage growth, responsibility, achievement, and excellence in academics, career exploration, and citizenship.
How to Align Your Resume with the Job Description
People who choose to be school counselors have a well-deserved reputation for compassion, empathy, and concern for the students they are assigned to. The position requires a significant investment of time and effort, and in exchange these professionals are rewarded with respect, a high-level of job satisfaction, and good job security. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, school and career counselor positions are anticipated to add 26,800 new positions over the next ten years, which translates into job growth of 8 percent. This represents a much faster rate of expansion than is being seen in other occupations.
The fact that there’s a real and growing need for school counselors does not mean you can rest on your credentials and job title when it comes to a job search. The competition for good jobs remains fierce, so having a well-written resume is absolutely essential.
Doing this is not difficult, but it does involve some extra effort. It begins with going back and highlighting each of the key terms that the recruitment ad for the position has stressed, then revising your resume to make sure that those terms or specifications are reflected. Whether the terms included describe their student population, the particular challenges they face, the adjectives that they use to describe their community or any other detail, the more similar your self-description is to their terminology, the more likely you are to be called in for an interview.
Example School Counselor Job Description
School district seeks a school counselor to join our collaborative student support team. Applicants must be dedicated to providing developmental, preventative, remedial, and responsive service in tandem with school and school district staff. Focus includes academics, career, and personal development of students through the implementation of a guidance curriculum. Applicants must also be able to provide individualized crisis prevention services.
Responsibilities:
- Classroom lessons on character, social-emotional learning and executive functioning skills
- Assist all students on caseload with developing academic, career, and personal/social skills goals and plans
- Interpret and utilize student data to support their growth
- Provide individual and group counseling for members of the student community with needs including anxiety, depression, trauma, intellectual disability, autism, and other mental health categories.
- Advocate for equity and access for all students in keeping with ASCA standards
- Provide school staff with needed resources to accommodate needs of students
- Use available technology to improve and enhance counseling services
Qualifications:
- K-12 School Counselor certification
- 5+ years working with children in grades K-8
- Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team
- Demonstrated experience with Microsoft Office applications
- Previous experience in an urban environment, Title 1 school preferred
The job description makes clear the qualities that the employer’s perfect candidate would possess:
- Experience with K-8 students
- Ability to provide in-classroom guidance lessons
- Comfort level in Title 1/urban school
- Knowledge of productivity software
- Team player
- Counseling experience with specific identified concerns
The description of the job’s responsibilities makes clear that the school is looking for a well-rounded school counselor with strong skills and competencies in the challenges that their school population faces. By stressing your own experience in these areas, whether by describing the environment you worked in previously or citing specific experiences and success in addressing issues listed in their ad, you provide a potential employer with the confidence that you can do the job before they ever have the opportunity to interview you. Here’s an example of how a resume can be shaped to match the job description above:
School Counselor Work Experience Example
School Guidance Counselor
City Line Middle School, September 2016 — Present
- Collaborated with students, parents, and school staff to integrate guidance curriculum into daily activities of a 650-student Title 1 school
- Introduced in-class sessions in support of social, emotional and academic needs
- Coordinated meetings with families/guardians, teachers and administrators to assist in student success plans
- Advised on social-emotional learning interventions based on student needs
- Applied problem-solving strategies to address the needs of identified at-risk students