Running head: COUNSELING CAREER EXPLORATION PAPER 1
Counseling Career Exploration Paper
Student’s name
Professor’s name
Institutional Affiliations
Date
COUNSELING CAREER EXPLORATION PAPER 2
Counseling Career Exploration Paper.
Introduction
The American Counseling Association defined counseling as a specialized relationship
that empowers varied groups of individuals or families to achieve wellness, career objectives,
mental well-being, and educational goals. At the heart of counseling is to help people make
needed adjustments along with thinking perspectives, behavior change, and desired feelings
(Stephen F. Austin State University, 2019). As a counselor, my counseling characteristics and
requirements align with my current interest and values. Typically, I am an active listener. I love
giving full attention to hear what others are expressing, taking my time to understand their points
and clarify some issues with them. Besides, I am a critical thinker; I use logic and reasoning to
establish the strengths and weaknesses of alternate resolutions, approaches, and conclusions to
issues. Also, I am a perceptive social person; I like being aware of reactions from other people
and comprehend why they react in such a way. Moreover, I am an extrovert; I enjoy talking to
others and interacting with them.
Additionally, my counseling characteristics and requirements are in harmony with my
career goals. My career goals are centered on identifying and maintaining interpersonal
interactions. I am committed to nurturing cooperative and constructive interaction relations with
others. Also, I am determined to assist and provide care to others. I am dedicated to providing
personal assistance, psychological support, and encouragement to my clients and co-workers.
Moreover, I like coaching and mentoring others to establish their developmental needs and offer
mentoring, coaching, and counseling to improve their developmental needs. Lastly, am I am
career oriented in resolving conflicts through negotiation. I handle complaints, settle
disagreements, and resolve grievances through negotiation and consultancy services (National
COUNSELING CAREER EXPLORATION PAPER 3
Center for O*NET Development, 2019). As such, my counseling features and requirements are
heavily influenced by these career values.
O*Net platform has numerous advantages that inform my future counseling career. For
example, O*Net has comprehensive and detailed concepts, theories, and information related to
counseling services. These concepts and information will allow me to help my clients achieve
more effective personal life, vocational development, achieve cognitive development, enjoy their
social life, and achieve educational achievement. The occupation I have chosen to explore is
counseling psychology. My three Holland Code includes investigative (thinker), social (helper),
and enterprising (persuader), whereas my O*NET SOC Code is 19-3031.03 (Counselor
Psychologist) (National Center for O*NET Development, 2019). As such, much of the
counseling career information contained in this paper is obtained from O*NET On-Line.
The Nature of the Work for Counseling Career.
My counseling career is influenced by certain duties, skills, activities, and typical
workday. For instance, my duties include assisting and caring others by providing consultancy,
mentoring, encouraging, making decisions and solving problems, and guiding and motivating
individuals with psychological and social distress. The nature of skills includes deductive
reasoning, inductive reasoning ability, speech clarity, excellent oral communication, sense of a
problem-solving, active listening ability, and service orientation capability. Moreover, the
activities involved in this career include counseling individuals and families, assisting people in
understanding issues and learning how to respond to challenges, provide psychological advice
based on the client's needs, abilities, and interests. Lastly, under counseling career, an activity
like collecting information about individuals through observational techniques, interviews, and
COUNSELING CAREER EXPLORATION PAPER 4
case histories are employed (National Center for O*NET Development, 2019). In a typical
workday, all these activities, duties, and skills are utilized by the counselor.
Working Condition for Counseling Career.
Counseling career is shaped by various working conditions such as working environment,
working hours, teamwork, supervision involved, and psychological aspects such as stress levels
or demanding tasks. For example, the working context involves face-to-face discussions
discussion daily. The discussion and consultation take place indoors in the environmentally
controlled surrounding. Besides, this career can be conducted through electronic mail or
telephone calls. Also, this career involves working with supervisors and peers or subordinates.
Information is provided to supervisors and coworkers either through written form, e-mail,
telephone, or person. Besides, this career's dynamic is associated with high-stress levels,
especially when counseling and handling unpleasant or angry clients. Due to its demanding
nature, counselors are forced to work long hours to solve various issues (National Center for
O*NET Development, 2019).
Preparation and Qualification for Counseling Career
The counseling career demands competency backgrounds. Counselors must have
background knowledge in psychology, therapy and counseling, sociology and anthropology, and
good mastery of the English language. For example, psychology knowledge includes
understanding human behavior and performance, personality, motivation, and understanding an
individual's differences. The sociology and anthropology concepts allow counselors to know
individual behavior, social trends, cultures, and ethnicity. Moreover, personal traits like a
COUNSELING CAREER EXPLORATION PAPER 5
customer and personal service are necessary to facilitate customer needs and meet the standards
of quality service (CareerOneStop.org, 2020).
Opportunities and Future Outlook for Counseling Career
According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), under the Occupational Outlook
Handbook, positive prospects and opportunities are expected in the Counseling career. For
instance, the counselor's psychologist's overall employment is anticipated to increase by 3% from
2019 to 2029. The distribution of employment of clinical, school psychologists, and counseling
consultancy is expected to rise given that there higher demand for counseling services across
schools, social services agencies, health centers, and mental health organizations. The
composition of employment projection under psychological categories like industrial-
organizational psychologists, clinical, school, counseling, counseling, and other counseling
psychologists is projected to grow (U.S Department of Labor Statistics, 2018), as shown in the
table below.
Employment Projection for Counseling Psychologist, 2019-2029
Source: U.S Department of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections Program.
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Economic and Non-Economic Benefits for Counseling Career
The median annual wage for a counselor psychologist as of May 2019 stood at $80,370.
In the United States, the yearly salary for counselor working for the top organization was as
follows government $96,870, hospitals, state, local, and private sectors $88 480, ambulatory
healthcare centers $82,250, and elementary and secondary schools, local, state, and private
institutions was $76,960 (U.S Department of Labor Statistics, 2018). In this career, personal
satisfaction factor-like dependability and social orientation are provided. The associated
lifestyles and psychological rewards provided include job training and workshops, provision of
advanced organizational and communication skills, and provision for a scholarship for masters,
doctoral, or post-doctoral training. Furthermore, counseling psychologists are served with
insurance benefits scheme, vacation leave, and sick leave (National Center for O*NET
Development, 2019).
Special Situations for Counseling Career
Under a counseling career, special working conditions among various counselors based
on their organizational work have work scheduled. Counselors in private firms operate under
their schedules, like working in the evenings or weekends. Likewise, counselors working in
health care facilities operate under fixed schedules of shifts. Most counselors in institutions like
companies, schools, government, and clinics work on a full-time basis during regular business
COUNSELING CAREER EXPLORATION PAPER 7
hours. For school counselors, when students go for summer holidays, they take their leave from
work (U.S Department of Labor Statistics, 2018).
Conclusion
Some aspects that characterize counseling features and requirements appeal to me. For
instance, characteristics such as increasing wages and employment trends, work styles,
conducive working environment, and exceptional skills required in this field are highly pleasing.
Also, requirements that appeal to me include a strong foundation of educational knowledge and a
wealth of experience needed. The aspect that surprised me is the rising trend of counseling
services across all sectors. This is an indication that shows there are serious concerns and issues
around institutions like schools, industries, health care centers, and other organizations. It shows
that many people experience psychological, mental, emotional, and educational related stress and
anxieties. Lastly, in my future practice, I will utilize my career exploration process to bring
change and positive behaviors among my clients and other people as well. I will incorporate
concepts and information I learned throughout my career process to enhance social, cognitive,
intellectual, and emotional behavioral changes.
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References
CareerOneStop.org. (2020).ECounseling Psychologists. Www.CareerOneStop.Org.
https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Careers/Occupations/occupation-profile.aspx?
keyword=Counseling%20Psychologists&location=US&onetcode=19303103
National Center for O*NET Development. (2019).E19-3031.03 - Counseling Psychologists. (O*Net
Report No. 19-3031.03). Retrieved from O*Net Online website:
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-3031.03
Stephen F. Austin State University. (2019).EWhat is Counseling? | About Counseling | Counseling
Services | SFASU. Sfasu.Edu. http://www.sfasu.edu/counselingservices/182.asp
U.S Department of Labor Statistics. (2018, April 13).EPsychologists : Occupational Outlook
Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bls.Gov. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-
and-social-science/psychologists.htm#tab-6
