She's my neighbor, a very nice lady in her late 50's. She has 2 daughters and 1 grandson. She's been working as guidance counselor for 20 years, in a public high school nearby.
Me: "Tell me about your job. What exactly do you do?"
She:"I'm a guidance counselor responsible for 200 students in my school district, I help them with all kinds of issues: emotional issues, family issues, relationship issues, bullying, self-esteem, you name it. Like today, there was this girl came to me crying about her boyfriend, and yesterday a boy came with his parents trying to work out his 'internet game addiction' issue. Everyday is different, that's the fun part about it.
I also help students figure out what they want to do next. I help with their college applications, read their essays and give them advice. I have a budget each year to travel to different universities and to meet with admission officers, so that I know what we're talking about when students and parents come for help.
There is also a school guidance curriculum that we have to follow. Those are structured lessons to help students in some areas of competences, like how to succeed in school and beyond, how to resolve conflict, self-knowledge, life skills, and work ethic. It's part of my job that's closest to teaching."
Me:"Sounds great! What do you like about your job?"
She:"Well, making a difference in a kid's life is very rewarding to me.
I'm dealing with different issues and people everyday, it's never boring.
I started when my kids were very young, as a young mother I loved the public school hours: I leave at 2:30pm everyday, and we get whole summer and winter off. It's great for me to take care of my kids when they needed me the most."
Me:"Awesome! So where's the catch? What part of the job frustrates you?"
She (thought very hard for a long time):"I really can't think of anything. I do love my job, I'm so lucky."
Me (In di*****elief):"Really? Do you really get up every morning and look forward to going to work?"
She(laughed):"No! I don't want to get up! But once I'm there, I'm always happy and my days pass by so quickly.
If I must say something, when I was younger, some unreasonable parents could be hard to deal with. But you're a tough girl, a smart girl, you can handle that. Plus, age works in your favor, now I'm older and parents don't bug me anymore." (laughing again).
Me:"Wow, it all sounds wonderful, I'm really tempted. But is it because you're in a great school district? What about counselors in other school districts?"
She(nodded):"Yes, I'm in a great school district, I never worked in other schools. You will have to find out if there is any opening in the district that you want to be and apply for it. But the nature of the profession should be about the same."
Me:"What about the compensation and employment opportunities?"
She:"Salary is not comparable to private sectors, of course. But we have great benefits and a good pension plan. I've worked for more than 30 years in public school and my pension will be 70% of my highest pay. I never had to save for retirement.
Employment opportunities should be ok within the next 5 years, because many of us baby boomers are retiring, I'm going to retire in 2 years. You can search 'teacher shortage' from state education board to find out more. But there is always a risk that you may not find an ideal job right away, you'll have to find out for yourself."
Me:"Can you tell me how you decided to become a school counselor? What motivated you?"
She:"I always knew that I wanted to be an educator. I have a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a master's degree in Bilingual education, and then got my teaching certificate for Spanish (K-12). I was a Spanish teacher for 10 years, from middle school to high school, I enjoyed it.
One year, they decided to move me from high school back to middle school, and all of sudden, I had to go from teaching Spanish literature to basic grammar. I felt bored and unchallenged, I wanted to do more.
While I was teaching high school, many kids came to me and said: 'I wish you were my guidance counselor, you understand me so well, I'd rather talk to you about my issues'. It got me thinking, maybe I can become a counselor.
And I realized that, as a counselor, I can make more. (laughing).
So I started working part time towards my school counselor degree, while my younger daughter was only 6 months old. People thought I was crazy! But I felt that was the right thing to do and it paid off.
Right now, I have an intern who works with me towards her school counselor certificate, she's 48 years old. I think it's very admirable."
We talked for a long time, she's such a warm, smart and funny lady! I understand why she would be a good counselor. While I was walking home, I thought, it definitely is an interesting profession and I'm particularly tempted by the school hours which will benefit my kids, but it's not all bright and rosy. So here I list some of the down sides to keep my head cool:
1) There is a significant difference among school districts. There is no guarantee that I can get to a "better off" school district (or any at all :-)). Some school district has less funding so a counselor may have to take care of a lot more students, which means they can't spend enough time to really help a kid in need.
2) The compensation and pension plan that she had... may not be sustainable for long. With all the talks in education reforms and budget cutting, nothing is for sure.
3) She was a well established teacher before becoming a school counselor. In other words, she had her "ranking" among school staff. She has respect from principle and other counselors so that she was pretty much left alone to do her job as she sees fit. As a newcomer, I may not be able to function so independently.
But the least I can do is to find out more. She promised to include me in some volunteering work, I'm so excited. :-)
Hopefully this information is helpful for some of you guys, or at least a fun read.:-)
Thanks!
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