School Counselor: High School Guidance Counselor

Introduction
You need to enjoy teenagers with all of their enthusiasm and angst!!! You need to be flexible because every day is different and things come up suddenly requiring you to restructure your day. You should have the type of personality that enjoys an extremely varied schedule and a variety of tasks and problems on a daily basis.

Job Function
I love the college counseling and meeting with the kids one on one. The parent/teacher meetings are never ending and can often be helpful though very time consuming. I also like the evening programs which focus on for financial aid, college planning etc. Advertisement
Lifestyle
Certain times of the year such as scheduling/course changes and college application months require work to be done at home or it just won't get done. But it isn't every night like teaching requires.
Hours are not flexible. They are the High School hours but within the day we have a little flexibility in how our appointment books are set up and so we can arrange time to return phones calls and the like.
Counselors are normally given latitude to travel to various professional meetings and make college visits. In the summer most counselors work extra days beyond what teachers do. But even with that I get six weeks off which is great if you have family.

Additional Information
I've been doing this for 23 years and still enjoy it almost every day!!