Career Explorer Community and social care
Changing shape
Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors
Advise and assist students and provide educational and vocational guidance services.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 29% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it very high), and US jobs are projected to change by +2.9% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence and creative vision.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $64,330
- Job growth to 2035
- +2.9%
- Openings a year
- 27,800
- People doing it (2025)
- 390,000
- Usual route in
- Master's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Advise others on educational or vocational matters
- Assist others to access additional services or resources
- Counsel others about personal matters
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Prepare legal or regulatory documents
- Develop public or community health programs
- Interview people to obtain information
What the work looks like
- Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Counsel students regarding educational issues, such as course and program selection, class scheduling and registration, school adjustment, truancy, study habits, and career planning.
- Provide crisis intervention to students when difficult situations occur at schools.
- Counsel individuals or groups to help them understand and overcome personal, social, or behavioral problems affecting their educational or vocational situations.
- Review transcripts to ensure that students meet graduation or college entrance requirements, and write letters of recommendation.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as more departments add career counselors to help students.
- More of these jobs, as more departments add career counselors to help students get jobs.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- ClergyChanging shape, Index 32, +2.4%
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselorsGrows with AI, Index 83, +18.4%
- Community and social service specialists, all otherGrows with AI, Index 70, +5.5%
- Counselors, all otherGrows with AI, Index 69, +5.9%
Also known as: Academic Advisor, Career Counselor, Guidance Counselor, School Counselor, Academic Counselor, Admissions Counselor, College Counselor, Elementary School Counselor.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.