School Counselor resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 17 skills, tools and credentials that come up in school counselor job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 12
- ASCA National Model (used in Andre's sample resume)
- College and career readiness (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Academic advising (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Social-emotional learning (SEL) (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Crisis intervention (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Suicide risk screening (used in Andre's sample resume)
- 504 plans (used in Andre's sample resume)
- IEP (used in Andre's sample resume)
- MTSS (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Small-group counseling (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Individual counseling (used in Andre's sample resume)
- FAFSA (used in Andre's sample resume)
Tools & software · 2
- Naviance (used in Andre's sample resume)
- PowerSchool (used in Andre's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 1
- School counseling certification (used in Andre's sample resume)
Soft skills · 2
- Family engagement (used in Andre's sample resume)
- Confidentiality (used in Andre's sample resume)
17 of 17 appear in Andre's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Academic advising
Weak: Skills: Academic advising
Strong: Manage a caseload of 420 students for academic advising, college and career planning, and social-emotional counseling
FAFSA
Weak: Skills: FAFSA
Strong: Raised FAFSA completion among seniors from 52% to 74% in two years with class workshops and family nights
504 plans, IEP
Weak: Skills: 504 plans, IEP
Strong: Coordinate 504 plans for 35 students and attend IEP meetings for students on my caseload
Crisis intervention, Suicide risk screening
Weak: Skills: Crisis intervention, Suicide risk screening
Strong: Lead suicide risk screening and crisis intervention with the school psychologist and social worker, following district protocol
Strong bullets come from Andre's sample resume and our school counselor bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a school counselor post asks for School counseling certification and you've used it, say School counseling certification, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a school counselor post says "ASCA National Model", write "ASCA National Model", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on College and career readiness — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Academic advising. A bullet like the one under School Counselor, Grades 9–12 in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
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/ Questions
School Counselor keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a school counselor resume have?
There's no magic number. Andre's sample resume uses all 17 terms on this page, because each one fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a school counselor post says "School counseling certification", write "School counseling certification" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Andre's sample, ASCA National Model and College and career readiness are in the summary and Academic advising shows up in a bullet under School Counselor, Grades 9–12. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a school counselor resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in school counselor posts include Naviance and PowerSchool. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list School counseling certification on my resume?
Spell it the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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