Career Plan

Career Plan

Current job Salary

My career plan is to become a professional guidance counselor. I researched this career in terms of job availability and salary variances in various states. According to the US Bureau of labor statistics, the average annual income of a guidance therapist is 60,160. However, when it comes to states, the pay varies. For example, in Florida, the yearly wage of a guidance counselor stood at 50, 350 dollars. On the higher side, depending on the organization, position, and years of experience on the job, one could be lucky to get 75,940 dollars, while the lowest wage stood at 35,510. A scrutiny of the career in other states showed that California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, and District of Columbia were some of the highest paying states when compared to the national average and the Florida mean wage.

The guidance counselor’s contributing significantly to boosting the nation’s wellbeing. On that note, students like me who want to reach the heights of this career must be ready to work hard and get our degree certificates so that we can be a part of the workforce. However, the costs of getting the degree vary from one university to another, depending on the reputation of the college in producing a qualified workforce. Personally, I would prefer to pursue my bachelor’s degree at Florida International University because the fees are affordable, and the certificate has a reputation in the market. The costs of tuition at FIU stand at 23,866 dollars per year for the undergraduate degree. For community colleges, the tuition fees range at 17,930 dollars for the four-year degree program. In contrast, when one chooses to pursue a degree in a private nonprofit organization, the costs are 52, 500 dollars. However, despite the high tuition costs, one is able to back up their study with scholarships, grants, and work-study schemes that allow one to continue with their education.

The reason I am interested in pursuing guidance therapy is that I am passionate about helping other people, especially their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive needs. I want to pursue this career to the fullest since it is satisfying because it allows me to help people to navigate life issues safely without any disastrous consequences. I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience to be a successful private counselor someday and also be involved in counseling research and policy development, training, or administration at a later part of my career. This is because I have always performed well in areas of marriage and family counseling and domestic violence counseling. However, I have always struggled with issues such as organization counseling because I dream of working in a set up where I interact with my clients and help them solve real-life challenges. In case this does not work, I would like to venture into social work programs, which will allow me to focus on counseling individuals, families, and couples within community setups.

Graduate school versus marketability

I am not planning to attend graduate school once I finish my undergraduate. I plan to do this after I have gained some on the job experience first. In order to avert this, I will aim at enhancing the marketability of my undergraduate degree first. One way I can do this is through seeking internships and offering my skills and services for volunteer work with the organizations that I dream to work for. For example, I could seek to apply for a student guidance counselor for schools or even volunteer to work as a guidance and counseling intern at a local hospital or a rehabilitation center. In addition, I can also seek internships with top professionals in the fields who will allow me to advance my skills and knowledge and boost my chances for future job opportunities. My current University will play a significant role in enabling this to happen by backing me up with the relevant documents, certificates, and approvals. I believe that on the job experience will boost my skills and allow me to interact with the field in a much deeper way.

My parallel plan with an alternate job

An alternative to seeking a guidance therapist position is venturing into social work. The reason I choose this field is that it overlaps a lot with guidance counseling and offers me a second chance to focus on my areas of strength and add value to my career. Areas such as family counseling, behavioral and cognitive psychology are in both fields. My plan is to enter graduate school after gaining some experience. After I enter graduate school, I can choose to continue with my career to choose clinical social work. This, for me, will be a second career so that I get an opportunity to fulfill my ambition of entering into private practice instead of being employed by an organization. The reason I will choose a clinical social work practice career is that it offers a higher yearly pay package of 85,755 dollars on average in a year, and it will allow me to choose who to work for and who not to. Furthermore, it will enable me to enjoy a more controlled work environment, enhance my counseling skills, and increase my personal income and job satisfaction.

The master’s degree in social work will allow me to provide counseling services, and I can work in any state of my choosing. I will be able to work in a wider field within social service systems, and also work with resource providers. This means I will have a broader understanding of many systems and community factors. The mean annual average wage for a social worker in Florida is 67,270 dollars. This will be a bigger step for me anyway when compared to 50, 350 dollars that I earn as a guidance counselor. In this alternative plan, California, Ohio, New York, and Illinois are some of the highest paying with a mean annual salary ranging between 45,000 dollars to 66,300 dollars, according to the US Bureau of labor statistics. The application requirements for the master’s degree in social work are a bachelor’s degree in any related area of psychology and a GPA minimum of 2.5. This means that because it is a closely related area, I will be able to qualify. I will also have the option of choosing a minor in psychology to boost my skills in analyzing an individual’s psychological processes as a social worker and counselor. My application for any job in the related fields will be affected since employers will want to know my areas of expertise. However, in my view, I will have an advantage since I will have the experience and skills required to pursue and achieve my career goals of entering private practice.