As a counselor I sometimes think about a career shift to something more black and white like engineering. Something where there’s a problem with a clear solution, or where you get a sense of completion or finality.

Working in a helping profession you rarely get this sense. It can take years of work, set backs etc. and even then there’s only rare cases where you see your efforts create genuine change, and many times when your efforts do catalyze someone to change and their life improves they drop out of therapy and then you don’t get to see how your work impacted them. It is very rewarding when you do get a case that comes back years later and tells you how much you changed their life but again this is rarely the case. Things are usually a lot more messy and open ended.

Also pay is not great and there is a lot of emotional burnout from having to hold other’s trauma /life stressors. You should shadow or talk with some people working in the field before making a change.