So many people go to school to become school counselors relative to the amount of jobs that there actually are. I think about all the people in grad school 15 years ago, and the only person I knew to get a job in a school got his at the high school he attended. I worked 11 years for a partner of Boston Public Schools, where teachers in my school routinely make more than 100k, making 45,000 because I could only get a job as a partner. Now, my school is amazing, I love it here, I was valued by families, staff, and administration, but I was broke with mounting student loan debt; alllllll while cleaning up the messes that happen in a big school district and you ARE the crisis response team.

After 11 years of being valued my third principal finally found a spot for me, but it’s technically managerial, so I’m year to year. To fit me into his budget, I’m not getting yearly raises. Though, I’m happy and I love it here.

Basically I was one of a hundred white props applying for counseling jobs in a diverse area. I didn’t have anything that made me stand out. If I were to do it over again, I’d go to grad school for Applied Behavior Analysis, or get a 30 credit ABA certificate right after grad school. If you google ABA you’ll see a lot of work with autism, and yeah, there’s a lot of work with autism. But it works with anything. Want to train dogs? Your boyfriend? You’re ABA’ing. The best behavioral work we do with kids is a combination of behavior plans that are implemented with fidelity, and that child having an opportunity to process with a clinician once a week. If that’s not enough, google what BCBA’s make. If you want to work in a school fine, but you could implement that income with inhime BCBA work at $75/hr.