Also called: Educational and Career Counselors
Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors build social perceptiveness, service orientation and complex problem solving skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Instructional Coordinators (93%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Instructional Coordinators | 93% | $77,440 | +20% | None |
| 2 | Education Teachers, Postsecondary | 88% | $75,350 | +17% | None |
| 3 | Education Administrators, Postsecondary | 84% | $104,590 | +63% | None |
| 4 | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 84% | $74,260 | +15% | None |
| 5 | Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors | 82% | $61,540 | −4% | None |
| 6 | Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary | 82% | $105,870 | +65% | None |
| 7 | Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School | 81% | $65,030 | +1% | None |
| 8 | Training and Development Specialists | 81% | $69,280 | +8% | None |
| 9 | Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary | 80% | $77,570 | +21% | None |
| 10 | Special Education Teachers, Middle School | 80% | $66,810 | +4% | None |
Compared with Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, median $64,330. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
93% skill match · $77,440 · +20% pay
Management of Material Resources · Management of Financial Resources · Operations Analysis
88% skill match · $75,350 · +17% pay
Operations Analysis · Management of Material Resources · Instructing
84% skill match · $104,590 · +63% pay
Management of Financial Resources · Management of Material Resources · Time Management
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Instructional Coordinators (93% skill match, median $77,440), Education Teachers, Postsecondary (88% skill match, median $75,350) and Education Administrators, Postsecondary (84% skill match, median $104,590), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 21 pay more than educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors at the median. The biggest increases: Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary (+65%, $105,870), Education Administrators, Postsecondary (+63%, $104,590) and Business Teachers, Postsecondary (+54%, $99,080).
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.