Overview
All Counsellors
-
$1,584 Weekly Pay
-
Strong Future Growth
-
33,000 workers Employment Size
-
Very high skill Skill level rating
-
51% Full-Time Full-Time Share
-
41 hours Average full-time
-
45 years Average age
-
77% female Gender Share
Counsellors provide information on vocational, relationship, social and educational difficulties and issues, and work with people to help them to identify and define their emotional issues through therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, interpersonal therapy and other talking therapies.
You usually need a bachelor degree in counselling, psychology, social work or another related field to work as a Counsellor. Some workers have a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification.
Tasks
- working with clients on career, study and employment options by obtaining and examining information relevant to their abilities and needs
- providing information and resources to assist clients with job-seeking skills
- assessing client needs in relation to treatment for drug and alcohol abuse
- conducting counselling interviews with individuals, couples and family groups
- assisting the understanding and adjustment of attitudes, expectations and behaviour to develop more effective interpersonal and marital relationships
- presenting alternative approaches and discussing potential for attitude and behaviour change
- consulting with clients to develop rehabilitation plans taking account of vocational and social needs
- contributing information, understanding and advice on the learning and behaviour of students, especially those with special needs, and assisting parents and teachers in dealing with these needs
- May work in a call centre
Prospects
There were 33,000 Counsellors in 2020. The number of workers:
- grew very strongly over the past 5 years
- is expected to grow strongly over the next five years
- is likely to reach 37,800 by 2025.
Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, seasonally adjusted data to November 2020 and National Skills Commission Employment Projections to 2025. The number employed includes people who work in this occupation as their main job. People who work in more than one job are counted against the occupation they work the most hours in.
Employment Snapshot
- Size: This is a large occupation.
- Location: Counsellors work in many regions of Australia.
- Industries: Most work in Health Care and Social Assistance; Education and Training; and Public Administration and Safety.
- Earnings: Full-time workers on an adult wage earn around $1,584 per week (similar to the average of $1,460). Earnings tend to be lower when starting out and higher as experience grows.
- Full-time: Around half work full-time (51%, less than the average of 66%), showing there are many opportunities to work part-time.
- Hours: Full-time workers spend around 41 hours per week at work (compared to the average of 44 hours).
- Age: The average age is 45 years (compared to the average of 40 years). Many workers are 45 years or older (51%).
- Gender: 77% of workers are female (compared to the average of 48%).
Employment Outlook
Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, ABS seasonally adjusted data to November 2020 and National Skills Commission Employment Projections to 2025.
Weekly Earnings
Source: Based on ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (cat. no. 6306.0), May 2018, Customised Report. Median weekly total cash earnings for full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate. Earnings are before tax and include amounts salary sacrificed. Earnings can vary greatly depending on the skills and experience of the worker and the demands of the role. These figures should be used as a guide only, not to determine a wage rate.
Main Industries
Source: Based on ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Industries are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC 06).
States and Territories
NSW
VIC
QLD
SA
WA
TAS
NT
ACT
Source: Based on ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Share of workers across Australian States and Territories, in this job compared to the all jobs average.
Age Profile
Source: Based on ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Age profile of workers in this job compared to the all jobs average.
Education Level
Source: ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Highest qualification completed by workers in this job (in any field of study). Qualifications needed by new workers might be different from the qualifications of workers already in the job.
Pathways
You usually need a bachelor degree in counselling, psychology, social work or another related field to work as a Counsellor. Some workers have a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification.
Registration with the state or territory teaching board is required to teach in schools.
Before starting a course, check it will provide you with the skills and qualifications you need. Visit
- Course Seeker to search and compare higher education courses.
- ComparED to compare undergraduate and postgraduate student experiences and outcomes.
- My Skills to compare Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses, providers and student outcomes.
- AAPathways website to explore Community Services VET training pathways.
Skills & Knowledge
Employers look for Counsellors who can communicate clearly and are caring and compassionate.
Filter Skills & Knowledge
Knowledge
These are important topics, subjects or knowledge areas.
-
Therapy and counselling
Diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and career counselling and guidance.
-
Psychology
Human behaviour; differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; research methods; assessing and treating disorders.
-
Customer and personal service
Understanding customer needs, providing good quality service, and measuring customer satisfaction.
-
Sociology and anthropology
Group behaviour and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
-
English language
English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
-
Clerical
Word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office work.
-
Philosophy and theology
Philosophical systems and religions, including their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and impact on society.
-
Education and training
Curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
-
Computers and electronics
Circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
-
Law and government
How our laws and courts work. Government rules and regulations, and the political system.
-
Mathematics
Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics.
-
Personnel and human resources
Recruiting and training people, managing pay and other entitlements (like sick leave), and negotiating pay and conditions.
-
Biology
Plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, how they rely on and work with each other and the environment.
-
Medicine and dentistry
Diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities, including preventive health-care measures.
-
Administration and management
Business principles involved in strategic planning, leadership, and coordinating people and resources.
-
Communications and media
Media production, communication, and dissemination. Includes written, spoken, and visual media.
-
Sales and marketing
Showing, promoting, and selling including marketing strategy, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
-
Public safety and security
Use of equipment, rules and ideas to protect people, data, property, and institutions.
-
History and archeology
Events of the past, their causes, how we learn about them, and how they influence the way we live today.
-
Economics and accounting
Economics and accounting, the financial markets, banking and checking and reporting of financial data.
Skills
Skills can be improved through training or experience.
-
Social perceptiveness
Understanding why people react the way they do.
-
Active listening
Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
-
Reading comprehension
Reading work related information.
-
Speaking
Talking to others.
-
Critical thinking
Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
-
Judgment and decision making
Figuring out the pros and cons of different options and choosing the best one.
-
Serving others
Looking for ways to help people.
-
Writing
Writing things for co-workers or customers.
-
Active learning
Being able to use what you have learnt to solve problems now and again in the future.
-
Complex problem solving
Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
-
Monitoring
Keeping track of how well work is progressing so you can make changes or improvements.
-
Persuasion
Talking people into changing their minds or their behaviour.
-
Negotiation
Bringing people together and trying to sort out their differences.
-
Instructing
Teaching people how to do something.
-
Learning strategies
Figuring out the best way to teach or learn something new.
-
Coordination with others
Being adaptable and coordinating work with other people.
-
Time management
Managing your own and other peoples' time to get work done.
-
Science
Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
-
Systems evaluation
Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
-
Management of personnel resources
Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, and choosing the best people for the job.
Abilities
Workers use these physical and mental abilities.
-
Oral comprehension
Listen to and understand what people say.
-
Oral expression
Communicate by speaking.
-
Inductive reasoning
Use lots of detailed information to come up with answers or make general rules.
-
Problem spotting
Notice when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong, even if you can't solve the problem.
-
Written comprehension
Read and understand written information.
-
Deductive reasoning
Use general rules to find answers or solve problems logically.
-
Speech clarity
Speak clearly so others can understand you.
-
Written expression
Write in a way that people can understand.
-
Originality
Come up with unusual or clever ideas, or creative ways to solve a problem.
-
Speech recognition
Identify and understand the speech of another person.
-
Near vision
See details that are up-close (within a few feet).
-
Brainstorming
Come up with a number of ideas about a topic, even if the ideas aren't very good.
-
Sorting or ordering
Order or arrange things in a pattern or sequence (e.g., numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
-
Categorising
Come up with different ways of grouping things.
-
Selective attention
Pay attention to something without being distracted.
-
Flexibility of closure
See a pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) hidden in other distracting material.
-
Speed of recognition
Quickly make sense of and organize things you can see like letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
-
Far vision
See details that are far away.
-
Multitasking
Do two or more things at the same time.
-
Memorization
Remember things like words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Activities
These are kinds of activities workers regularly do in this job.
-
Helping and caring for others
Providing personal assistance, medical attention, or emotional support.
-
Keeping your knowledge up-to-date
Keeping up-to-date with technology and new ideas.
-
Training and teaching others
Understanding the needs of others, developing training programs, and teaching or instructing.
-
Coaching and developing others
Working out the needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or helping them to improve.
-
Building good relationships
Building good working relationships and keeping them over time.
-
Making decisions and solving problems
Using information to work out the best solution and solve problems.
-
Negotiating and resolving conflicts
Handling complaints and disagreements, and negotiating with people.
-
Documenting or recording information
Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
-
Thinking creatively
Using your own ideas for developing, designing, or creating something new.
-
Communicating within a team
Giving information to co-workers by telephone, in writing, or in person.
-
Explaining things to people
Helping people to understand and use information.
-
Researching and investigating
Looking for, getting and understanding different kinds of information.
-
Planning and prioritising work
Deciding on goals and putting together a detailed plan to get the work done.
-
Coming up with systems and processes
Deciding on goals and figuring out what you need to do to achieve them.
-
Assessing and evaluating things
Working out the value, importance, or quality of things, services or people.
-
Giving expert advice
Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups.
-
Guiding and directing staff
Guiding and directing staff, including setting and monitoring performance standards.
-
Leading and encouraging a team
Encouraging and building trust, respect, and cooperation among team members.
-
Making sense of information and ideas
Looking at, working with, and understanding data or information.
-
Working with computers
Using computers to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.

O*NET is a trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
The skills and importance ratings on this page are derived from the US Department of Labor O*NET Database Version 21.2, 19-3031.03 - Counseling Psychologists.
Work Environment
Learn about the daily activities, and physical and social demands faced by workers. Explore the values and work styles that workers rate as most important.
Filter Work Environment
Demands
The physical and social demands workers face most often are shown below.
-
Face-to-face discussions
Talk with people face-to-face.
-
Indoors, heat controlled
Work indoors with access to heating or cooling.
-
Freedom to make decisions
Have freedom to make decision on your own.
-
Electronic mail
Use electronic mail.
-
Telephone
Talk on the telephone.
-
Unstructured work
Have freedom to decide on tasks, priorities, and goals.
-
Contact with people
Have contact with people by telephone, face-to-face, or any other way.
-
Spend time sitting
Spend time sitting at work.
-
Frequent decision making
Frequently make decisions that impact other people.
-
Impact of decisions
Make decisions that have a large impact on other people.
-
Teamwork
Work with people in a group or team.
-
Contact with the public
Work with customers or the public.
-
Letters and memos
Write letters and memos.
-
Time pressure
Work to strict deadlines.
-
Consequence of error
Work where mistakes have serious consequences.
-
Lead or coordinate a team
Lead others to do work activities.
-
Being exact or accurate
Be very exact or highly accurate.
-
Conflict situations
Deal with conflict or disagreements.
-
Angry or unpleasant people
Deal with unpleasant, angry, or rude people.
-
Responsible for outcomes
Take responsibility for the results of other people's work.
Values
Work values are important to a person’s feeling of satisfaction. All six values are shown below.
-
Relationships
Serve and work with others. Workers usually get along well with each other, do things to help other people, and are rarely pressured to do things that go against their sense of right and wrong.
-
Achievement
Results oriented. Workers are able to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.
-
Independence
Work alone and make decisions. Workers are able to try out their own ideas, make decisions on their own, and work with little or no supervision.
-
Working conditions
Job security and good working conditions. There is usually a steady flow of interesting work, and the pay and conditions are generally good.
-
Recognition
Advancement and the potential to lead. Workers are recognised for the work that they do, they may give directions and instructions to others, and they are looked up to in their company and their community.
-
Support
Supportive management that stands behind employees. Workers are treated fairly by their company, they are supported by management, and have supervisors who train them well.
Interests
Interests are the style or type of work we prefer to do. All interest areas are shown below.
-
Helping
Working with people. Helping or providing service to others.
-
Analytical
Ideas and thinking. Searching for facts and figuring out problems in your head.
-
Creative
Working with forms, designs and patterns. Often need self-expression and can be done without following rules.
-
Enterprising
Starting up and carrying out projects. Leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes require risk taking and often deal with business.
-
Administrative
Following set procedures and routines. Working with numbers and details more than with ideas, usually following rules.
-
Practical
Practical, hands-on work. Often with plants and animals, or materials like wood, tools, and machinery.

O*NET is a trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
The skills and importance ratings on this page are derived from the US Department of Labor O*NET Database Version 21.2, 19-3031.03 - Counseling Psychologists.
All Counsellors
-
$1,584 Weekly Pay
-
Strong Future Growth
-
33,000 workers Employment Size
-
Very high skill Skill level rating
-
51% Full-Time Full-Time Share
-
41 hours Average full-time
-
45 years Average age
-
77% female Gender Share
Counsellors provide information on vocational, relationship, social and educational difficulties and issues, and work with people to help them to identify and define their emotional issues through therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, interpersonal therapy and other talking therapies.
You usually need a bachelor degree in counselling, psychology, social work or another related field to work as a Counsellor. Some workers have a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification.
Tasks
- working with clients on career, study and employment options by obtaining and examining information relevant to their abilities and needs
- providing information and resources to assist clients with job-seeking skills
- assessing client needs in relation to treatment for drug and alcohol abuse
- conducting counselling interviews with individuals, couples and family groups
- assisting the understanding and adjustment of attitudes, expectations and behaviour to develop more effective interpersonal and marital relationships
- presenting alternative approaches and discussing potential for attitude and behaviour change
- consulting with clients to develop rehabilitation plans taking account of vocational and social needs
- contributing information, understanding and advice on the learning and behaviour of students, especially those with special needs, and assisting parents and teachers in dealing with these needs
- May work in a call centre
There were 33,000 Counsellors in 2020. The number of workers:
- grew very strongly over the past 5 years
- is expected to grow strongly over the next five years
- is likely to reach 37,800 by 2025.
Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, seasonally adjusted data to November 2020 and National Skills Commission Employment Projections to 2025. The number employed includes people who work in this occupation as their main job. People who work in more than one job are counted against the occupation they work the most hours in.
Employment Snapshot
- Size: This is a large occupation.
- Location: Counsellors work in many regions of Australia.
- Industries: Most work in Health Care and Social Assistance; Education and Training; and Public Administration and Safety.
- Earnings: Full-time workers on an adult wage earn around $1,584 per week (similar to the average of $1,460). Earnings tend to be lower when starting out and higher as experience grows.
- Full-time: Around half work full-time (51%, less than the average of 66%), showing there are many opportunities to work part-time.
- Hours: Full-time workers spend around 41 hours per week at work (compared to the average of 44 hours).
- Age: The average age is 45 years (compared to the average of 40 years). Many workers are 45 years or older (51%).
- Gender: 77% of workers are female (compared to the average of 48%).
Employment Outlook
Source: ABS Labour Force Survey, ABS seasonally adjusted data to November 2020 and National Skills Commission Employment Projections to 2025.
Weekly Earnings
Source: Based on ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (cat. no. 6306.0), May 2018, Customised Report. Median weekly total cash earnings for full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate. Earnings are before tax and include amounts salary sacrificed. Earnings can vary greatly depending on the skills and experience of the worker and the demands of the role. These figures should be used as a guide only, not to determine a wage rate.
Main Industries
Source: Based on ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Industries are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC 06).
States and Territories
NSW
VIC
QLD
SA
WA
TAS
NT
ACT
Source: Based on ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Share of workers across Australian States and Territories, in this job compared to the all jobs average.
Age Profile
Source: Based on ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Age profile of workers in this job compared to the all jobs average.
Education Level
Source: ABS Census 2016, Customised Report. Highest qualification completed by workers in this job (in any field of study). Qualifications needed by new workers might be different from the qualifications of workers already in the job.
You usually need a bachelor degree in counselling, psychology, social work or another related field to work as a Counsellor. Some workers have a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification.
Registration with the state or territory teaching board is required to teach in schools.
Before starting a course, check it will provide you with the skills and qualifications you need. Visit
- Course Seeker to search and compare higher education courses.
- ComparED to compare undergraduate and postgraduate student experiences and outcomes.
- My Skills to compare Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses, providers and student outcomes.
- AAPathways website to explore Community Services VET training pathways.
Employers look for Counsellors who can communicate clearly and are caring and compassionate.
Filter Skills & Knowledge
Knowledge
These are important topics, subjects or knowledge areas.
-
Therapy and counselling
Diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and career counselling and guidance.
-
Psychology
Human behaviour; differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; research methods; assessing and treating disorders.
-
Customer and personal service
Understanding customer needs, providing good quality service, and measuring customer satisfaction.
-
Sociology and anthropology
Group behaviour and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
-
English language
English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
-
Clerical
Word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office work.
-
Philosophy and theology
Philosophical systems and religions, including their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and impact on society.
-
Education and training
Curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
-
Computers and electronics
Circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
-
Law and government
How our laws and courts work. Government rules and regulations, and the political system.
-
Mathematics
Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics.
-
Personnel and human resources
Recruiting and training people, managing pay and other entitlements (like sick leave), and negotiating pay and conditions.
-
Biology
Plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, how they rely on and work with each other and the environment.
-
Medicine and dentistry
Diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities, including preventive health-care measures.
-
Administration and management
Business principles involved in strategic planning, leadership, and coordinating people and resources.
-
Communications and media
Media production, communication, and dissemination. Includes written, spoken, and visual media.
-
Sales and marketing
Showing, promoting, and selling including marketing strategy, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
-
Public safety and security
Use of equipment, rules and ideas to protect people, data, property, and institutions.
-
History and archeology
Events of the past, their causes, how we learn about them, and how they influence the way we live today.
-
Economics and accounting
Economics and accounting, the financial markets, banking and checking and reporting of financial data.
Skills
Skills can be improved through training or experience.
-
Social perceptiveness
Understanding why people react the way they do.
-
Active listening
Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
-
Reading comprehension
Reading work related information.
-
Speaking
Talking to others.
-
Critical thinking
Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
-
Judgment and decision making
Figuring out the pros and cons of different options and choosing the best one.
-
Serving others
Looking for ways to help people.
-
Writing
Writing things for co-workers or customers.
-
Active learning
Being able to use what you have learnt to solve problems now and again in the future.
-
Complex problem solving
Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
-
Monitoring
Keeping track of how well work is progressing so you can make changes or improvements.
-
Persuasion
Talking people into changing their minds or their behaviour.
-
Negotiation
Bringing people together and trying to sort out their differences.
-
Instructing
Teaching people how to do something.
-
Learning strategies
Figuring out the best way to teach or learn something new.
-
Coordination with others
Being adaptable and coordinating work with other people.
-
Time management
Managing your own and other peoples' time to get work done.
-
Science
Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
-
Systems evaluation
Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
-
Management of personnel resources
Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, and choosing the best people for the job.
Abilities
Workers use these physical and mental abilities.
-
Oral comprehension
Listen to and understand what people say.
-
Oral expression
Communicate by speaking.
-
Inductive reasoning
Use lots of detailed information to come up with answers or make general rules.
-
Problem spotting
Notice when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong, even if you can't solve the problem.
-
Written comprehension
Read and understand written information.
-
Deductive reasoning
Use general rules to find answers or solve problems logically.
-
Speech clarity
Speak clearly so others can understand you.
-
Written expression
Write in a way that people can understand.
-
Originality
Come up with unusual or clever ideas, or creative ways to solve a problem.
-
Speech recognition
Identify and understand the speech of another person.
-
Near vision
See details that are up-close (within a few feet).
-
Brainstorming
Come up with a number of ideas about a topic, even if the ideas aren't very good.
-
Sorting or ordering
Order or arrange things in a pattern or sequence (e.g., numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
-
Categorising
Come up with different ways of grouping things.
-
Selective attention
Pay attention to something without being distracted.
-
Flexibility of closure
See a pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) hidden in other distracting material.
-
Speed of recognition
Quickly make sense of and organize things you can see like letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
-
Far vision
See details that are far away.
-
Multitasking
Do two or more things at the same time.
-
Memorization
Remember things like words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Activities
These are kinds of activities workers regularly do in this job.
-
Helping and caring for others
Providing personal assistance, medical attention, or emotional support.
-
Keeping your knowledge up-to-date
Keeping up-to-date with technology and new ideas.
-
Training and teaching others
Understanding the needs of others, developing training programs, and teaching or instructing.
-
Coaching and developing others
Working out the needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or helping them to improve.
-
Building good relationships
Building good working relationships and keeping them over time.
-
Making decisions and solving problems
Using information to work out the best solution and solve problems.
-
Negotiating and resolving conflicts
Handling complaints and disagreements, and negotiating with people.
-
Documenting or recording information
Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
-
Thinking creatively
Using your own ideas for developing, designing, or creating something new.
-
Communicating within a team
Giving information to co-workers by telephone, in writing, or in person.
-
Explaining things to people
Helping people to understand and use information.
-
Researching and investigating
Looking for, getting and understanding different kinds of information.
-
Planning and prioritising work
Deciding on goals and putting together a detailed plan to get the work done.
-
Coming up with systems and processes
Deciding on goals and figuring out what you need to do to achieve them.
-
Assessing and evaluating things
Working out the value, importance, or quality of things, services or people.
-
Giving expert advice
Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups.
-
Guiding and directing staff
Guiding and directing staff, including setting and monitoring performance standards.
-
Leading and encouraging a team
Encouraging and building trust, respect, and cooperation among team members.
-
Making sense of information and ideas
Looking at, working with, and understanding data or information.
-
Working with computers
Using computers to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.

O*NET is a trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
The skills and importance ratings on this page are derived from the US Department of Labor O*NET Database Version 21.2, 19-3031.03 - Counseling Psychologists.
Learn about the daily activities, and physical and social demands faced by workers. Explore the values and work styles that workers rate as most important.
Filter Work Environment
Demands
The physical and social demands workers face most often are shown below.
-
Face-to-face discussions
Talk with people face-to-face.
-
Indoors, heat controlled
Work indoors with access to heating or cooling.
-
Freedom to make decisions
Have freedom to make decision on your own.
-
Electronic mail
Use electronic mail.
-
Telephone
Talk on the telephone.
-
Unstructured work
Have freedom to decide on tasks, priorities, and goals.
-
Contact with people
Have contact with people by telephone, face-to-face, or any other way.
-
Spend time sitting
Spend time sitting at work.
-
Frequent decision making
Frequently make decisions that impact other people.
-
Impact of decisions
Make decisions that have a large impact on other people.
-
Teamwork
Work with people in a group or team.
-
Contact with the public
Work with customers or the public.
-
Letters and memos
Write letters and memos.
-
Time pressure
Work to strict deadlines.
-
Consequence of error
Work where mistakes have serious consequences.
-
Lead or coordinate a team
Lead others to do work activities.
-
Being exact or accurate
Be very exact or highly accurate.
-
Conflict situations
Deal with conflict or disagreements.
-
Angry or unpleasant people
Deal with unpleasant, angry, or rude people.
-
Responsible for outcomes
Take responsibility for the results of other people's work.
Values
Work values are important to a person’s feeling of satisfaction. All six values are shown below.
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Relationships
Serve and work with others. Workers usually get along well with each other, do things to help other people, and are rarely pressured to do things that go against their sense of right and wrong.
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Achievement
Results oriented. Workers are able to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.
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Independence
Work alone and make decisions. Workers are able to try out their own ideas, make decisions on their own, and work with little or no supervision.
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Working conditions
Job security and good working conditions. There is usually a steady flow of interesting work, and the pay and conditions are generally good.
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Recognition
Advancement and the potential to lead. Workers are recognised for the work that they do, they may give directions and instructions to others, and they are looked up to in their company and their community.
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Support
Supportive management that stands behind employees. Workers are treated fairly by their company, they are supported by management, and have supervisors who train them well.
Interests
Interests are the style or type of work we prefer to do. All interest areas are shown below.
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Helping
Working with people. Helping or providing service to others.
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Analytical
Ideas and thinking. Searching for facts and figuring out problems in your head.
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Creative
Working with forms, designs and patterns. Often need self-expression and can be done without following rules.
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Enterprising
Starting up and carrying out projects. Leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes require risk taking and often deal with business.
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Administrative
Following set procedures and routines. Working with numbers and details more than with ideas, usually following rules.
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Practical
Practical, hands-on work. Often with plants and animals, or materials like wood, tools, and machinery.

O*NET is a trademark of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
The skills and importance ratings on this page are derived from the US Department of Labor O*NET Database Version 21.2, 19-3031.03 - Counseling Psychologists.