This study compared the personality characteristics, determined by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF), of practicing junior and senior high school counselors serving economically disadvantaged and economically advantaged males. A Counseling Evaluation Inventory (CEI) composite client‐rating score, derived from seven male clients and determined for each counselor, was the effectiveness criterion. Male clients from both economic populations perceived as effective those male counselors who expressed characteristics associated with the popular American masculine stereotype and those female counselors who showed characteristics associated with the popular American feminine stereotype. The IPAT specification equations, one for each sex applied to the results of the 16 PF, provide a practical screening device for predicting counselor effectiveness with both economically disadvantaged and advantaged male clients.