Exploring Different Types of Careers in Psychology
Career News July 7, 2013It is often the case that people don’t end up working in their first career choice. That is not to say they don’t end up working in a field related to what they know though; educational degrees are often good for getting into multiple types of employment and netting many a different job. Because there is a variety of work to be found with any particular degree, it is important to have an understanding of just how many different careers there are for a psychologist to go into. Four years or more of hard schooling has to pay off, after all.
The different possible careers attainable after getting a degree are generally referred to as prospects. That is because each of them is a prospective career for a newly educated employee who may spend a little or a lot of their life with that company before moving on to something else or retiring altogether from work. Because of this, finding more prospects for psychology means finding more careers for a psychologist. With that in mind, checking out a website like the American Psychological Association (APA) will give you an excellent idea of the many different prospects possible for a fledgling psychologist with a fresh degree. According to the APA, here are some career titles individuals can obtain with a psychology degree:
•Sport psychologists
•Social psychologists
•School psychologists
•Rehabilitation psychologists
•Quantitative and measurement psychologists
•Neuropsychologists
•Industrial/Organizational psychologists
•Health psychologists
•Forensic psychologists
•Experimental psychologists
•Evolutionary psychologists
•Environmental psychologists
•Engineering psychologists
•Educational psychologists
•Developmental psychologists
•Counseling psychologists
•Community psychologists
•Cognitive and perceptual psychologists
•Clinical psychologists
Simply knowing how many different paths there are to take doesn’t actually tell you much about what life would be on any particular one. Because of this, getting real world experience by volunteering your skills through some medium or another is good not only for the people you help, but also yourself, because it gives you some hands-on experience, which is a better measure than any other of whether you enjoy a particular kind of work or not. Check with hospitals, clinics, study groups and more for ways to volunteer your psychology skills without committing to a job.
Obtaining career information for psychologists is also possible through government agencies that keep track of labor statistics. Check with any Department of Labor Statistics or Workers to get information like the median income and education level for various different jobs you could get with your psychology degree. Some work definitely pays more than other work, but that doesn’t mean the biggest paycheck is going to give you the most satisfaction with your life. Only you are going to watch out for you, so you must do a good job of that.
