Career Pathways in Psychology

Developing Skills for Psychologists/Neuroscientists 1

• This course focuses on career pathways for psychology
• Psychology jobs include diverse options like forensic, health, clinical, sport & exercise, neuro, counselling and occupational psychology, as well as academia, research and teaching.
• Students can further explore these options by researching specific roles like clinical, counselling, educational, forensic, health, occupational, and sport & exercise psychologists.

Task 1: Research

• Students are tasked with researching one of seven psychology roles: clinical, counselling, educational, forensic, health, occupational, and sport & exercise psychology.
• They need to create a 1-minute pitch summarizing the role's responsibilities and entry requirements.

What Can You Do With A Psychology Degree?

• Graduates can pursue various psychology-related jobs, such as clinical psychologists, counselling psychologists, educational psychologists, and forensic psychologists, amongst others, further education, teaching, high-intensity therapy.
• Related roles, requiring a psychology degree, include advice workers, careers advisors, counsellors, education consultants, human resources officers, life coaches, market researchers, mediators, neuroscientists, play therapists, policy officers, psychotherapists, and social researchers.

Which Other Fields Like Applicants With Psychology Degrees?

• The presentation raises questions about other fields that a psychology degree can prepare someone for.

Psychology Outcomes After Graduation

• Outcomes 15 months post-graduation include employment in various sectors.
• Typical employment post graduation include: arts/design/media, marketing/PR/sales, business/HR/finance, science, welfare/housing.
• Other professional jobs after graduation include those in education, engineering, and legal sectors.

Thinking About Your Career

• Reflect on interests, activities that energize and drain you, client groups, team work and leadership, and creativity.

How Do You Work Out What You Want To Do?

• Trait and factor theory (Parsons 1909) proposes aligning personal traits with job characteristics to maximize satisfaction.
• This process involves understanding personal traits, job requirements, and matching the two.

Let's Put That Into Some Simple Steps...

• Outline steps to take in pursuing a career by exploring and understanding oneself, through research, and through making matches.

Where Do You Start - Reflection

• Try career planner tools or personality questionnaires and psychometric testing to gain a stronger understanding of career interests.
• Use student stories to learn from past experiences.

Where Do You Start - Talk To People

• Participate in career appointments; this will help in understanding career paths.
• Engage with professionals in your field of interest to learn about their career paths.
• Work experience is essential to evaluate if a career path is a suitable fit.

What Can You Start Doing Now? Developing Your Skills

• Begin cultivating transferable skills now since they can often be applied to psychology roles.

Transferable Skills

• Transferable skills are key in various psychology roles and can include general, interpersonal and management skills, IT, communication and clerical skills.

A Student Has Been Working as a Maths Tutor for GCSE Students

• Reflecting on the role of a maths tutor, identify potentially relevant psychology skills the student may have developed.

What Psychology Related Skills May Have Developed?

• The roles of various skills like communication, patience, empathy, adaptability, active listening, problem-solving, motivation, assessment, and feedback are emphasised on the slide.
• Additional relevant skills included cultural sensitivity, data collection and ethic considerations and time management.

Careers Connect

• The presentation promotes Careers Connect, enabling students to book appointments with specialists, and job/internship opportunities.

What Do We Do?

• The presentation outlines the support available for students to prepare for the job market, including career advice, workshops, engagement with employers, networking, guest speakers, mentorship, internship opportunities and curriculum-based learning.

Explore the diverse career options available in psychology through this quiz. Students will research specific psychology roles and summarize their key responsibilities and entry requirements, providing insight into various pathways one can pursue with a psychology degree.