finding a job

Questions about how difficult it is to get a certain job are some of the hardest to answer. They are great questions (in fact, some of the most important), but they're hard to answer because nobody knows how the job market will look when you finish your education and hit the job market. Here's what we know right now: There are somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 practicing psychiatrists in the United States. The US Government Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that job opportunities for physicians (of which psychiatrists are one type) will grow by 20% over the next decade, which is a pretty significant increase. So what we can say with relatively high confidence is that there will be many jobs out there for qualified candidates. What we can't say is how many qualified candidates will be competing for those jobs! Will it be hard for you? It sort of depends on how many other students just like you are thinking about getting into the job market.

While I can't tell you how hard it will be to get a job, I can tell you how hard it will be to be qualified: hard. The most important barrier is the amount of schooling required in order to become a psychiatrist. After college you have to go to medical school, followed by a year of rotations, and then roughly 5 years of residency. It can be expensive, which is part of why psychiatrists are so well paid. There might be some scholarships, but they won't cover the whole cost and loans are almost inevitable for anyone trying to get through medical school and that can be pricey. But just because it's hard doesn't mean it won't be fun! If you really like science and learning about how humans work then you're really going to enjoy all of that school!

By the way, you asked about psychiatrists, so I kept my answer psychiatry-specific. You might also want to look into psychologists as well, including some questions here on CareerVillage comparing the two career paths.