What are some good jobs for a psychology major after graduation?

Hi Anne,

For a large number of psychology careers, further study isn’t a prerequisite. Those who don’t go on to study psychology at postgraduate level have many options within public and private healthcare, education, mental health support, social work, therapy and counseling. These roles may be advisory, research-led, treatment-led or therapeutic.

There are also a number of less typical roles for psychology graduates, including jobs in media and other creative industries. Overviews of these typical and not-so-typical careers with a psychology degree are outlined below.

• Chartered psychologist

With further study and training you will be able to gain qualification as a chartered psychologist. Within this highly specialized role, you will work with people of all backgrounds, both patients and clients. As a chartered psychologist, you may choose to specialize in a number of areas, including occupational psychology, educational psychology, sport and mental health.

• Psychotherapist

A psychotherapist can have a diverse workload, working with individuals, couples, groups and families, in the aim of helping clients overcome psychological issues, including emotional and relationship-related issues, stress and even addiction.

• Social worker

A social worker is someone who works with people who are going through difficult periods in their lives. These often include groups such as children or the elderly, people with disabilities and victims of crime and abuse. The role of a social worker is to safeguard these people from harm and provide support in order to allow people to improve their situations. As a social worker you may work within schools, homes, hospitals or other public agencies. A social worker will tend to be specialized in working with children and families or vulnerable adults.

• Counselor

As a counselor you will be involved in helping people come to better terms with their lives and experiences through exploration of feelings and emotions.Although a counselor does not give advice, they do help support clients in making choices for themselves. Like psychotherapy, counseling is often a form of talking therapy and can encompass areas including marriage and family, health, abuse, rehabilitation, education, grief, mental health, career guidance and pediatrics.

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  To be named an educational psychologist, you will need the same qualifications as any psychologist (a master’s degree and further training). This is a role concerned with the development of young people in educational settings, with the aim of enhancing learning and dealing with social and emotional issues or learning difficulties.

  
  


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  To become a teacher of psychology, depending on the level you choose, you will almost certainly need an additional teaching qualification. As a rule, however, psychology graduates can be particularly sought-after within education and teaching due to their psychological knowledge of learning systems and insight into how people pick up information.

  
  


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  Psychology careers in research may be based within research agencies, public and private organizations or, as is often the case, in universities. You could also work for a charity or other non-profit organization, perhaps conducting researching to help resolve challenges such as speech impediments, brain damage, child development or the impact of legal and illegal drugs on psychological health.

  
  


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  Psychology is all about understanding people and how they think, making human resources and communications careers another good match. These roles, available in both the public and private sectors, encompass areas such as employee satisfaction, professional development, training, recruitment, PR, payroll and internal communications. Many of these careers will be perfect for psychology graduates because they require good people skills, empathy, a strong head for data and the ability to analyze and solve problems.

  
  

Source: http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/careers-advice/what-can-you-do-psychology-degree

Best of luck!

A lot of jobs only require a bachelors degree of any sort and you would be able to apply for any of those. Also, there are some positions that are difficult to fill jobs in human services such as those dealing with child abuse. To fill those jobs, many governmental agencies will accept persons with 4 year degrees for job titles that normally require a graduate degree such as Social Worker. This can be a good way to get your foot into the door. You also will find a number of generalist jobs where the incumbent does interviewing for government benefits that only require a 4 year degree. The jobs that most people associate with psychology degrees such as a therapist will almost always require graduate training. Many require licensing and almost all of these will require not only a master's degree but supervised clinical supervision and passing a licensing exam as well.