What did you do after your psychology degree?

[BoogleMcGroogle]

It's been interesting reading where an English Literature degree took people.

So I'm wondering what happened to those of us with a psychology degree. Apparently it's one of the degrees with the lowest earning potential/ perceived transferable skills.

I taught for a couple of years aged then trained as an educational psychologist. I love my job. It's interesting, flexible and well paid. Now I run a small independent practice, so I guess it worked out well. Others on my degree course went into academia, teaching, social work, corporate graduate schemes and a couple more are applied psychologists.

Where has it taken you?

Yes it’s accredited. I’m not sure I want to do a doctorate though. I’ve been in education forever and I’m eager to get out into the real world. I’ll be happy with a graduate scheme job maybe with something like gsk or doing my masters in some sort of international business or international relations.

If you want to go down the business route then do a master's in org/occ psych so you'll be directly using your undergraduate knowledge

My local uni only offer clinical psychology as a masters

I became a psychometrician (test developer). I earn an excellent wage and work flexibly. And have traveled extensively with my job.

Psych degrees have excellent employment rates.

I work in International Development and have an MSc and PGDip in unrelated areas. It was accredited, from a Russell group, and 20 years ago was considered a very employable degree- we were aggressively headhunted by consultancy firms. I got an interesting job with a charity and went from there.

I have actually found it useful- the research skills and the understanding of statistics are something I use every day. Friends went onto a range of jobs, a couple of MH social workers, teachers, health commissioning. And consultancy!

About 8 years ago I did consider whether to try and go into clinical, which had been original plan, but I couldn't, in my 30s, take the open-ended timescale for getting enough experience to be accepted into the training. There needs to be a clearer, easier route- not many people can handle that level of uncertainty for an extended period.

Undergrad in psychology and criminology, graduated and went on to do my masters in animal behaviour, spend a good few years working in retail and then a call centre then went back to college and I'm currently 29 and 3/4 of the way through my veterinary nurse training. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, I could of got onto the course at 16 after GCSEs but I couldn't be happier and I have no regrets 🙂

Interesting thread. I’m going to (hopefully) do a masters conversion course in psychology starting in Sept and then (hopefully again) a doctorate in education psychology after that with the idea of being an educational psychologist.

Mental health nursing for me. I did a 2 year graduate diploma after I finished my psychology BSc. I have since moved on from that area of nursing.

I work abroad in a school as a clinical counselor with my MSc in clinical psychology from the U.K. I counsel kids with serious behavioral and mental health issues and ones struggling at home.

Quality / H&S Manager.

I started a PhD in neuropsych and then left to train as a nurse. My psychology undergrad has been really helpful in the research work I subsequently did as it gave me a good understanding of research methods and stats.

Interesting thread! I graduated from the OU in psychology last summer, having changed from another career. I am now in the early days of an MSc in psychological therapy, aiming for a primary care role. Lots of the others on the course have done other masters degrees already.

I don't agree. I went down the grad scheme route after I graduated (almost 30 years ago yikes!) and still use the analytical and stats skills gained in my degree in my job. I'm a major risks undewrwriter working in the city and yes it's well paid.

DS is studying Psychology and has a very strong interest in linguistics. Strangely has had this interest since 6th Form. This is an area he wants to focus on. No idea what this means career wise. I do think there is something powerful in studying something you are passionate about so if you do end up in an unrelated job at least you have had the joy of studying something you love.

Graduated in about 1995. I wanted to carry on either working with children or prison but financially it wasn't possible I had to earn money. I did a graduate training scheme in IT. Had a great career doing technical work and business analysis and project management. I'm now teaching english in a primary school (as a foreign language not in uk). I've also worked as a librarian. The degree gave me loads of very useful skills and knowledge. I would still love to work as a psychologist. Bit sad that I probably never will.

Counselling Psychologist. Dicked about after undergrad for a bit, than got relevant work experience and did the professional doctorate.

Initially social work then teaching. I went into teaching with a view to becoming an Educational Psychologist but loved teaching so much I stayed in it. I’m now a Headteacher at the end of my career and can honestly say I use my knowledge of psychology so much in my job.
I also trained to be a counsellor along the way and have a small private practice.

Clinical psychologist.

I didn't do any other academic qualifications between undergrad and my doctorate even though I was on a course with an academic reputation. Things might have changed.

If you take a snapshot, it's generally a well paid job (certainly if you're outside London it's very well paid as salaries don't change nationwide except for a little extra city weighting). It's very interesting but there's lots of burnout (in my observations more from the politics of being in the NHS than the impact of the clinical work per se) and I know a lot of people who have left the public sector.

It's a really long road to get to the point of being qualified - 6 years of degrees, more if you do a masters or PhD in between. Plus needing work experience to apply for the doctorate; usually 2 or more years. There are numerous bottle necks and the long periods of low pay before training do unfairly privilege those that can afford to manage that. (Which isn't ideal for helping our profession to more accurately reflect the populations we work in!)
And a lot of people understandably don't know the differences between different types of psychologists and 'psychologist' itself isn't a protected or regulated title so anyone could technically set themselves up selling their services as a Psychologist, which is a bit scary.

Counselling and now nursing training but hoping to move from MH nursing to adult/medical. Do private counselling work alongside my nursing training

I think Psychology is one of the degrees that is most applicable in lots of jobs not less.....

I did a work psychology masters after my social psychology degree and went into consulting. It's helped me get all my jobs rather than been a hindrance....

The dole office

@wellbanana. Excellent post. These were all the barriers I found. I was rejected from so many basic care assistant roles despite my degree, that would have given me my work experience I lost the will. Also I didn't have the money or background for yet more low paid work or more education with low income

When I was offered a job in the area I now in for 5 times the pay I would have gotten the psychology ambitions were long forgotten.

This is interesting. I'm on a psych and counselling degree, planning a social work masters... if I can get the grades!

I'd love any advice from others that have followed the same path!

Clinical Psychologist too. Mainly NHS. As others have said it's a long path and competitive to qualify, but with reasonable pay and flexibility. Better paid now whilst training than it was when i trained almost 20 years ago.

However I find listening to other people's distress day in day out takes it's toll and the NHS can be a difficult place to work, which i never considered whilst thinking about a career.

Nope never used my psychology except as a degree (subject irrelevant but shows I have a few brain cells). Have spent most of my working life in low paid jobs not using my degree (currently in Education). However I still think for me it was the right degree to do, there isnt a different subject i would have preferred to do, and I wanted the whole Uni experience. For me I couldn't face any more study after the 3 years so I realised I wasnt going to be able to use my degree. However i do still think it was an interesting degree to do and some of what I learnt in those 3 years has probably helped shape me as an adult and partly made me who I am.