Thinking of changing career at 40! Psychology is very appealing to me.. am I too old

[SheilaTheThief]

Any psychologist mumsnetters could share how they got into it? Can I do it? I worry I’m too old to study and change career to something so intense

I got my psychology degree in 1994, it took a lot of hard work.

Parts are very interesting (social psychology etc) but most is very dull ie. learning and cognition and language and thought. Modules like criminal psychology are over subscribed and you have to get top marks to get in.

An undergraduate degree won’t make you a “psychologist” in the sense of having a career. You will need to continue on and do a Masters and probably a Doctorate. It’s a very long haul!

What job do you want to do at the end? You'll realistically need a doctorate to be a psychologist. If you want to study psychology (BSc, I would assume?), I would explore what jobs that means you are likely to be able to get after that.

I graduated from my BSc psychology in 2016. It doesn't automatically make you a psychologist in the clinical or qualified sense, you'd definitely need to go on to specialise afterwards. It is very statistics and research methods heavy as it's effectively a science degree, so there are a lot of really good transferable skills. You definitely aren't too old to retrain, I'm doing my PhD now and I'm almost 42. If it is something that really interests you and you can afford to take the financial hit for a few years then absolutely go for it - it is a really interesting degree 😊good luck!

If you mean you're already a graduate, ideally postgraduate and have relevant work experience, ideally as an assistant psychologist and are wondering about applying for the doctorate in clinical psychology, or you're a teacher and considering educational psychology, then I'd say definitely go for it. If you're considering the BSc and hoping you'll get a career from it I really wouldn't advise that. It's a very broad degree and finishing it is only the starting point. Far better to train as an IAPT counsellor, or a mental health nurse or something depending on what area of psychology you're considering. If you're a graduate in any field I'd recommend a first step of looking for an assistant psychologist job though (rare and competitive) as work experience is valued highly as it's a really competitive area to get into clinical practice.

I'm currently studying a psychology degree part time and am finding it really dull and am planning on changing to something else next year. I'm not wanting to spend the next few years doing statistics, I had not realised how much of the course was stats based before I started.

There are loads of mature students. It's not too late to learn but it's hard to know the chances of you building a career without knowing what you want to do.