Do you work in psychology? Tell me more...

[littlepieces]

I'm thinking of a career change and would be really interested to hear from people who work in any psychology-based field.

What qualifications do you have, how hard is it to find work and what's your day to day like? I already have a 'good' degree and a relatively successful career - just trying to get some more insider info before I make any decisions.

I have a masters in cognitive psychology (and a PhD in cognitive modelling, but that was done for fun rather than career reasons).
I work in user experience design, so doing user research and then translating the findings to designers (who do the actual implementation).
Interesting job and very well paid (stressful though, as I often have the final decision on what goes into production).

I work as an occupational psychologist. I have a ug degree in psychology, a master's in occupational psychology and then you need at least 2 years of supervised practice to become chartered. I have worked for internal OP departments in the civil service and in private sector consultancies. I specialise in psychometric assessments.

Thank you @Itsanewdah and @Bellagonna, really interesting.

Is a postgrad masters any use? Or is a full on degree/four year masters preferable?

I am an educational psychologist. It's a wonderful, varied, interesting and flexible job as long as you don't get stuck in a local authority that has pared its service to the bone to save cash. You have to do a 3 year doctorate level training and have relevant experience to get on to the very competitive courses.

I studied BSc Forensic Psychology and MSc Health Psychology. Throughout my 20s, I applied for hundreds of psychology related jobs to get good work experience with the hope of applying for a Clinical Psychology PhD (so so competitive). I only ever managed to land one related role (mental health support worker) and I hated where I worked. I’m now 29 and about to go back to uni to start over and do Nursing instead.

I honestly LOVE psychology, I always got high marks (graduated with a first) and still find it so fascinating - it’s just incredibly hard to get qualified and takes a long time as you really need to stand out from others with a lot of good work experience. Unfortunately it was just taking too long for me and I wanted to go for something with better career prospects. Fascinating but not the easiest to get a job in, IMO. If you’re motivated enough though I’m sure you can do it!

Also sorry forgot to say - I’m not sure what ‘good’ degree you have, but I’m pretty sure for any psychology doctorate programmes you need to have done a psychology course accredited by the BPS (British psychological society). Apologies if I’m incorrect but this is as far as I can remember! Not 100% sure but I think you would need to start from the beginning with a psychology bsc

I'm a Clinical Psychologist. Did a 4 year undergrad (single honours accredited Psych, no less than 2:1 accepted these days), 1 year Master's, 3 years Assistant Psychologist work and a 3 year (paid) doctorate programme.

Getting an AP post is extremely competitive, getting onto the doctorate is extremely competitive. Many never manage it. After that, there's loads of NHS work and the opportunity to do private practice which can be as flexible as you like.

My core degree/background was applied psychology, but transitioned after that to the legal/policing area with subsequent non-psychology related qualifications.

Based on what I've seen with my (long ago!) class mates that are a lot of different paths. Back in those days many would have worked in the very broad range of counseling services (family, suicide, RCC, etc) from the health services. However, I know today several of them also proceed and do masters level courses the lead to work in diverse areas including user experience, consumer insights, etc.

Also, even when I was in college, there were mature students that transitioned to psychology course from very different areas (chemistry, sports, teaching, etc).

I used to work in MH research - a huge proportion of the people applying for roles on my team were wanting to use it as experience to support the Clinical psychology doctorate applications. It is extremely competitive.

You can do a psychology degree conversion like this one:
www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/course/taught/psychology-conversion-msc

Are conversions worth anything though?

Worth anything for what?

I'm not a psychologist or a psychology graduate but I used to deal with applications and enquiries from people who were, for a very competitive MSc in psychology. Most of them wanted to proceed in due course to the doctorate in clinical psychology. The majority had a good first degree in psychology. Some had a good degree in something else plus a good result from a conversion course. The key thing in both cases was that the psychology qualification needed to be approved by the British Psychological Society to give Graduate Basis for Registration (that might not be quite the right term, but it's something like that - it indicates that the graduate has covered all the subjects the BPS considers a chartered psychologist should know about as a foundation for further study/training). Without GBR you can't proceed to postgraduate study (also accredited by the BPS) to become a chartered psychologist.

For clinical psychology, the typical applicant seemed to have a CV like this:

Good first degree and GBR
Relevant work experience, often starting with voluntary work during the first degree
Master's in a relevant subject (not essential, but strongly recommended as it gives training in research methods and academic writing)
Ph.D. (not by any means essential, but a surprisingly large number of aspiring clinical psychologists did a Ph.D. first)

It often took years and years, a decade or more even, from completing the first degree to getting onto the DClinPsy, and many fell by the wayside and ended up doing something else. Hardly any of our students got straight onto the doctorate from our MSc, but quite a few managed it within the first few years after that.

Other options our students looked at were proceeding to training as forensic, health or counselling psychologists.

The BPS website used to have a lot of information on it. Worth looking at that.

I have changed careers into psychology. I did a psychology BSc Honours with the OU then an MSc in primary care psychology, which lasted a year and was paid for - this is in Scotland; in England I think the equivalent may take 2 years, called IAPT? I now work as a therapist attached to local GP practices, doing primarily CBT with a range of people with mild to moderate mental health problems. It’s interesting, quite vetoed and sometimes stressful. Well supported and in a good team, though doing all appointments by phone or video at present

Not vetoed, varied! Sorry.
Some people I know go on to to do the DClin but I’m stopping here.

I have a PhD in psychology & now teach it at an RG uni.

The BPS has a good summary of the careers you can do after a psychology degree

careers.bps.org.uk/

10 years ago or so, the BPS would 'acredit' most UK psychology courses to meet a particular standard. Now the accreditation is mostly at MSc level, which means that you can do an MSc in the domain you want, and then move on to work or more qualifications from there. Do look carefully at the different MSc courses available - there are a LOT of them with variable quality and different career options available afterwards.

if you find your current degree is not enough to get onto the right MSc, you might need to do the conversion course (which gives the core content of the UG degree in less time) and then an MSc.

Thanks @parietal that's really helpful.
And thanks for all the replies so far, very interesting!

I'm not a psychologist, although I work closely with a number of psychologists (am a nurse with a collection of therapy qualifications).

It is a very interesting field but my observation is that the journey to becoming a clinical psychologists is brutal - years spent as a psychology assistant (very hard and thankless work for a low wage) and no guarantee of being accepted on the course (even extremely good and talented assistants can fail to be accepted).

Forensic psychology has its own complications, such as the need to pay for your supervision etc.

It is a rewarding and interesting area of you are committed and are willing to put the years in to train. If you don't, then routes like mine (mh nurse training followed by training as a family therapist, emdr therapist, tf-cbt therapist) was easier while supporting a family and is also interesting and rewarding.

I'm a counselling psychologist - wonderful, varied career. I love it.

Ug Psych degree, masters and a doctorate to get here tho. Plus hundreds of hours voluntary practice, £££ in supervision, and personal therapy.

I don't think I have the money or time to follow the clinical psychology route to be honest. I'm interested in working for NHS as a therapist. Very interested in forensics but seems tricky to get into.

Following

Have a look at OT. I tried to career change to psych amd life got in the way. I wish Id looked at OT . OtlT is so varied. Ive got friends who assess autism, others who do assertive outreach for MH and all things I'd have been interested in.

Alternatively MH nursing? Id be no good at the actual medical side but that's properly hands on.

Following as DD has ambitions to be an Educational Psychologist. She is in Y10 at the moment and thinking ahead to university where she isnt sure whether to do straight psychology or joint psychology and education.

We have realised that Ed Psych is very difficult to get in to, so any tips to pass on to her would be greatly appreciated!

I believe the first degree has to be BPS certified so the one with education may not be and thats wirth checking. Id imagine pure psych would give her a better grounding. The ed psych qualification is another 3 years on top. Usually inbetweem students will have got work experience with kids.

She will need this in a number of settings. Does she currently help with brownies/cubs/some kids activity? Encourage work experience in holidays at uni with kids clubs etc. Any school experience would be invaluable too. It used to be that ed psychs were ex teachers and although thats not required now many have a pgce.

Thanks so much @PileOfBooks, we will ensure to check the BPS status of each university she is considering.

She is actually thinking that one option may be to train as a primary teacher first (she is interested in teaching so it is not just a means to an end but I she is undecided at the moment. I guess it will become clearer the nearer the time.

Yes she volunteered over the summer at a holiday club (went so well that she has been offered a paid position there next summer) assists at a PHAB club and is soon to be a qualified sports coach in her chosen sport so will get a lot of experience that way.