If you have a degree in psychology?

[MonstranceClock]

What do you do?
I read a thread the other day where a lot of people were saying its basically worthless. I'm doing one now, and feeling very disheartened as I believed I could make a good career with it.

AIBU to ask what you do and what further training you had to do? I'd love to work for the police as a forensic psychologist, or maybe some sort of sex/relationship therapy

Ed psych here too. Best job in the world.

I have been doing it 20 years and still love it. I don't know who said up above that you get little time with client group - I think that depends on role. It's true I don't spend all day every day with children like a teacher does, but the time I have is one on one and I often learn more about a yp, and have more of a conversation with them, in that dedicated timeslot than a teacher has been able to in a whole year.

Following with interest

If business interests you and you like maths and sales, have you considered an accountancy graduate scheme instead of a masters? You'd be employed and therefore earning, but also funded to do either ACA or ACCA qualification to become chartered or chartered certified. This means your employer would pay for your training courses and exams, plus give you paid study leave to attend them (on top of your annual leave), as well as on the job training.

Both qualifications teach business aspects, not just numbers. You can read more about the content of each qual on the ICAEW (for ACA) and ACCA websites.

An accountancy qualification could take you into so many different things, and the ACCA qualification is a global qualification (which also offers a route to a Masters qualification now too, if you'd still like that under your belt in the future).

If you did go that way, once qualified and moving up to management posts etc an element of your role would be winning work/sales related, or some people go into a training role, or you could move off tangentially using your preferred skill sets or into a specialism. You wouldn't have to work in a practice churning out accounts, you could move to industry or the charity sector or set up your own business or do whatever else in the business world interests you. Having psychology and accountancy could be a winning combination!

I wouldn't normally pop up with such suggestions on a thread about psychology degrees, but your last update made me wonder if this is an avenue that might appeal to you so I thought I'd share in case. People aren't always aware how this field can be accessed or what opportunities there are.

Shiny diagram for the ACCA qualification:

www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/ACCA_Global/qual/acca-qualification/acca-qualification-structure.pdf

Got a 1st in Psychology and originally wanted to train as a clinical psychologist. But after investigating most clinical psychology courses needed at least 2 years experience in mental health first, then another 3-4 years post-grad training, then a couple of years supervised practice, and still only about 30% of applicants got through. I decided I couldn't face that much extra studying for such a small chance of getting through, so I retrained in mental health nursing, which took just over 2 years (there was a slightly accelerated course available for people for already had a relevant undergraduate degree). Now I work as a charge nurse in an acute mental health ward. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice giving up on being a clinical psychologist, and in all honesty acute mental health nursing is a lot more stressful than clinical psychology (we're the ones dealing with all the aggressive patients; and trying to do 5 things at once all day long; and never getting a break; and working silly shift times and bank holidays / Christmas). Whereas to be honest the clinical psychologists all do sensible 9-5 hours, and work with the people that want to work with them, and are on 2-3 times a nurses salary.

Id like to retrain as an EdPsych but cant face 3 years full time with kids.... Im finding part time enough. Woild have been fab to have changed pre kids.

I know quite a few people who took psychology at degree level (and I'm also doing so myself at the moment). They all have brilliant jobs in varying fields. As someone above said, it doesn't need to be a job that directly uses psychology. Personally I will be looking into working in some sort of rehabilitation, I will probably need to do further training, but I mainly took psychology as it does open doors and it interests me.

I went through an apprenticeship of all things but you can easily get a junior ux designer position with a psych degree. I'm on 65k now having been in the job about 7 years but even junior is about 25k and you can easily move up after a year or two. I find it really interesting because I'm creative and analytical and this role has a nice blend of both (only a shame the actual company I work for is very dull). It's essentially ALL about human behaviour. Product designer is also a very similar role that requires a very similar skill set.
Don't stress. I initially wanted to be a psychologist working with eating disorders, worked in a learning disability unit for two years as a healthcare worker to get experience for an assistant psych role. It was all so hard and when the recession crashed I gave up. Kind of glad I did. Mental health can be a scary and very draining environment to work in (you know when the second step on Maslow's hierarchy of needs is safety? That can be lacking!!)

I'm a counselling psychologist. You need to do a doctorate to do it. But a psychology degree is pretty useful for many things in my opinion.

@SandyY2K, I’m happy to be PM’d if you have any other questions.
I’m interested to hear about the experience of my clin psych colleagues who are feeling burnt out, or generally aren’t loving the job. It sounds tough, it’s too big an investment for it not to be a joy :(. I’m lucky enough that hadn’t been my existence, I work in a great service (full time NHS), great team, and while we are under pressure it’s never felt manageable. I qualified over 10yrs ago so it’s not like I’m in the first flush, but I don't work in AMH/camhs so I suspect that helps.

OP, I was 25 when I started the doctorate and was one of the youngest, most were late 20’s/early 30’s, and 2 were in their 40’s. When you consider that retirement from nhs is 67+, there’s no rush.

I know the age thing is a huge thing I need to get over
I married young and had became a mum young, so haven't felt like I've actually lived yet and am just so eager to get out and experience the real world, as I've just felt my whole life has been education and child rearing.

My job title is Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner which is a fancy name for a mediator, I do also have a law degree but psych would have been enough to get me on the specific post grad training for mediation. As part of my role I am also a Child Consultant, I would not have been accepted for the training for that without my psychology degree.

I am mid 50s, overall I would say that I have got a few jobs because of my degree even if not directly related,psychology is one of those degrees that people seem to like. View it as a gateway to lots of different opportunities 😊

I have a degree in psychology but decided the clin psych role wasn't for me so did a masters in psychotherapy and another post grad in CBT.

I work in a psychology service at a senior level, every Assistant Psychologist role we advertise has well over 100 applicants.

If you haven't started any volunteering in the field or done any AP roles you won't have a chance of getting onto the clinical doctorate, it is ridiculously competitive and you have to really, really want it.

I wouldn't advise anyone to do it these days, for reasons outlined above and that it's elitist and geared towards people who have the benefit of the financial support of others which means it's all middle class white women.

You don’t need to become a psychologist with a psychology degree. The degree is academically rigorous and you learn a lot about research methodology and statistics, all of which will stand you in very good stead in the job market. It is also recognised as such by many employers, who value psych. degrees. Those with the qualification tend to be very able and have a wide range of transferable skills and knowledge (I work in Higher Education And was a Psychology lecturer). Our students have gone into a wide range of careers in addition to psych. jobs. They include marketing, HR, law, criminology, IT, social work, Business, sales. So, it’s a great degree to have - one of the best, I’d say.

I went in to a big 4 accountancy firm with my Psychology degree, although this is a long time ago.

I work in a bank …

Thank you for this post. I am looking into doing psychology with counselling BPS accredited degree. I'm considering social work or family support work as I have a lot of experience working with children (Montessori teacher for aged 3-7) and have a 10yo son with asd, adhd, pda and anxiety so a lot of direct experience dealing with challenging behaviour.... I am potentially interested in senco roles or working in CAMHS but know more training, masters etc would be needed. I'm 32 with 3 children so am nervous to start a degree now but from reading a lot of the replies I feel more confident that I will be ok and that age will not be a barrier.

A BSc in psychologist is a good academic degree.... You'll have a breadth and depth of understanding in cognitive science /research methods /stats as well as all the optional courses.

A tiny proportion of psychology graduates continue to become 'psychologists' (clinical/counselling /occupational/forensic/sports). When I did my degree late 1990s, less than 10 % became psychologists.)

Competition for educational /clinical is fierce, But, people are sucessful every year. Don't let competition put you off.

If you decide that's the direction you want to go, there is plenty of advice /encouragement online.

Clinical psychologists rarely qualify much under 30....most are 30s/40s....at the moment you get paid at band 6 NHS salaries but this is under threat I think.

I think OP... With 2 kids and having lost a husband you've already got quite a bit of life experience... Showing your resilience and your fortitude in a very sad situation.