If you have a psychology degree what job do you do?

[Aria20]

I have just finished my psychology degree - spent 4 years after having my youngest child studying for this.

I am not sure what I want to do now!! Ideally I would like to work from home for the most part (yes my youngest will go to after school club!) as my 14yo has additional needs so I'd like to be in the house when he gets home from school/school holidays - he doesn't need direct input and won't be a distraction!

Before having youngest child I was working in early years but I don't want to go back to that as not enough earning potential and 15 years ago I worked in conveyancing and property law but I have been out of that so long I don't think I could get back in.

I find psychology fascinating and was looking into PWP/EMHP roles but it's super competitive to get a trainee place. I also enjoyed the research side of psychology and statistics/analysis so I thought about something along those lines but again I am struggling to get interviews as have no recent relevant experience!

I'm interested in what other jobs people do following psychology degrees - how did you get into your role? What is the flexibility and earning potential? Do you enjoy your job??

I did about 20yrs ago, then I did a PGCE, which you needed for an Ed Psych masters. Stuck with teaching, became a SENCO and Inclusion lead and am now an advisory teacher for children in care at a LA, hybrid working.

Not me, but I know two people with psychology degrees. One is working in children and young people’s mental health services whilst studying for a masters (the work is part of the masters qualification from UCL). The other tutors and nannies children with SEN, specialising in behavioural therapy at the moment.

I did a foundation degree in counselling, which is a two year course and worked alongside it. Yes, the last year I had to do 100 hours of placement sessions and that took 2 and 1/2 years in the end. I love being a counsellor but the psychology degree was not necessary at all for this. In fact I would have been able eligible for student finance without it.

My psychology degree has not been a complete waste as I think it has got me interviews in the past and it was an amazing experience.

My psychology degree helped me get foot in door doing data- no experience required, a grad role/program. Excellent pay and can work from home.

Teacher ;) but you do need to do your pgce on top. And it's tricky to get a job as only really schools with a 6th form offer this

Yes I’m a Senior EP in inner London, so get London allowance. We also get a generous yearly retention payment which bumps up the salary.

The only person I know with a psychology degree became a chartered accountant. Not much help.

Following as dd did a psychology degree took a year out from studying worked in retail and is starting a masters in clinical psychology in September. Really hoping she ends up with a decent job after all her hard work

Also a teacher! I did a science pgce after psych undergrad and now teach biology and psychology but there are psych only training courses now.

These are the top employment destinations of 2020-21 undergraduates with a psychology degree:

(613) Caring Personal Services 9.1%
(322) Welfare and Housing Associate Professionals 7.8%
(222) Therapy Professionals 6.6%
(611) Teaching and Childcare Support Occupations 6.0%
(231) Teaching Professionals 4.5%
(926) Other Elementary Services Occupations 3.9%
(711) Sales Assistants and Retail Cashiers 3.8%
(357) HR, Training and Other Vocational Associate Guidance Professionals 3.6%
(355) Sales, Marketing and Related Associate Professionals 2.9%
(243) Business, Research and Administrative Professionals 2.1%

I studied child psychology and now I'm a children's book designer! Took a winding path and ended up here, love it. Pretty poor earning potential though - in London it tops out at around 40k for an art director, senior designers like me on 30k, more like 25k elsewhere in the country. Don't do it for the money 😆

I did psychology degree which was fascinating and I really enjoyed it but I quickly realised that there was no one job at the end. It was like a jumping off board for so many things.

I did a masters and became a speech and language therapist as the neuroscience and aphasiology plus language acquisition called to me. My course-mate went into data analysis. Another trained to be a probation officer as forensics / criminology called to her. A few went into HR. Most didn't need the degree but did help them to work out what they wanted to do. Only 1 stayed on to do a PhD etc.

Corporate communications.

One day I might do a masters in occupational psych but for now this pays a silly amount for a silly job and I really enjoy it.

NC for this one. I'm a user researcher (design researcher, user experience researcher, UX researcher) for a large multinational tech company. I earn around £100,000 per year with great work life balance (but often shift to work a later day - e.g. 10.30-7pm - due to working with colleagues in the states). 100% work from home.

There are entry level roles for people straight out of undergraduate, but an MSc can help open doors (and PhD can help open more doors and jump stages of the career ladder). You get user resesechers in many different fields (e.g. bank, supermarket, Disney... anything with a product). In large tech there is a slow down in hiring right now, but roles are still out there. You get qualitative, quant and mixed methods researchers.

PM me if you want some career resources as there are many places to help people break into UX.

I also have a degree in Psychology from a few years ago, which I enjoyed at the time but most of the post grad pathways were so daunting and competitive.

I'm really interested in retraining as a Speech and Language therapist, as I saw how much it benefitted my father in the early stages of his Fronto-Temporal Dementia when he was struggling with aphasia.

Can I ask do you enjoy the job? Would you recommend it as a career? Was the masters difficult?

My friends who also studied psyc went on to do different things. One is a social worker, a couple work in HR, one is a clinical psychologist.

i've had mine for 25 years - done various jobs and worked upwards. Currently senior management for a regulatory body. Mostly jobs which need a degree but doesn't much matter what sort

Human Resources

Not much to do with psychology really

I keep seeing jobs for Psychology lecturers at many universities and colleges in the South....could you do a one year PGCE?

Mine did PGCE, then Ed psych, is now a SENCO coordinator in a private school, which is where the bigger salaries are, from what I've seen.

@qandp I like the sound of this as these aspects - surveys, analysing data and report writing is what I found really interesting and did well at! How did you get the job? I applied for a role also for a charity that sounded similar - a monitoring and evaluation role but wasn't shortlisted due to lack of experience!

@sookie535 what role in data do you do?

How can a psychology degree be pointless when you do counselling for a living? Surely the background of psychoanalysis, etc.. woild be extremely helpful?

My degree is in psychology and I then did a post grad in Career Guidance and trained as a careers adviser. I'm now a team leader for a career guidance organisation after working as a careers adviser in schools for about 15 years.

I’m a psychotherapist- did two years counseling training, then psychology degree, then four years master level psychotherapy training.

a masters is needed for most next steps - you can do msc in research and try for a research assistant post at a Uni.

HR - the initial qualification is quite short, maybe six months of studying, costs around £2.5k I think. My friend got a job this way then did more training on the job. Flexible hours!

speech and language therapy MSc though there is a lot of focus now on dysphagia (swallowing ) etc.

personally I would do HR then specialize in employment law, training and development or management.