psychology careers

[nellynaemates]

I'm looking at going "back" to work early next year. I was 5 months pregnant when I graduated from university (with 2:1 in psychology) and I'm looking to get started in a career - eventual aim being either educational or clinical, I'm open to wherever life takes me!

I'm having problems finding entry level stuff though, especially in my local area.

I was just wondering if there are any psychologists out there who can tell me how they got their foot on the ladder (especially if they did whilst having a small child to think about!).

Thanks in advance!

I'm a psychology graduate and have gone into teaching, which can then take you down the educational psychology route. Suggest you could look for part-time teaching assistant posts and see where that takes you, or try FE (part-time lecturing on a visiting tutor basis - you don't need a teaching qualification to do this, but can work towards one part-time, and again can go from there towards ed. psych.). My friend is a clinical psychologist, and I know how fiercely competitive it is to get assistant psychologist posts, let alone getting a place on the coveted 'course'. I'd suggest you contact local NHS clinical psychology departments and either volunteer to do some research, or ask about vacancies - to get your foot in the door. Once you know a clinical psychologist you will have a reference which will help you either get assistant posts, or research assistant posts etc - and from there you can think about broadening your experience before applying for the clinical training, but I believe its not good enough to have just 'some' experience - they like you to have experienced work in different sectors (e.g. older adults, child and family, adult mental health, learning disability) and preferably to have done some substantial research and published too (maybe PhD...). Don't let that put you off though! For me I found starting as an FE lecturer enabled me to work full-time in teaching without a teaching qualification, I then studied towards my Cert. Ed. in the evenings and on day release, and am now a qualified teacher (although I can't teach in secondard schools, only FE colleges). I teach A Level Psychology, and generally love it, and now that my dd is here and I'm pg again, being able to work part-time and to have the school holidays for when the children are older is a real benefit! I hope to go into counselling one day (as a career I mean - although I do sometimes wonder!) once I can focus on 'me' again, but for now my career has taken a bit of a back seat! Good luck in your quest - hope that helps a bit...

Thanks for that extremely quick reply!!

I never thought about going down the FE route. I thought about doing primary school teaching (have done a bit of work with kids before) but at the moment it doesn't seem wise what with newly qualified teachers unable to get jobs!

I have a college in my local town so I will look into the tutoring thing. I've also been looking into support for learning posts in schools, do you think that'll work as good experience for educational psychology?

Hmm. You've definitely given me some food for thought anyway.

Psychology is generally a sought after subject in FE colleges - apart from A Levels and GCSE there is also some cross over with Health and Social Care courses and Access courses (e.g. Access to nursing has a Psychology component) so I'd be hopeful of finding something, and if not now vacancies can literally come up at any time - not like in school teaching. You don't live anywhere near Birmingham do you? They are currently looking for someone to teach 2 and a half days a week (the person who has just left the post had no previous teaching experience).

The support for learning posts certainly seem like a good starting point too, but to go into Educational Psychology you do need to qualify as a teacher first, so it is quite a long-winded route to the final goal. If you can get your foot in the door at a school though in one way or another, you might find that you can train 'on the job' as it were (I can't remember the proper name for these schools-based teacher training courses, but know that it is a recognised and popular way of training as you can earn as you learn). Let me know if I can be anymore help!

...sorry pregnancy brain strikes... 'they' are currently looking for someone to teach 2.5 days a week being the college I work for!

Oh, I should have mentioned, I'm in Scotland so the rules are different here. You need 2 years full time experience working with kids in some way but you don't need to be a qualified teacher first.

I suppose that answers your question about Birmingham too

I checked out my local college and they're not looking for anyone at the moment but they now have my CV so if anything does come up hopefully I shall be contacted.

Thanks again for your help - and good luck with your pregnancy, hope all goes well!