What can one do with an undergraduate psychology degree?

writing on behalf of my son who is 21:

"

hi ASF,
i am just posting this to get any suggestions as to what pathway I should take.

I have completed my 3 year undergraduate degree in psychology and feel as though money and time has been wasted!

what use is such a degree? i am thinking of doing some kind of post-graduate degree like accounting or nursing because i know i will come out with a guarenteed job unlike the one i completed.

i figured out i don't want to be a psychologist because that requires honours and masters, both of which is hard to attain and competitive

need you advice/help, i am considering on seeing a career counselor while i can?

thank you

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there you go, i have told him my thoughts, but having not done university myself i have no idea.

If he feels he has wasted his time, then it is obviously not what he enjoys doing, so there is probably no point in pursuing a career in the feild. Jobs such as social work, profiling, analysis (gov roles) etc are all available, but it just dpends on your grades and interviews obviously.

I would say take it as a learning experience, and who knows, maybe in the future it will be of some use. Personally i think the more certificates the better, and i know a lot of employers like people with any degree as it shows they can stick at something for more than 10 minutes, a problem which society seems to think us Gen Y's have...

prawn_86 said:

If he feels he has wasted his time, then it is obviously not what he enjoys doing, so there is probably no point in pursuing a career in the feild. Jobs such as social work, profiling, analysis (gov roles) etc are all available, but it just dpends on your grades and interviews obviously.

I would say take it as a learning experience, and who knows, maybe in the future it will be of some use. Personally i think the more certificates the better, and i know a lot of employers like people with any degree as it shows they can stick at something for more than 10 minutes, a problem which society seems to think us Gen Y's have...

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so might you suggest he continues to study? another 2 years post-graduate qualifications? more money and time wasted?

others have a career after 3 years, whether it is a civil engineer or a speech pathologist..

agro said:

so might you suggest he continues to study? another 2 years post-graduate qualifications? more money and time wasted?

others have a career after 3 years, whether it is a civil engineer or a speech pathologist..

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Personally i would suggest he does something he enjoys. By the sounds of it he does not enjoy psychology so it would be a waste going on and doing the masters etc. If he already thinks it is a waste then obviously his heart is not in it.

Engineering degrees are generally 4 years, but i know what you are saying. You have to look at the earning potential though. A grad engineer gets about 60k (if they dont go to the mines) whereas im assuming a psychologist fully qual with masters would recieve more than that (but i dont know for certain)

With the depression rising in the number of people around the world and in Australia, with whole lot of breaking marriages and swag of emotional and psychological problems arising at an alaraming rate in this modern world, I will consider a degree in psychology to be a great asset.

Yes, it requires advancemnts (via further studies, MS, PhD) but their are no shortcuts in life if you ask me. The hardwork eventually pays off. Psychologiest are the new dentist, not as flashy as a G.P. but earns more money than one. Although he has to make the suffering of people go away (by fixing the tooth or mind...)

Anyway he is lucky as age and time is on his side. He can still choose/change his career. Career counsiling is the best way forward.

While I haven't done psychology myself, I believe that the minimum qualifications expected from graudates are honours (and may be even masters).

So, he has 2 options, either continue on for another 2/3 years, and be a psychologist, or study something else for the next 2/3 years, something which he might enjoy a bit more.

Remember though, nothing would guarantee a job. In fact, there are many accounting graduates who are unable to find a job even though there is supposingly a shortage of accountants.

supposedly alot of people combine it with a business orientated degree to go into HR.... which isnt as bad as it sounds, my current NSW MD came from a HR background

white_goodman said:

supposedly alot of people combine it with a business orientated degree to go into HR.... which isnt as bad as it sounds, my current NSW MD came from a HR background

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true.

would he be better of:

1 - doing another 2 year studies of management per say

or

2 - find a graduate job in that field? gain experience etc?

agro said:

true.

would he be better of:

1 - doing another 2 year studies of management per say

or

2 - find a graduate job in that field? gain experience etc?

Click to expand...

Without a doubt (in my opinion) he should do something he enjoys, not necessarily something that pays well or his parents want him to do.

prawn_86 said:

Personally i would suggest he does something he enjoys. By the sounds of it he does not enjoy psychology so it would be a waste going on and doing the masters etc. If he already thinks it is a waste then obviously his heart is not in it.

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mayk said:

With the depression rising in the number of people around the world and in Australia, with whole lot of breaking marriages and swag of emotional and psychological problems arising at an alarming rate in this modern world, I will consider a degree in psychology to be a great asset.

Yes, it requires advancemnts (via further studies, MS, PhD) but their are no shortcuts in life if you ask me. The hardwork eventually pays off. Psychologiest are the new dentist, not as flashy as a G.P. but earns more money than one. Although he has to make the suffering of people go away (by fixing the tooth or mind...)

Anyway he is lucky as age and time is on his side. He can still choose/change his career. Career counsiling is the best way forward.

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My son-in-law did the extra Honours year as he felt he needed and wanted more knowledge and experience.

He worked for 'Anglicare' for three years to serve out his probation period, then two years with another provider when they moved intra-state, before starting a two-days-a-week private practice for a year. He now works privately full time by contracting work from organisations who do not have the human resources to cope.

MAYK's point is spot on!
... especially now that you can claim a doctor-referred session from Medicare. People are more inclined to seek help.

Prawn is spot on!

Why did he choose psych? What area did he have in mind?
If you love what you do it is not work. What is his passion?
Finishing his degree should have him excitedly looking for providers to do his probation time with.
... or deciding to do Honours.

My S-in-L originally wanted to get to kids in pre-school and help them before too much damage had been done.
He works with children who are referred from school because of behaviour problems and does not have enough time for all the referrals he's asked to take. He is currently earning $800 a day, with back-to-back appointments.

It looks like he doesn't really know what he wants yet; which is okay, he's still young. Why not take a break, do a bit of traveling, get exposure to different cultures, do some casual work, etc. I don't think there is much point in a 'career counselor', they can't tell you what you want to do. Plenty of time to make a career, if that's what he actually wants.

agro said:

true.

would he be better of:

1 - doing another 2 year studies of management per say

or

2 - find a graduate job in that field? gain experience etc?

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why not both, im 20 and do full time uni with 3 days a week cadetship (paid) and i find i learn a great deal doing both

I was interested to read this post as I've just finished an undergraduate psychology degree myself. I am in a slightly different position however as I currently work as an engineer (got that degree first). I did the Psyc degree mainly because I'm interested in it, but along the way I have been exposed to alot of different areas/uses for the degree.

The undergraduate psyc degree is a bit like the swiss army knife of degrees. It can be used in so many different areas. It is far from a waste, as a lot of potential employers value the fact that you have a degree and some people assume that you are good with people because you have a psyc degree (not always the case though.... )

From the comments written by your son it seems like he has already investigated the clinical side of things, and as he rightly states, it is a long and competitive path to first get honours and then gain the registration hours needed to practice as a Psychologist (2 years worth from memory). If he does want to pursue this side of things though, I have talked to a few people who have done this and find it extremely rewarding.

Another area your son could look into is Organisational Psychology. This involves all sorts of corporate psyc stuff like recruitment tests, profiling reports, interviews, coaching, organisational restructures etc.
A couple of years ago I took an internship with an organisational psyc company in Sydney. I found out that it wasn't my cup of tea, but a lot of the other interns loved it. There are apparently quite big salaries for people who do well in this area.

If your son is into sports there are also positions as sports psychologists. Not sure of the qualifications needed but I'm pretty sure it's less than a clinical psyc. Sports psycs help athletes to perform mentally. Apparently there is quite a bit of work out there for them as well.

If he really doesn't want to go into psyc at all, he could always consider jobs where they need a degree to apply, but don't necessarily need the degree to match the job eg police officer, some government jobs etc.

Hope some of this helps. Apologies for the length of the post, but it's an area I've spent a bit of time researching

Cheers

There are not many professionally recognised qualifications that have 3 year degree courses. Even Social Work, which is recognised, is 4 years. If he was drawn to psychology to work with people, then he will go forward, any other motivating factor and I recommend he choose a different career path.

Working in the human service field is extremely challenging and you really need to be devoted to the work you do and why you are doing it.

If he just want to get a job with the qualifications he has got then one option would be to do a period of time in the country to gain some experience. Departments like Justice and Child Protection always struggle to attract people and hence will often drop their qualification requisite to fill the posts. However he will not be called a Psychologist (because he is not one yet), but may get a case work role. Country jobs have their benefits (and I can only speak for WA) which includes subsidised housing, airconditioning, free flight back to city, zone allowance on top of wages, 5 weeks leave and a few other things.

But I agree with what others have said, he really needs to take time to think about what he wants and why.

agro said:

true.

would he be better of:

1 - doing another 2 year studies of management per say

or

2 - find a graduate job in that field? gain experience etc?

Click to expand...

I think he should try looking at the graduate job market out there!

What are his grades like? Also what companies/aeras hire PsyCh Grads?

Then go for those

thx

MS

My wife did one and went to work in HR with Telstra for 10 years and loved the job (but hated the company). While there they paid for an MBA in International Business specialising in HR and then an honours year in Psych. She then moved on to be a HR manager in a travel company and then applied for a General Manager role here in Peru which she got.

A friend of mine did Psych and went into Organisational Psychology and completed a Masters and now runs his own company specialising in recruitment.

I have an undergraduate psych degree (done as a Graduate Diploma of Psychology after another undergrad degree) and I know who Freud and Jung are. Other than that, it's led me no where.