Terminate me if you accept already heard this one. Psychology is one of the virtually popular undergraduate majors in the U.Southward.; in the last yr the data are bachelor (2014-2015), 117,557 available's degrees in psychology were awarded. Said another fashion, in the past ix years, one million individuals received psychology baccalaureates (National Eye for Education Statistics, 2017).

Request the question "what tin can you do with a available's caste in psychology?" is a very relevant question to a lot of people. Allow me to clinch you from the outset that if someone tells you the respond to that question is "cipher," that respond is patently false. About 25 percent of psychology baccalaureates go to graduate school in psychology, nearly 18 percent become on for more teaching only not in psychology, and 57 per centum are workforce graduates (Lin, Christidis & Stamm, 2017).

If no one was getting a job with a bachelor's degree in psychology, that tidbit of information would have made the news by now and I doubtable the popularity of the major (as evidenced by annual number of graduates) would decrease substantially. Just a quick, short reply, such every bit "nil," is a blurb and a sound seize with teeth — easy to understand yet meaningless. The actual answer is much more than complicated and nuanced, and it goes like this — the psychology bachelor'due south degree qualifies a person for a large number of jobs, simply the degree does not uniquely authorize a person for any particular job.

Huh?

Offset, let's showtime with the large number of jobs function. Below y'all can see the Holy Grail listing of potential jobs with a available'due south degree in psychology. I don't know where this listing started, perhaps with Marky Lloyd and/or Drew Appleby, curated over time past Paul Hettich and/or Jane Halonen, but it seems now that I am the curator of "the list."

Activities Director Labor Relations Managing director
Admissions Evaluator Loan Officeholder
Advertizement Sales Representative Management Analyst
Alumni Managing director Market Research Analyst
Animate being Trainer Occupational Analyst
Benefits Manager Patient Resource Reimbursement Agent
Career/Employment Advisor Personnel Recruiter
Career Information Specialist Police Officer
Caseworker Polygraph Examiner
Child Evolution Specialist Preschool Teacher
Kid Welfare/Placement Caseworker Probation/Parole Officer
Claims Supervisor Project Evaluator
Jitney Psychiatric Adjutant/Attendant
Community Arrangement Worker Psychiatric Technician
Community Worker Psychological Stress Evaluator
Computer Developer Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist (PSR)
Conservation Officeholder Public Relations Representative
Correctional Treatment Specialist Purchasing Agent
Corrections Officer Existent Estate Amanuensis
Criminal Investigator (FBI and other) Recreation Leader
Customer Service Representative Supervisor Recreation Supervisor
Data Base of operations Administrator Research Assistant
Data Base of operations Pattern Analyst Retail Salesperson
Department Managing director Sales Clerk
Disability Policy Worker Social Services Aide
Inability Instance Manager Substance Abuse Counselor
Employee Health Maintenance Plan Specialist Systems Analyst
Employee Relations Specialist Technical Writer
Employment Counselor Veterans Contact Representative
Employment Interviewer Veterans Counselor
Financial Aid Counselor Victims' Advocate
Fund Raiser Vocational Training Instructor
Wellness Care Facility Ambassador Volunteer Coordinator
Human being Resource Advisor Writer
Information Specialist
Job Analyst


To say that a available's degree in psychology prepares y'all for no job is but ludicrous. But let's retrieve about the more nuanced part — a bachelor's degree in psychology does not exclusively entitle a person to whatsoever of the jobs in this listing. Using O*Net from the U.S. Department of Labor (2017) for the following bulleted data, permit me to explain what I mean past psychology's lack of exclusivity.

  • For a job like brute trainer, the vast majority of individuals with this task have a high school diploma (or less) as their highest educational attainment. And so a available'due south degree (in any field) is not necessarily a prerequisite requirement.
  • In guild to exist a claims supervisor (claims examiner) for an insurance company, nearly lxx pct of those individuals have a bachelor's degree. This type of position tin be filled past individuals from many different majors.
  • To serve as a corrections officer, 89 percent of individuals in this career accept a high schoolhouse diploma or equivalent. Psychology majors can practise well in this area, but as you can probably understand, and then do criminal justice majors, folklore majors, and others.
  • Thirty percent of labor relations specialists concur bachelor'south degrees, and 25 per centum hold master's degrees — a psychology major could certainly attain this job, but will sometimes be competing with others with college educational attainment.
  • Technical writers typically crave some college (35 percent associate'due south degree and 33 percentage bachelor'south degree), simply as yous can imagine, a psychology major competing for this position would also exist competing with individuals who were English language majors in higher.

It is my hope that these examples illustrate the nuance and complexity of discussing career options for psychology workforce graduates. There are many, many task possibilities, but there is also much competition pending in the workplace due to the lack of exclusivity. Psychology majors, no matter what the career trajectory, need to be thinking about, cultivating and honing their skill sets; in that regard, I highly encourage you lot to review the works of Miller and Carducci (2015) and Strohmetz et al. (2015). Practice not be passive nigh your future, hoping that information technology "all comes out in the launder" — exist forcefully empowered to be your own best ally and advocate for a satisfying and successful time to come.

References

Lin, 50., Christidis, P., & Stamm, K. (2017, October). The path to becoming a psychologist. Monitor on Psychology, 48 (9), 17.

Miller, Chiliad.J., & Carducci, B.J. (2015). Student perceptions of cognition, skills, ad abilities desired by potential employers of psychology majors. Scholarship of Pedagogy and Learning in Psychology, 1, 38-47.  doi:ten.1037/stl0000015.

National Middle for Instruction Statistics. (2017). Degrees in psychology conferred by postsecondary institutions, past level of degree and sexual practice of educatee: Selected years, 1945-l through 2014-15 [Table 325.80]. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_325.80.asp?current=yes.

Strohmetz, D.B., Dolinsky, B, Jhangiani, R.S., Posey, D.C., Hardin, E.E., Shyu, Five., & Klein, E. (2015). The skillsful major: Psychology curricula in the 21st century. Scholarship of Educational activity and Learning in Psychology, 1, 200-207.  doi:x.1037/stl0000037.

U.Southward. Section of Labor. (2017). O*Internet Online. Retrieved from https://www.onetonline.org/.

Nearly the author

R. Eric Landrum R. Eric Landrum is a professor of psychology at Boise Land Academy, receiving his PhD in cognitive psychology from Southern Illinois Academy-Carbondale. His inquiry interests eye on the educational conditions that best facilitate educatee success equally well every bit the use of scholarship of teaching and learning strategies to accelerate the efforts of scientist-educators. He has over 400 professional person presentations at conferences and published over 25 books/book chapters, and has published over 75 professional articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. He has worked with over 300 undergraduate research assistants and taught over thirteen,000 students in 25 years at Boise State. During Summer 2008, he led an American Psychological Clan working group at the National Conference for Undergraduate Educational activity in Psychology studying the desired results of an undergraduate psychology education. During the October 2022 Educational Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., Eric was presented with a Presidential Citation from and so APA President Nadine Kaslow for his outstanding contributions to the pedagogy of psychology. He is a fellow member of APA, a boyfriend in APA'due south Div. two (Society for the Didactics of Psychology or STP), served equally STP secretary (2009-2011). During 2014, Eric served as president of the Order for the Pedagogy of Psychology; for 2016-2017, he served as president of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association; and Eric is currently president of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology.