a few psychology questions (1 Viewer)

[fat_penguin]

Hi guys

with the big thursday midnight deadline for uni preferences looming, i thought i'd just pop in and ask the question that my parents are particularly worried about..

will it be hard to find a psychology related job after graduation? especially since atm i'm interested in clinical psychology? [yes, typical i know .. would you need to have a lot of natural talent to do clinical?] and what if this was opposed to say, finding a job after doing business law at uts? [which my parents would rather me do]

i've searched a lot of the psychology threads - read all the statistics about how employment prospects look good and all that, and how your chances improve if you do masters..

which leads me to another question - is it really hard to get into masters?

lol as you can see, basically i'm just very, very confused..

i know it depends heaps on how well i'd do in either course... cept i really wouldn't know which one i'd be best suited to.. so yeah im at a bit of a loss as to what to do.. so yeah what do you guys reckon? i guess i'm just after some reassurance from those more knowledgable that there are quite a few jobs out there ..

so yeah.. thanks for taking the time to read this, and i'd be grateful for any responses! thanks guys =)

 

[Sarah]

Hi guys

with the big thursday midnight deadline for uni preferences looming, i thought i'd just pop in and ask the question that my parents are particularly worried about..

will it be hard to find a psychology related job after graduation? especially since atm i'm interested in clinical psychology? [yes, typical i know .. would you need to have a lot of natural talent to do clinical?] and what if this was opposed to say, finding a job after doing business law at uts? [which my parents would rather me do]

i've searched a lot of the psychology threads - read all the statistics about how employment prospects look good and all that, and how your chances improve if you do masters..

which leads me to another question - is it really hard to get into masters?

lol as you can see, basically i'm just very, very confused..

i know it depends heaps on how well i'd do in either course... cept i really wouldn't know which one i'd be best suited to.. so yeah im at a bit of a loss as to what to do.. so yeah what do you guys reckon? i guess i'm just after some reassurance from those more knowledgable that there are quite a few jobs out there ..

so yeah.. thanks for taking the time to read this, and i'd be grateful for any responses! thanks guys =)

Hi Fat_Penguin, what degree are you hoping to do?

Ok, here's what you probably or should know already: To become a practising psychologist, you need to enrol in an APS accredited degree with a major in Psych.
This consists of 3 years plus 1 honours year. After honours you pursue masters or a PHD.

From what I've heard, Masters in Clinical psychology is very competitive to get into. I could be wrong but that's what my psych friends have told me. However, there's always the possibility of going to another uni to do masters and/or PHD.

First year psych will give you a brief taste of the different areas in psychology. 2nd and 3rd year is where you go into more depth. You might feel differently about clinical psych once you've undertaken more study.

Psychology related jobs after graduation- Well i guess it depends. Some ppl who don't enter into a psychology related job i.e use their knowledge learnt from the degree, however they end up entering into professions which require skills they learn from the degree e.g commuication, research skills. Oh in addition, you might want to investigate whether there is a compulsory work experience component to the Masters course. From what I remember, there is if you undertake a Masters in Organisational Psych. There's also some sort of psych organisation which helps students to gain work experience. I forgot the name but saw a job advert for it.

You should have a clearer idea on which masters course you wish to pursue after completing honors. Having said that, you will want your marks to be good enough in the first place to get your top preference when you nominate an honours topic to research and your research supervisor.

Hope this helps

 

[fat_penguin]

thanks for the info Sarah =) i wasn't expecting anyone to reply so soon considering how late it is.. probably should've asked this stuff earlier, but oh well

anyway, i think i'm leaning towards B psych at nsw.. but yeah, i'm just scared i'll suck at it and therefore won't get a job, and will therefore have wasted many years of my life ..

it makes sense that masters in clinical would be hard to get into. but dang that sucks. =( i hadn't considered transferring uni's to do masters.. but it sounds good - thanks for that =) the only thing is - seeing as the other unis would be heaps competitive too, [macq with its great rep, and syd with its prestige i guess] and they'd offer their own students places first - do you think that those programs would be heaps hard to get into too?
but yeah - what you said about interests changing is true.. so i guess we'll have to wait and see about the whole clinical thing..

if you dont enter a psychology related job - say you do marketing, i'm assuming it'd be better to have majored in marketing and minored in psychology or something [not that i really know what i'm talking about] but would that it be necessary to have done so? would you be *really* disadvantaged if you only do a straight Bpsych?

anyway thanks for that again =) it was heaps helpful!

 

[Sarah]

thanks for the info Sarah =) i wasn't expecting anyone to reply so soon considering how late it is.. probably should've asked this stuff earlier, but oh well

anyway, i think i'm leaning towards B psych at nsw.. but yeah, i'm just scared i'll suck at it and therefore won't get a job, and will therefore have wasted many years of my life ..

it makes sense that masters in clinical would be hard to get into. but dang that sucks. =( i hadn't considered transferring uni's to do masters.. but it sounds good - thanks for that =) the only thing is - seeing as the other unis would be heaps competitive too, [macq with its great rep, and syd with its prestige i guess] and they'd offer their own students places first - do you think that those programs would be heaps hard to get into too?
but yeah - what you said about interests changing is true.. so i guess we'll have to wait and see about the whole clinical thing..

if you dont enter a psychology related job - say you do marketing, i'm assuming it'd be better to have majored in marketing and minored in psychology or something [not that i really know what i'm talking about] but would that it be necessary to have done so? would you be *really* disadvantaged if you only do a straight Bpsych?

anyway thanks for that again =) it was heaps helpful!

It's not the best of habits staying up late but it's holidays and you get into the habit of it.

If you were contemplating Business/Law at UTS, have you considered Law/Science at UNSW (or other unis)? Alternatively, if you have an interest in marketing, have you considered Commerce/Science at any of the unis?

If you're worried about jobs, well it's about taking the intiative to see if you're interested in that area of psych. For example, you could investigate volunteer work or if you lucky and know any pyschologists, you could take these holidays as an opportunity to gain some work experience or even just to chat with them. Try to avoid letting your degree define what your career is. This is just an example but ppl who major in Economics don't all go out to be Economists. They might use the skills they've learned in other areas. It's good if you have an idea of what you want to do as you can work towards it but sometimes the best of plans can change.

I'm not familiar with all the details concerning entry into masters programs. I've just been informed that Clinical Psych is very competitive to get into. I would assume it's based on marks however, I strongly recommend checking out university websites. UNSW's psych website is www.psy.unsw.edu.au

Unfortunately, I don't know enough to answer your last question. I don't know if you're using Marketing just as an example or if you have an interest in it but Marketing is very competitive to get into. There are a lot of sales related jobs out there (i'm not talking about jobs in retail but more of jobs inn companies) however in areas such as product development, branding, supply chain management, advertising and so on, not many grad positions are on offer.

Marketing itself is considered by many as incorporating aspects of psych in it so i'd say it's related to psych (thus why Marketing and Psych are popular combinations in a commerce/science degree).

I think it really depends on what you want to enter into after you do your degree. Say if you wanted to become an actuary, well it might be a long process for you to become one. But if you wanted to work for the govt e.g grad recruitment programs, your skills rather then your knowledge of psychology, would help you get a job there.

And if after 1st year you don't like psychology, you can always transfer . As a general thing, it's quite common for students to transfer degrees

 

[fat_penguin]

hey sarah! almost forgot to thank u for all ur help! silly me

well yeah, thanks alot again for all ur help