If you’re considering different psychology careers to build a bright future for yourself that also helps other people achieve and maintain their mental health then you have many options open to you and a strong portfolio is the best way to ensure you have the most opportunities. Getting your bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or doctoral degree in psychology is your first step, then it’s time to work on your professional portfolio. There are many psychology jobs for psychology majors to consider and your portfolio should reflect your career goals, whether you have an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree in psychology.
Whether you wish to pursue career paths based on psychological services or industrial organizational psychology, your degree in psychology is the stepping stone to get you started down your professional path. It’s important to know the difference between clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, forensic psychologists, rehabilitation psychologists, and all other forms of mental health counseling and care that you have as your options. The more career opportunities you consider, the better you’ll be able to find a clinical practice that suits you best.
Introduction to Psychology Careers
To understand why people do the things they do, the human mind and brain function have been studied by psychologists since 1870, making it a relatively new area of scientific research and social services. Many graduate and undergraduate degree programs train students to both study and treat mental health through its psychological aspects. Mental health problems and cognitive processes come in many forms and there are just as many areas of psychological expertise to study throughout your academic career.
Whether you want to become a clinical psychologist, an engineering psychologist, a sports psychologist, or any other career path that psychological healthcare professionals pursue, you’ll work on the emotional health of other people. You’ll work by applying psychological principles while you conduct research into why a person is suffering from their mental health ailments. Human behavior is the basis for all clinical and counseling psychologists and that’s what will direct your actions and treatment through your entire career.
Types of Psychology Careers
The many facets of psychology require many paths in psychology careers and many professionals find themselves working with social service agencies or in rehabilitation centers while other healthcare professionals spend their time conducting research, such as experimental psychologists. There are many counseling careers open to psychology students who have completed their education careers. Human resources departments will also often have a mental health psychologist on staff, or a licensed counselor they can call on for their company’s employees.
A clinical psychologist will work with people of all ages and backgrounds and many choose to open up a private practice to take on their patients. Counseling psychology can include anyone from a school psychologist to psychologists who work with people who have behavioral disorders or suffer from clinical depression. A Forensic psychologist works within the law and these are only a few of the of the fields of mental health psychology.
Clinical Psychologist
Taking a look at the clinical psychology career paths will bring you to a professional who works with people who have mental health conditions that make it difficult or impossible to maintain a normal lifestyle. While part of the job requires giving psychological assessments of patients, most of their time is dedicated to treating them for disorders that can affect their physical health as much as their mental health. Becoming a clinical psychologist requires between eight and twelve years of education, which typically translates to a master’s or doctoral degree, with doctoral degrees being the most sought-after.
Many patients of clinical psychologists have developmental disabilities that will have to be identified and treated. Many staffing agencies around the country seek out recent graduates of a graduate program and help them find jobs within the profession. Mental health centers are always looking for clinical psychologists to take on and offer mental health services to their patients.
Counseling and Therapy Careers
Counseling and therapy careers can be pursued after achieving a master’s degree in psychology and can lead to positions as varied as a school psychologist to a counseling psychologist with a private practice. The psychological services these professionals offer are usually ongoing and focus on the mental health conditions of their patients as they go about their lives. Psychological assessments are a large part of the job and can be one of the most rewarding career paths in the psychological expertise field.
Keep in mind that one has to be a licensed counselor before one can become a counseling psychologist and that means passing an exam and going before a board. That’s why the master’s degree is typically overshot with the doctoral degree in psychology being held by most in the counseling and therapy careers. The more you study mental health, the better equipped you’ll be to continue down your path for a future working in the field.
School Psychologists
School psychology and educational psychology are two similar fields that put your degree in psychology to use by allowing you to work with children and adults to care for their mental health and help them achieve the best of their abilities in school. As a school psychologist, your job is to identify and address behavioral and learning problems that can affect a child’s school work and development. The role of the school psychologist is pivotal to a child’s development and can help them learn and grow while their cognitive processes are still developing.
The other job of school psychologists and educational psychologists is to translate the children’s mental health and human behavior to their parents to help them better understand what’s happening to them. It’s also important to suggest at-home care for their mental and developmental health outside of their school psychology sessions. School psychologists should be fully devoted to a career that helps children and their parents through the incredibly important school years.
Specialized Psychology Careers
On top of all the psychology careers above, there are also specialized psychology career paths to pursue after you obtain your psychology degree with varying levels of earning potential and your professional portfolio will be instrumental in achieving your position. One of the highest-paying mental health psychologist career paths is that of the industrial-organizational psychologist, which we’ll discuss below. A clinical psychologist also has one of the highest earning potentials in the field and is considered to be a specialized career.
Next up is the counseling psychology career path with counseling careers in both private practice and through social services offered in every U.S. state. The fourth of the career paths to consider for high earning potential is forensic psychology which leans heavily on understanding human behavior as it pertains to the law. It can be a very rewarding use of your psychology degree if you want to work within the law field and assist in helping with court cases when it comes to understanding and explaining the role the human mind plays in crime and other legal situations.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Industrial-organizational psychologists are also known as I/O psychologists and they play a very important part in the workplace when it comes to mental health and counseling. It’s important to understand that a person’s mental health will play a large part in their physical health at the workplace and it’s the job of the industrial-organizational psychologist to identify behavioral problems that arise from a worker’s mental state. It requires a strong understanding of organizational development, human performance, and consumer behavior.
The position of the industrial-organizational psychologist is irreplaceable within companies, especially when the information that industrial-organizational psychology provides earns the company money by understanding the motivations and behaviors of its customers. It’s also important to understand that industrial-organizational psychologists don’t need a formal license to practice. That also means that your portfolio is what will get you your job, not your license to practice psychology.
Forensic Psychology
Finally, forensic psychology may be considered one of the most important psychology jobs because it’s the responsibility of the forensic psychologist to diagnose a person’s mental health as they’re involved in litigation. This litigation can be in the criminal justice system or the civil system, but both are just as important to the person going through it. When it comes to the civil justice system, the forensic psychologist will work with people who are involved with personal injury suits, child custody cases, workers’ compensation suits, and many others.
It’s the job of the criminal forensic psychologist to judge whether a person is fit to stand trial, if they have diminished capacity, or whether they are insane. These criminal cases will rely on forensic psychologists to explain their standing to the court so they can decide how to move forward with the case, if at all. This is a mental health psychologist position that requires licensure that will have to be maintained throughout your psychology career.
Education and Training
The education and training you receive when pursuing your psychology degree will be instrumental in your career and a staffing agency will take your degree in psychology to help place you in a job that matches your knowledge level. While it might be possible to get some work with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, higher degrees will stand out in your professional portfolio and that’s what potential employers will be looking for when they need to fill a position. It doesn’t matter if you want to seek out a career in school psychology or social services, having a master’s degree in psychology or a doctoral degree in psychology will work to your benefit for the rest of your life.
The career paths available to you will be connected closely to your psychology degree and other healthcare professionals should be able to take the information you provide to them as the best information they can find. It’s the same when your career is based on conducting research rather than providing mental health care. The higher your degree in psychology is, the better positioned you’ll be to achieve the job that you want.
Certification and Licensure
While not all careers in psychology require licensure and certification, the fact is that the vast majority of your options will, and maintaining your license is something you’ll have to do throughout your career. Your psychology degree will be the first step, then psychology jobs will make you seek out a state license before you can be considered for almost every position that you hope to achieve for yourself. This is especially true if you pursue psychology jobs that necessitate the prescription of drugs to the people you’re treating or providing counseling to.
Each state jurisdiction will have its own rules and requirements for licensure, but you should always be able to get a handbook so you know exactly what to expect. It’s best to get your license to practice before you find a staffing agency to place you in a working position. The sooner you can get your certification and license, the sooner you’ll be able to put your psychology degree to work.
Working in Mental Health
Working in mental health can be the most rewarding career that you can pursue and there are staffing agencies that can help you find a position right now. As long as your professional portfolio looks good and you have the proper education and license, you can start working with the psychological principles now. Try to choose your career path early and pursue it as soon as you can.
Once you start working in the mental health field, you’ll feel like you’re making a real difference and that’s something that not all career paths can offer you. You’ll be able to help people with their mental health, whether you want to work with adults or with children. That’s up to you, but you’ll know you made the right life choices as soon as you make a difference to someone who needs help.
