A CAREER IN PSYCHOLOGY

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Jacob Crosby
BUS 1010-407
Professor Jonathan Noel
23 July 2015
A Career in Psychology
Job Description
The first thing to look into when youre looking at any career is to see what the daily life
will be like. With a psychology major, it really does depend on what path you want to go on. For
me, I would like to go into counseling. From what I have seen with other people visiting various
counselors, counselors will sit down with patients and help the patients with any mental and/or
emotional problems that they are having. Each session will last about an hour, and sessions can
be back to back. This job in a day can last any number of hours, depending on if the psychologist
is at a private practice or working for another business (M. Chamberlain, telephone interview,
July 4, 2015). People skills are also important, as the counselor needs to be able to communicate
with the patient all of the tools the patient can use to help themselves; it is a face-to-face job
(M. Chamberlain, telephone interview, July 4, 2015).
General Education Experience
Besides counseling, psychology majors have many other options to choose from.
Counseling is what a Masters Degree can offer (Lloyd 2011) but doctorate degrees in this field
can offer far more opportunities and higher wages. However, there is a cost to earning a
doctorate degree in terms of time. Its projected by Schreiber that earning a doctorates degree can
take 3 to 7 years (2014). In addition, certain licenses must be acquired (M. Chamberlain,
telephone interview, July 4, 2015), depending on the field that one will want to go into, which
can take even longer. From these number of years, you can tell that getting a doctorate in
Psychology is no easy task. All of this hard work does pay off though.
Average Salary

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The salary of each occupation depends a lot on where the person works, like at a private
practice or for a business, but for the most part, the average psychologist with a masters degree
will earn between $50,000-$100,000 (M. Chamberlain, telephone interview, July 4, 2014).
General Career Path
Now, the mystery to get to a psychology career is thankfully, not too complicated. It is
however, a lot of work, as I mentioned earlier with obtaining the degree. So for starters, one
needs to go to college and get their Bachelors in Psychology. Then, to land a major career, one
needs to work towards their masters and perhaps Ph.D. Thats the school part, but then one has
to also get an internship in the field they wish to enter. This usually happens while the future
psychology major is going through school (M. Chamberlain, telephone interview, July 4, 2015)
although one could do it after school. Schreiber also adds that psychologists must have done a lot
of research (like studies of how people behave to certain stimuli) in their area of expertise and
must be licensed (2014). The licensing sounds reasonable enough, especially for those who
research for a living or counsel people. Upon further research of the required licenses, Mr.
Chamberlain told me that there were different types of licenses depending on what you wanted to
do with your degree (telephone interview, July 4, 2015). A psychologist license will let you do
areas of therapy as well as psychological testing, such as personality testing or IQ testing. There
are also marriage and family licenses, certified mental health [licenses], substance abuse
licenses, and a lot more, all requiring a different level of degree. Interestingly enough, a
substance abuse license only required a bachelors degree, although all the aforementioned
licenses needed a masters degree at least. The final step is to actually get a job, which can be
found through networking into a hospital, school, opening your own private practice, or other
business or government that has needs for a psychologist. So, to recap, the long yet simple road

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to getting a job in psychology includes graduating, interning, researching, getting licensed, and
then finally getting a job, either working for someone or at your own private practice.
Career Outlook
The overall career outlook for psychology has quite a few options. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics predicted that the increase for a job in psychology will increase by 12% between the
years 2012-2022, which is the same increase as the average occupation (2014). This may make
psychology seem like any other job, but there is more to this field. Psychology has a lot of
different occupations that one could go into. I counted eighteen different branches of psychology
careers one could go into in Careers and Areas in Psychology (Lloyd 2011). Eighteen branches
covers a vast area of occupations, and these occupations can actually be found in more common
places than one may think. Schreiber tells that psychologists can be found in Academic settings,
private practice, government agencies, clinics, hospitals, community mental health centers, [and]
rehabilitation facilities (2014). Clearly, psychologists are found in places that many people can
identify with, especially the academic and medical settings.
Bio of a Professional
Now, Dr. Sean Richardson, who happens to be a sports psychologist, is one of many
psychologists who has found great satisfaction in his career (Sean). His career initially started
in Australia when a football coach hired him, and from there, hes had a blast with his life,
helping football players, and later, different sports players with their problems on and off the
field. Seans job is a little unique from other regular counselors though. For one thing, his
therapy usually is related to sports, and sports players specifically. This was actually really
interesting, because most sports players, in order to make it professionally, have to be pretty
stable mentally (Sean). Yet, even they need a psychologist, because the stress of the game can
be overwhelmingly high, particularly in the professional world.
Now, Sean really likes his job. Sean happily exclaims, When someone comes to you and
tells you that you have made a difference in their life, that really means a lot. Making a

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difference and getting to see the results in your clients is probably the best thing about the job
(Sean). This would explain why psychologists at least have some satisfaction with their jobs,
because they can change lives.
Pros and Cons
One of the biggest cons of becoming a psychologist, especially in therapy, is that it is a
very emotionally wearing job. Psychology therapists must listen to the problems that every
patient has. The American Psychological Association (2015) exclaimed that [These problems]
include, but are not limited to mental disorders, organizational problems, marital and family
difficulties Now, this may seem like a major con, listening to all the misery in life, but for
this con, there is a pro. The fact is, a psychologist can help fix those problems, and feel good
about it afterwards. Mark Chamberlain, the psychologist I interviewed, happens to be a
counselor, and exclaimed that his job was so rewarding, and it makes your day (telephone
interview, July 4, 2015).
Another con is that the life of a psychologist can actually be pretty stressful. Mr.
Chamberlain reported that you have to consistently be on your toes, because no two people are
alike, (telephone interview, July 4, 2015). Mr. Chamberlain has hourly appointments eight hours
a day, five days a week, and with his many different clients, he has to constantly switch his
tactics as he tries to help different clients. However, though it can be stressful, this job is one that
Mr. Chamberlain loves. As a consequence of always getting different people, his job has variety,
which is a definite pro.
My Fit With This Career
Being an aspiring Psychology major, I was often wary of how popular the major was. In
fact, according to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, a
psychology major was the fourth most popular degree in 2011-2012, with 109,000 out of the
1,791,000 bachelors degrees offered being psychology (2015). I didnt like those statistics,
because it lead me to believe that it was an easy degree to get that not very many employers

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would really appreciate. However, it was to my pleasant surprise that psychology majors do have
a bright future. From doing therapy to researching, it all seems to be a good way to occupy your
time, since all this research goes into better understanding why people behave. Most importantly,
this information is used to help people who need it, and this is how psychologists can change
lives.
The one thing I dont like about this job is all of the sitting I would have to do for it.
However, I personally love being with people, and I love hearing what they have to say (I think
this balances out all of the sitting). Also, half of the time, I hear personal problems that they are
going through. At this point in my life, the best I can do for them is to listen to their problems
and sometimes give advice to them from my own personal experience. I always feel good when
they like the advice I give them. This is why I still want to be a psychologist, because with the
knowledge of how people think and behave, I will be able to more successfully help people
through their troubles, because I will have knowledge from a Masters degree level at the least.
Whats even better is that I will be able to change lives, and I believe helping people in this
aspect is one of the best accomplishments that one can do in a lifetime.

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References
American Psychological Association. (2015). Counseling Psychology. Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/counseling.aspx
Dr. Sean Richardson. Retrieved from http://careersinpsychology.org/interview/dr-seanrichardson/
Lloyd, M. A. (2011). Careers and Areas in Psychology. In J.D. Hague (Ed.), Psychology Themes
& Variations 8E Briefer Version, (pp. A 15-A 23). Belmont, California. Wadsworth
CENGAGE Learning.
Schreiber, K. (2014). Careers In Psychology. Psychology Today, 47(2), (pp.81-89). Retrieved
from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.libprox1.slcc.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=6fdd0e68dce648ea8e44dae2aa68adaf
%40sessionmgr112&vid=14&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU
%3d#db=ccm&AN=2012479191
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2014) Pay. Retrieved from
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Life-Physical-and-Social-Science/Psychologists.htm#tab-5
--Summary. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-socialscience/psychologists.htm
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Most Popular
Majors. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37
www.GoodTherapy.org. (2012). Are Psychologists Happy in Their Jobs? Retrieve from
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychologists-job-satisfaction-0828121