Jobs for the Major
How this major affects a job search
About 40% of psychology majors go back to school, since you need to have a doctoral degree to be a psychologist or psychiatrist. After you've earned your Psy.D., you're ready to intern for one or two years before you can apply for a license to practice on your own. Sounds like a lot of training before you can professionally ask, "How does that make you feel?" However, it's important for clinical psychologists to receive enough training to diagnose and treat the breadth of psychological disorders out there. Physical health is important, but so is mental health.
Psychology is one of the most popular majors in the country, and having a psychologist isn't exactly in as much of a priority as having a doctor. Some health plans unfortunately don't even cover mental health. With an uneven amount of supply and demand for psych specialists, there tends to be less jobs available. Even though the study of psychology is helpful, the 6% unemployment probably results from this unevenness.
Luckily, there are other options for psychology majors.
Common Career Fields
Industrial Psychologist. If you are a super-fan of the green, you may want to aim to become an industrial psychologist, which can net you upwards of $80k a year. An industrial psychologist matches employee personalities with jobs, researches the workplace, advises managers, gives psychological tests to workers, and interprets statistics. The industrial psychologist field is actually growing much faster than the average for all other psychology careers, because companies are growing at a faster rate.
Law Enforcement. Many psych majors want to use their powers for good, so they head over to law enforcement. Working alongside cops and lawyers to help criminals get the help they need is demanding and can be stressful. It can be dark dealing with criminal minds, but a job in law enforcement can be very rewarding. Not all the time, sure, but being able to help someone who doesn't have anyone else on their side is exciting. That might be why they are willing to take the little pay instead of going into their own practice.
Marriage and Family Therapist. (Requires a Master's or a Ph.D.) Like other therapists, those specializing in marriage and family therapy work with patients to sort out their emotional issues, face them head-on, and hopefully overcome them. Or, at least, find a coping mechanism. Whereas most other therapists meet with a single individual, marriage and family therapists are more concerned with fixing the interpersonal relationships between their patients, and identifying anything that may potentially be straining them.
Psychiatrist. (Requires a Medical degree and license.) Psychiatrists go to medical school to earn their MD before starting their four-year residency training. Psychiatrists need to know about the dangerous side effects of drugs, like nausea, weight gain, decreased sex drive, diarrhea, and dry mouth, and the way certain drugs work before prescribing them to their patients. Psychiatrists spend a lot of time learning about the body and mind, so before you think about making your own little pill cocktail, consult your psychiatrist.
Psychologist. (Requires a Ph.D.) Psychologists go to a college or university for five to seven years to earn their doctorate degree. Those who focus on research earn a Ph.D., while those who want to treat patients can earn either a Ph.D. or a Psy.D. Despite being a doctor, no one is going to let you operate on somebody's spleen. As much as you may want to. Sorry.
Those who love working with others may be attracted to clinical psychology, child psychology, geropsychology, or counseling psychology. Often, psychologists in these fields might feel emotionally drained after long days of seeing patients.
Ah, the struggling psychologist who can't even seem to diagnose himself. Sounds like a movie pitch.
Researcher. (Requires a Master's or a Ph.D.) Just because you're interested in human behavior doesn't necessarily mean you're interested in humans. Although we encourage all of our Shmoopers to go outside and play with the neighbor kids, sometimes interacting with people can be exhausting. Being a researcher gives you the option of working independently and studying how the brain works under certain conditions while not dealing directly with people all day long.
And hey, if you like people and conducting research, then by all means, put together a research team, you social butterfly, you.
Social Worker. Everyone needs a little help sometimes when they're down and out. Let's face it: Life is unfair. However, life is a little more unfair for certain people, like those born into poverty, minority groups, those with physical and mental disabilities, and anyone else who's a victim of the system. Social workers are the wind beneath the wings of all the hard-knock lifers out there; they're as close as they can get to being superheroes without having spandex suits and radioactive powers. Psychology majors are especially equipped to work with people like this, and the world can always use some more superheroes.
Current unemployment of the major
6%Percentage of majors who get a higher degree after college
43%Stats obtained from this source.