Diversity Post (Oct 15): I study Psychology, am I going to have a job?
As some of you requested, this week’s topic is going to be career advice for Psychology students!
Housekeeping first – https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/558F5979-D21A-447D-9D84-C6333166B02D ⬅️ go complete the questionnaire!! We need your feedback to improve your UCL experiences (plus that is 1 credit for only 5 minutes of an online survey!)
So, I try to think of this topic as a series of “if..then” programming statements, which route you choose in the beginning is going affect what you want to prepare for that career. Hear me out:
If you want to be in the cooperate:
➡️ You can choose to be a consultant:
➡️ If you want to work with the big names right after your graduation, is less likely that you will need to apply exactly what you have studied in the psychology course. Instead, you will need to understand concepts and accumulate experience outside of the curriculum (e.g., case study, accounting, finance, etc.). Also, you will need to pay attention to spring week, summer internship, and graduate scheme – if you don’t know what is it and how it works, go google or use UCL 1 on 1 career advice session to figure them out! Apparently big consultancy firm is very competitive and they like to have a whole set of procedures to cherry-pick undergrads!
➡️ If you want to go with the more specific, psychology-related consultancy position, there are companies that specifically focus on behavioral science consultancy, organizational psychology consultancies, etc. They may want you to show them a deeper understanding of the sciences of psychology. You can prove that you have this knowledge by doing a Master’s in the related field, or tailoring your undergraduate job experience towards these positions. So it’s either you show them you have an in-depth understanding of the science, or you show them you have abundant relevant job experiences! Again, the best way to figure out what you can do during your year is to book a short guidance session with UCL careers!
➡️You can choose to be a data analyst: …
If you want to be in academia: …
if you want to be a clinical psychologist: …
If you want to work with the government: …
Stay tuned for more content tomorrow and next week! Meanwhile, if you have any thoughts or questions, or regarding our next diversity topics, please comment below (We really need your comments so pleaseeeee 🙏🙏🙏）
5 thoughts on “Diversity Post (Oct 15): I study Psychology, am I going to have a job?”
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Do you have any questions or thoughts regarding the job in consultancy? Comment below :)))
Are there any available internships at the moment for those interested in following a career in HR or HR Consulting?
I’m interested in going into research after I graduate, so I’m interested in the upcoming post, but I’m also *very* worried about whether or not I’m going to be broke in my chosen career path. (especially given my background of being an Asian international student, which means that 1. my parents coughed up a whole lot of money to send me here and I feel an urge to repay them/prove that the money didn’t go to waste and 2. our culture STRONGLY requires that we be able to provide comfortably for our parents when we grow up) Hence, it’d be really nice if either you guys or a guest author could share about their experience in academia and the more practical aspects of it. Also – is psychological research/funding outside of a strictly academic setting common? (for example, would there be companies interested in cutting edge research of more popular psychology topics?)
For those who aren’t sure about what they want to do in their jobs, how can we cater the work experience we get in university to a range of jobs (including consulting)?
quite interested in behavioural science consultancy but really struggled to find internship/experience during undergrad to tailor to that interest. Confused with what counts as “relevant work experience”. Any suggestions?