Workforce Preparation
What Can I Do With A PSY Degree?
As a liberal arts degree, psychology prepares students for a wide array of careers, many of which can begin directly after a bachelor's degree. Psychology students graduate with skills in communication, critical thinking, research and a specialty in understand how humans think, feel and behave. Students can enter sales/marketing, realty, employee relations and law enforcement, just to name a few.
This handout Links to an external site. shows many more possible career avenues with a bachelor's in psychology including job titles, employers and how to prepare for them in advertising, public relations, human services, government positions, human resources, retail and sales.
APA also has a webpage Links to an external site. explaining the scope of jobs that can be obtained with a bachelor's degree.
Online Job Searches
One way to become familiar with the type of jobs available with a bachelor's degree is to search on a job search engine (e.g., indeed.com). Several search engines have the option to search by degree level, so you can search for jobs that require a bachelor's, not a master's or doctorate. Try different keywords for the type of job and/or population you might be interested in to see the availability, modality, requirements and starting pay.
Knowing what employers seek is a great way to help plan what skills to develop while you are in school.
LinkedIn Links to an external site.
Another way to get a sense of what qualifications people have had when hired into a position is to search for people who are in jobs you might be interested in on LinkedIn. Another advantage of this platform is that can see the path people took to get to their current position. People tend to assume everyone takes a direct path to their career, that there is one best way to that career, when in reality many people's paths are not linear.
How Do I Prepare for the Job Market?
While you are an undergraduate, you can take advantage of many on-campus opportunities to help prepare you for the workforce Links to an external site.. The link includes ideas about career services resources, career fairs, courses to be taken depending on the general work you want to do, etc.
Relevant Experience
There are many experiences that can count as relevant experience (also called High Impact Experiences at SDSU). For example, internships, club memberships, study abroad, and internships/volunteer positions/jobs can all qualify as relevant experience. Relevant experience will be demonstrated in several components of a job application including a resume, cover letter and the references that you secure.
The more relevant experience someone has, the more likely they are viewed as dedicated and motivated for a career. It is one thing to be interested in a field based on reading about it, it is quite another to remain interested in a field when you have experienced it (or parts of it) firsthand. E.g., having had volunteer/intern/job experience with children in some fashion, increases confidence in reviewers and employers, that you understand what it means to work in the field with kids and still want to pursue it!
Students should strive to complete a year or two of relevant experience. Note that for some positions, you will apply months in advance. In those cases, having at year of experience prior to applying will help you be competitive.
Note that the multiple years of experience do not need to occur within a single opportunity and experiences can overlap in time rather than occur sequentially. That said, it is ideal to have at least one continuous year of experience in a particular opportunity to demonstrate that you can see a long-term responsibility through.
If you are looking for ways to round out your experience, there are many opportunities on campus and off campus. Refer to the "Relevant Experience for Grad School or the Workforce" module for more information.
Preparing an Application
References
People who serve as your references should know you at least moderately well and be able to provide a strong recommendation. References should be able to speak to an applicant's strengths. Asking a professor with whom a student took a class (or even a few classes) is not typically advised. It is optimal if your references can provide concrete examples to substantiate why you are a good candidate for a position. It is becoming more common for companies to have references complete a survey or write a letter about applicants. Keep in mind when you take on a relevant experience opportunity that you should bring your best self forward to relevant to earn a recommendation.
Cover Letters
For information on writing a cover letter, review this page from Career Services Links to an external site. which includes tips and example letters.
Resumes
For information on composing a resume including tips and examples, review this page from Career Services. Links to an external site.