Relevant Experience Overview & Resources

Why is Relevant Experience Important?

The purpose of Relevant Experience is to develop needed skills for your career path and also to give you a firsthand understanding of what it means to work in that career field. When applicants have relevant experience they are more likely to be viewed as dedicated and motivated to a program of study or 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) for yourself. E.g., having had volunteer/intern/job experience with children in some fashion, increases grad schools' and employers' confidence that you understand what it means to work in the field with kids and still want to pursue it!

Relevant experience is key to become a competitive graduate school or job applicant and it shows through in components of your application (e.g., resume, curriculum vitae, letters of recommendation). 

 

What Counts as Relevant Experience?

There are many experiences that can count as relevant experience (also called High Impact Experiences at SDSU). For example, internships, club memberships, research experience, study abroad, and volunteering with organizations that serve a relevant population (e.g., volunteering at a mental health agency for someone wanting to become a licensed clinical social worker) could all qualify as relevant experience. 

When thinking about what type of relevant experience to pursue, think about developing particular skills and/or working with specific populations that are appropriate for your career field. The types of positions that you qualify for while in school or during a gap year may not be what you ultimately want to do in that field, but consider them a building block. For example, doing an administrative-type position in a mental healthcare facility exposes you to what it can be like to be a therapist or clinician. Although it may not directly enhance your therapeutical skills, it would allow you to see the demands of working with people experience mental health challenges.

 

How Much Relevant Experience Do I Need?

Students should strive to complete a year or two of relevant experience prior to beginning a graduate program or job. Note that for some schools, you will apply months to a year in advance. In these cases, having at least one year of experience prior to applying is generally competitive.

Note that the multiple years of experience do not need to occur within a single opportunity. For example, a PhD-bound student is best served by gaining 2 years of research experience, however, one year could be spent in one research lab while the second year could come from a different research lab. However, experiences can instead overlap in time rather than occur sequentially. For example, a student may complete a field internship and independent research project in the same year. 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.

 

Where Can I Find Relevant Experience Opportunities?

If you are looking for ways to round out your experience, there are many opportunities on and off campus.

Relevant Experience Example List

As a starting point, students can also refer to our relevant experience example list Links to an external site.. This list provides information on many different opportunities that students may be interested in and/or can consider, ranging from clubs/organizations, minors, volunteer positions, internships, and part-time jobs. 

Discussion Boards

The advising office maintains several discussion boards through the Psychology Major Homeroom that list volunteer, internship, research or job postings at SDSU as well as outside of SDSU. You can sign up for the boards that interest you to receive information when new opportunities arise. Simply click the bookmark icon next to the relevant board to subscribe. To manage how often you receive information, go under your Account then Notifications. Under Discussions, you can set how often you want to receive information on new topics and new replies: immediately, daily or weekly.

Guides by General Field

General guidance on some types of opportunities to pursue during college in order to prepare for applied psychology graduate programs Download applied psychology graduate programs versus academic/research graduate programs Download academic/research graduate programs versus the workforce Download the workforce can be found in the linked pages. These help demonstrate which type of experiences that follow may be particularly relevant for your career path.

Course Credit

There are relevant experience opportunities through upper-division psychology courses which provide a way to earn unit credit towards the major for specified research, internship, or teaching assistant experiences.

It may also be possible to earn General Studies credits (up to 6 across GEN S 200 and 400) for an internship that you have or find for yourself since psychology does not have an internship requirement for the degree. Contact the program coordinator in advance Links to an external site. to see if you may be eligible.

Scholar Programs

SDSU Center for the Advancement of Students in Academia Links to an external site. (CASA) hosts a list of scholar programs (by student rank) and other information to support students in the sciences (yes, that includes psychology!). The scholar programs often include funding for students to be a research assistant, attend conferences and preparation for graduate school applications.

Complementary Minors

Adding a minor that supplements the skills or information needed for your future Links to an external site. career path can further demonstrate your commitment to your future goals. If you do not have enough 'room' to add a full minor, you can instead take a few units in the minor department and highlight those in your grad school/job application materials.

Complementary Clubs & Organizations

Participating in clubs and organizations Download clubs and organizations offers more opportunities, including networking and the potential for leadership experience. Also on the linked page are relevant national organizations that students can join; these often provide guidance for students to prepare for graduate school or a career in that specific field.

 

 

 

Taking a Gap Year to Gain Experience

If you decided on your path later in your undergraduate career and feel that you need more time to prepare before applying to graduate school in particular, do not give up—there are options like applying to a post-bacc programs or volunteering/interning in research or an applied setting (depending on if your goal is an academic or applied field, respectively) to give you the time and opportunities you may need to be competitive.

To find post-bacc programs, which have coursework and often research experiences included, you can Google "post baccalaureate" and "psychology" or begin with this helpful post-bacc guide from Washington State University Links to an external site..

It is possible to gain research opportunities during a gap year, though informal, volunteer positions might be less likely to find at that point compared to when you were an undergraduate but they do exist. You may find paid research positions through search engines for volunteer/internship/job positions and/or through websites that help compile opportunities, such as the following: