What to do at the end of the psychology degree?

Many people are attracted to the career of psychology, seeing it as that training in which they will learn to do psychotherapy and discover the mysterious enigmas behind why people behave the way they do. we make.

However, it is not gold everything that shines. Whether the degree has started or is ending, many behavioral science students they wonder what to do when they finish their degree in psychology.

There are many questions about what are the job opportunities of those who finish psychology and today we are going to explore them. Let's find out what to do when you finish your degree in Psychology.

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What to do at the end of the university degree in psychology

The psychology degree is attractive to thousands of high school students. Many people who become psychologists, deciding to study the race motivated by the idea that one day they will practice psychotherapy and help people who are going through a rough patch, convinced that once they finish their degree they will be able to practice in a very short time, getting a job from what they have studied.

However, those who are already in and going into their third and fourth years wonder again and again what to do when they finish a degree in psychology. Although they have been studying it for a while and know what the subject is about, they also It usually happens that his not-so-distant professional future is seen as gray to black, a very ugly color. Questions like "What career opportunities are there after finishing?" "Can you make a living from it?" "What do I do if I can't work on what I have studied?" and many others can overwhelm us a lot.

To avoid experiencing so much anguish regarding our professional future, throughout this article we are going to reflect on what can be done at the end of the psychology career, also giving some advice for those who have already started it and motivating those who are finishing it not to stop or stop. render. Finishing the degree is not synonymous with getting a job immediately, but having certain studies and skills acquired after completing the degree will increase the chances of becoming a psychologist someday.

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First thing: lower expectations

The first thing we are going to do is pour the jug of cold water on those who have just started or are thinking of studying psychology. Many believe that the degree in psychology is aimed at acquiring all the necessary tools so that, upon completion, psychotherapy can be carried out. This belief ends in tremendous disappointment when it is discovered that, although it is true that the university degree continues to have a bias towards the clinical, teaching psychotherapy is not what is intended with him, at least at first.

During the first two or three years, students will acquire the epistemological pillars of the discipline. The subjects of the first years focus on making sure that students understand what is the origin of psychology, what currents psychological there are, how the nervous system is structured and works, they discover the basic psychological processes and learn about statistics and research, among others.

Many of the subjects in which this knowledge is taught can be very heavy, experienced as if a large tonnage truck were passing us by above (in my case, statistics) and can be demotivating insofar as a subject or topic is not seen anywhere that helps us to patients. This can be so disappointing for some that it is just between the first 4 and 9 months that there are the most dropouts in the grade.

All this that we have to study as soon as we start is what it is. We must be patient, because as the semesters go by we will acquire knowledge that will allow us to become familiar with the branches of psychology and what exactly does a psychologist do. From the third year on, you already have a sufficiently global and deep vision of the discipline to go getting an idea of ​​what our preferred field of intervention is and thinking about what training to take once we finish the grade.

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Educate yourself on specializations early on

One piece of advice that I would have liked to receive as soon as I started my degree is to research the specializations that exist in the degree. Although in my case it was clear that my thing is clinical psychology, I knew rather nothing about the rest of the branches, as it happened to many of my colleagues. Because of this innocent ignorance, When they reached the end of the third year and had to choose electives, a deep and hard existential crisis came to them..

The electives are subjects that, although it is mandatory to do them in order to finish the degree, several can be chosen from a long list with all kinds of options. These subjects are included within mentions, modalities of the study plan that specialize us. Although taking a mention, for example, in clinic, does not have to prevent us from doing a master's degree in social psychology later, it does The knowledge acquired in the electives that we do in the fourth year can give us advantages or disadvantages when choosing training after finish the degree.

It is for this reason that, and in order to avoid the dreaded third-party existential crisis and the insecurity about what to do once the degree is finished, the ideal is to document from the beginning on how many branches there are and what is done in they. It is true that it may seem a bit early and it is also true that during the third year we discover what these branches are dedicated to, however, to avoid choosing just at the last moment and, above all, making a mistake, the ideal is to be clear from the beginning what clinical, social, and psychological psychology is. forensic...

But also this early documentation will not only help us to find out what is done in each branch, but also it will help us to see how we can acquire extra training while we are still studying the degree. While we are investigating what is clinical or educational psychology or any other, we may come into contact with a course of postgraduate, specialized web pages according to which branch or even supervision groups organized by professors or psychologists with extensive experience seeking psychology students to collaborate on projects where they will be rewarded with experience professional.

Career opportunities in the branches of psychology

Psychology is a very diverse disciplineThere are many different fields of work and specialized branches because there are many contexts in which the figure of the psychologist can be of great help. The career opportunities in psychology are immense, so many that they can confuse us. Next we are going to do a brief review on the main five branches of psychology and what is done in them.

1. Clinical psychology

Clinical psychology is one of the most popular branches of the discipline, corresponding to the classic image of what a psychologist does in movies. Here, diagnosis and treatment of child and adolescent problems, family dysfunctions, mental disorders... issues that to be able to work them properly requires having acquired a vast theoretical knowledge and practical.

It is one of the most popular branches of psychology, but it can also be the most overwhelming. It is necessary to dedicate many hours to it, to be always updated for the good of the mental health of the patients and, to be able to exercise it, Yes or yes, you need specific clinical training, the most common route being to take the general health master's degree or take public exams (PIR).

Despite how demanding it is, this branch is the one with the most outlets due to the fact that the figure of the clinical psychologist is widely used, although the necessary places in public health are not available and there is always reluctance to receive private psychotherapy.

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2. Social psychology

We could say that social psychology is the most supportive branch within the discipline in general, while social psychologists They aim to improve society, but normally the time they dedicate to it is not adequately compensated in their fees. Employment in this area normally comes from NGOs, local and regional administrations.

Although it is an exciting branch for those who exercise it, since with it you can get to change the world, is also the specialization in which half-days and low salaries predominate. Depending on where you live, the public administration can value the figure of the social psychologist very positively, but this is generally something unusual.

3. Legal and forensic psychology

Legal and forensic psychology focus on everything that has to do with the field of the people involved in the commission of some type of crime (as victims or perpetrators) or who have a conflict that must be resolved before the judge. In this area we can find psychologists specialized in conducting expert evaluations in the private and private sphere, for example.

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4. Experimental psychology

Actually, research in psychology can deal with absolutely any branch of it and focus on any subject. Whatever they say, psychology is a science insofar as it applies the scientific method to draw on new knowledge based on empirical evidence and, therefore, experimental psychology is extremely necessary for the discipline.

The good thing about this field of application is that you can proceed from any branch of psychology. Experimental psychology is not done only by clinical psychologists, but also the social, organizational, forensic and whatever their origin. The bad thing is that it depends a lot on external factors such as the investment of the state in science or the funds of the university itself where the experimentation is carried out.

5. Organizational psychology

Organizational and business psychology has a lot to do with human resources and marketing. It is a relatively recent branch that has become very popular in recent years, something that can even look like the goose that lays golden eggs but, as in everything in this life, it may be your thing or it may not. If you like the world of economics and business, organizational psychology is probably your thing.

How to train at the end of the degree?

Regardless of whether we get a job right after finishing the degree or not, it is essential not to stop training. Psychology is a young discipline, a science that is updated every two by three, making knowledge that until recently were taken as a reality are now considered obsolete, something common in any science but in ours it occurs in a very frequent.

It is taking this into account that, regardless of whether we have been trained in clinical psychology and want to work with patients or if we have been social and want to help change the world, consult all kinds of information sources and expand our knowledge once we are already psychologists is extremely necessary. In fact, I would dare to say that it is a deontological imperative, since it cannot be exercised discipline correctly if we base our professional activity on knowledge already out of date.

Next we will see what to do to train at the end of the race.

1. Masters and postgraduates

To practice in some branches of psychology it is necessary to have completed a master's degree, as can be seen with clinical psychology and the general health master if what you want is to do private psychotherapy.

But it is worth commenting on one thing. The world of masters is a bit... murky. Although those offered by universities are reliable, especially if they are recognized officials throughout the state, outside of them we can also find this type of training or other postgraduate ones that offer things that the university does not gives.

There are hundreds of institutes and academies specialized in some field of psychology that can serve us a lot to expand knowledge and make our curriculum competitive in the world labor. However, the fact that there are so many institutions that offer their own courses should make us be careful, since Perhaps what they offer is not recognized as real training and we will have paid for something that does not serve us.

That is why it is essential that, before entering any course at such institute or psychological center, it is preferable to investigate a little about what postgraduate and master's degrees offer both our university and any other, educational centers whose degrees will be more valued by our future employers than those offered by an academy any.

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2. Monitoring groups

One of the best ways to get practice as a psychologist is through supervision groups. There are many veteran psychologists who organize small supervisory groups in which real cases are presented and discussed. content and tools to work on them, making their students take an active role in a practical work context and real.

Thus, We not only gain practice by exercising our own profession, but we are also gaining confidence And, if the psychologist who teaches us has prestige or fame, this is always a plus point in our curriculum, in addition to being able to refer to us when looking for work in the future.

3. Online Resources

Most of today's psychology students are digital natives. We are surrounded by devices that connect us to the largest source of information that the human being has been able to have availability in its entire history: the Internet. The library of Alexandria is nothing compared to everything we can find in that vast place that is the cybernetic world.

In addition to watching videos of kittens and gossiping about the latest published by our favorite youtuber, the cyber world can help us expand our professional knowledge for free and effective, keeping us up to date with the most innovative techniques and knowledge of what the science of behaviour.

There is everything and many are free digital content, so there is no excuse. We can expand our knowledge of Psychology on YouTube, on the websites of universities and psychological institutes or, for saying something hey, in Psychology and Mind that surely there is more than one article that helps you to know something that in the degree you do not they explained.

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4. Books and magazines

Every psychologist should try to read at least one book on psychology every month, even if it is a popular science book aimed at all kinds of people. As I mentioned, psychology is a young profession and it is constantly being remodeled, which means many knowledge that we study in the career, even if it has only been a year since we finished it, they are no longer completely valid.

Books and journals by recent authors published no more than 6 months ago are a reliable and safe source for professional knowledge of the discipline. This does not mean that we should discard classical sources of psychology, such as the work of Sigmund Freud or from B. F. Skinner, in fact, It is highly recommended to read books by historical authors in order to have an even more global vision of our career..

Be that as it may, consulting any source of information once we have finished the degree is the ideal way to expand our curriculum, make it more competitive in the world of work and, at the same time, fall in love with the degree that we chose. No matter how expert we are, we will never stop learning new things about our own career.