What is needed to undertake in Psychology?

Anyone who studies a career has the great illusion of being able to practice one day in what they have invested so many years of study. Psychology is a discipline that generates great interest among students; however, and at least in Clinical and Health Psychology, Opportunities to work for others are rare.

That is why many Psychology professionals decide to undertake and advance towards their professional growth, but the career It does not prepare you to run a company, nor does it provide knowledge about marketing or the digital environment, which are so important today.

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What you need to know to start in Psychology

In this article we will see several keys to start in psychology, as well as tips to avoid making common mistakes when starting a business.

Problems when entering the labor market

The field of psychology is one of the most complicated when it comes to finding work both in Spain and in many Latin American countries. The reasons for this are several.

On the one hand, the fact that the types of work carried out by psychologists are very varied, the relative novelty of their professionalization, and the diffuseness of their Limits in the world of research and applied science are factors that have contributed to the fact that this profession or group of professionals has not been properly regulated legally. Professions.

To this we must add a generational problem related to the different ways of regulating training and the legal requirements to practice the profession. Today, graduates or graduates in psychology are one of the largest unemployment pools in the post-university world, something that has to do also with the fact that it is one of the most attractive training paths, with thousands of people enrolled in each course that begin.

Finally, in the Spanish context, the devastating context that the economic crisis has left behind also comes into play. in the field of job search, and specifically among young people, already accustomed to companies asking recent graduates for years of work experience, and not paying enough to support themselves.

Ideas on how to start your own business

Thus, faced with the prospect that what most companies ask of candidates is unrealistic or downright absurd, many people decide to embark on the world of psychology, be your own boss.

This has its advantages, but it is also challenging. Among other things, because to do so it is not enough to know about the subject in which we have been trained during our university years; You must master skills related to marketing and the management of resources that initially, in the vast majority of cases, will be very limited.

And, of course, it is also necessary to accumulate experience linked to the real work context as quickly as possible. To this day, the training given in universities continues to be fundamentally theoretical. In this way, the day-to-day interaction with real patients, for example, can give rise to situations in which indecision comes to block novice psychologists.

The need to go through specific training programs of the workplace in which we want to receive training is something difficult to satisfy, because that requires a significant investment. And that tends to encourage the unemployment rate among psychologists to remain high.

But the fact that undertaking psychology is complicated does not mean that it is impossible. Below you will find a series of tips and key ideas that will help you progress in this challenge of create yourself your own job.

1. Get a clear idea of ​​what you want

To start building your own business, it is essential to know what the backbone of it should be, which will give it continuity over time. Otherwise, it is most likely that you will end up lurching, making investments that will later be wasted and without amortization. At a stage where resources are very limited, this must be avoided at all costs.

So that, It is essential to be clear about the business model, in which you specify what your mission is and what will be your way of carrying it out. From this, in addition, the brand image that you want to convey will be derived.

2. Be aware of the sacrifices to assume

Undertaking in psychology, in the current context, means assuming that many sacrifices must be made in the short and medium term; that is, months ahead. First you have to have a minimal amount of money saved and dedicate time and effort to decide how to invest it in a space and a work team.

3. get experience

It's not just a matter of having a good resume, that's the least of it. Although it may not seem like it, in the professional practice of psychology there are always many surprises, many unforeseen events.

Remember that it is not just about talking to people and then applying intervention programs that have been described in the faculty. You have to adapt to the circumstances., and each client or patient is a whole world of specific circumstances.

On the other hand, this will allow your final entry into the labor market to be much cleaner, free of serious imperfections. And this has to do with the next key idea.

4. Please note that there is only one release

For the sake of your brand image, do not underestimate the impact you can leave in your first weeks and months doing your professional work. What you do at this stage can leave a hard-to-remove mark on your brand image. that you are going to broadcast

For some things it is relatively easy to change the way customers and competitors see you, but in other cases, it costs a lot. In short, if the brand is you, there cannot be a second brand launch, start from scratch.

5. Define your target audience

There are different needs to attend to in the world of psychotherapy or psychological intervention in general, but there is also another way to classify potential clients; Think about his profile from an advertising point of view. It is not the same to focus on the retired public of the third age, than on fathers and mothers whose little ones have problems, for example.

The brand image that we project, as well as the media that we use to promote our services, They must adapt to the type of profiles that we have defined.

6. Do it right and let it know

This is one of the maxims of the world of Advertising and Public Relations, and as regards the task of undertaking, it is vital to take it into account.

And it is that among the initial efforts that must be made when taking the first steps from the business assembled by oneself, not everything is paying for expenses that respond to services and products that are easy to determine. Also, there is a more subjective factor. You have to develop your own brand, it is very possible that during the first weeks not a single client will appear. It is necessary put in work to make yourself known, since no matter how good we are, that will be of little use if nobody has heard of us and what we do.

7. Learn to turn down jobs

As much as economic necessity may be pressing, it is essential to be clear that in the labor market there will always be offers that are a dead end. If the goal is set in the long term, it is worth not deviating from it at the first opportunity when relatively easy money is in sight but it has nothing to do with the business plan and which will entail a significant opportunity cost (the possibility of not being able to serve other more interesting clients because you are devoting efforts to something else).

8. Take advantage of the importance of the Internet

Increasingly, everyone is on the Internet, for better or worse. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it used to be to reach a massive number of people, but it's not impossible. With a pinch and originality, there is still the possibility of creating viral content that are being shared from user accounts.

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