Career change - Qs about research

[ITtoPsych]

Hello,
I am/was a software programmer with 5+ years working in the industry, my GPA in M.S in Computer Science is 4.0. My bachelors in comp science is not from USA, so no GPA.
I am changing careers and aiming for PHD in clinical psychology. I am ACUTELY aware of the intense competition and near-impossible chance I have. So please don't worry about that I am also 100% sure about my career change and explaining my reason would require divulging personal information. But I have done my homework and have backing of professionals and have a solid "story" for my career change

I am studying for GRE( my second GRE in my life so I am familiar), self-studying for Subject GRE( never taken a psych class so this is massive undertaking but am having fun at it!) etc. Obviously very high scores on those is my only ticket

I have two Qs about "good" research experience.
1. Since I am not from the social sciences background, please give me specific examples of what a good research experience for PHD applicant would be?
2. I am starting as a research volunteer at a research institute soon, it's a longitudinal study, across 5 sites, NIH funded. I will be scoring psychology tests/questionnaires. I want to know what grade/quality is such research experience considered as far as PHD is considered? Poor, Ok, good?

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your time and advice!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ollie123]

1) Working in a lab, getting familiar with all aspects of the process (regulatory aspects, screening participants, bringing them into the lab/clinic and working with them, tracking, processing and analyzing data, writing it up, generating new ideas, etc.). Generally speaking, you want to see as much of the process as possible.
2) If all you do is score measures? Poor. If its a foot in the door that allows you to get more diverse experience? Great! I'd wager most of us started out doing relatively rote work in a lab - proved our competence and worked our way up the figurative ladder.

Depending on what direction you go, a computer science background could be advantageous. Mobile apps for health behaviors are a hot area right now. Computational modeling of behavior and its implications for psychological conditions is growing tremendously and will likely continue to do so for many years to come.

 

[ITtoPsych]

1) Working in a lab, getting familiar with all aspects of the process (regulatory aspects, screening participants, bringing them into the lab/clinic and working with them, tracking, processing and analyzing data, writing it up, generating new ideas, etc.). Generally speaking, you want to see as much of the process as possible.
2) If all you do is score measures? Poor. If its a foot in the door that allows you to get more diverse experience? Great! I'd wager most of us started out doing relatively rote work in a lab - proved our competence and worked our way up the figurative ladder.

Depending on what direction you go, a computer science background could be advantageous. Mobile apps for health behaviors are a hot area right now. Computational modeling of behavior and its implications for psychological conditions is growing tremendously and will likely continue to do so for many years to come.

Thank you ! Yes, it's a foot in the door.

 

[deleted343839]

I agree with what Ollie said above. Behavioral informatics is a hot area and your experience could be very attractive to faculty in that field (assuming you'd want to do that sort of research).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ITtoPsych]

Thank you!
In fact it's easier to stay in IT and find domains like behavior and healthcare companies to work at. But I do not want to do programming anymore. I didn't have a choice regarding career when growing up and while I have enojoyed my time as a programmer( it's a very logical and analytical field) and been good at it, it is not my passion and I want to spent remaining working years doing something my heart is in. I am in interested in clinical psych research. I can see myself "supervising" a healthcare-IT research department since I will have clear idea about how the programming side works but do not want to be in the( IT side of )trenches.