Life After Internship

[psychmama]

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So, with only a month left to go at my internship and my dissertation defense set for soon after that, I'm beginning to wonder what's next. I have a post-doc lined up for this year at a university counseling center. I'm wondering how similar or different this will be to the internship year? Am I still considered a trainee or will I be (finally) a fellow colleague? And what happens after that? I think I understand the practical aspects (eg., getting a job and getting licensed). My question has more to do with identity formation. I am feeling SO ready to feel like a grownup after so many years as a student. Will this happen? Am I kidding myself? How does the shift from student to professional occur in this field? Is it gradual, or will it happen the day I get the degree or when I no longer have to be supervised?

Anybody farther along who can share their wisdom about this? Thanks.🙂

 

[docma]

Most students I train find the immediate post-degree state slightly disorienting (but not as much as post-partum...) Give yourself time for celebration, elation, maybe a little poignant sense of moving on. Then jump into it. Post-docs vary widely in terms of the culture so you won't know until you're six weeks in whether you feel "collegial" or not, but you will most probably feel a radical drop-off in supervisory oversight and that may feel great (or really anxiety producing) or both, depending on the challenge/acuity of the clients for whom you have responsibility.

 

[stigmata]

Give yourself 5 years before you can expect to feel confident and secure. It is all a process.

 

[psychmama]

Most students I train find the immediate post-degree state slightly disorienting (but not as much as post-partum...) Give yourself time for celebration, elation, maybe a little poignant sense of moving on. Then jump into it. Post-docs vary widely in terms of the culture so you won't know until you're six weeks in whether you feel "collegial" or not, but you will most probably feel a radical drop-off in supervisory oversight and that may feel great (or really anxiety producing) or both, depending on the challenge/acuity of the clients for whom you have responsibility.

Thanks Docma. It will feel great to be done I'm sure. I guess I'll have a better sense of things once I'm working and can see what daily professional life is like. I do hope it will be a greater sense of autonomy than during internship year, but I realize I'm still likely to need some support.

 

[psychmama]

Give yourself 5 years before you can expect to feel confident and secure. It is all a process.

Thanks for the input. Five years...really? That seems like a long time, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. What in your opinion makes the 5 year mark significant? Just curious...

 

[deleted176373]

Thanks for the input. Five years...really? That seems like a long time, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. What in your opinion makes the 5 year mark significant? Just curious...

You are in a different place than our younger colleagues, and while that may or may not make a difference, I think that you will find that you will be treated more like a colleague when you attain licensure. It's a little different for us who are a bit older and have a little more salt on our rudder.

Mark

 

[stigmata]

More salt on our rudder....I like that! LOL. Re: 5 yrs. I am not sure, it has just been my experience and observation. You will learn so much more during the fist few years of practice than you did in school and internship, and there is simply SO much to learn that it takes some time. You will be competent when you get a license, but will enter the realm of "really good" around the 5-year mark.

 

[psychmama]

Thanks everyone! Your replies were helpful. I've been feeling really impatient lately, but I guess that's normal after so many years of preparing for this career. I'm sure it will all evolve as it's meant to if I just relx and let it happen.😉

 

[docma]

Studies of skill acquisition (eg: Levinson and Levinson, et.al) generally show that it takes 5 years to gain proficiency in complex skills (eg: flying a jet plane) If you actually look at the competency benchmarks in the practice of psychology it is a wide range of skill sets and no one gets them all down at a level of true proficiency until well along--and then things are always changing so there are new things to learn (something that is great about the field actually). But I do think confidence begins to accrue rapidly in the pre-doc year and then expands steadily as you move through licensure (with expectable "regressions" when you jump into a new organization/population/area of the field.