Most lucrative fields immediate post-post-doc?

[Shallot]

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What are the fields in clinical psychology where you can make the most money immediately or within a year out of post-doc?

How much money can be made, particularly in a big metropolis like New York? In what settings (salaried position, private practice)?

I know forensic psychology and clinical neuropsychology are considered hot and in-demand. Are there others?

 

[appelsoranjes]

What are the fields in clinical psychology where you can make the most money immediately or within a year out of post-doc?

How much money can be made, particularly in a big metropolis like New York? In what settings (salaried position, private practice)?

I know forensic psychology and clinical neuropsychology are considered hot and in-demand. Are there others?

As someone who was just searching before settling on a (low paying - but desirable in other ways) post-doc, I noticed that *by far* the highest paying jobs are at prisons. As an example, in CA I noticed a prison posting a job for 85k (*unlicensed*) and 95k (licensed), starting salary. Of course, I'm sure those positions have high burnout/turnover.

Consulting Psychology jobs also pays about 85k out of postdoc, although you'll likely be less competitive vs. IO/psych PhDs (though many firms to hire clinical/counseling psychologists for consulting too).

VA Hospitals will start you around 80k in the bigger cities. (65k in the smaller ones)

Neuropsych probably pays the same, but you need a 2-year postdoc in neuropsych to be competitive.

Of course, private practice can provide the same (and often much higher) $$, but it will likely take you some time (and periods of low $$) to build up a practice.

 

[nononora]

I have a friend who's going to a sex offender unit in a prison in CA for internship with a 40k+ salary. If it wasn't such a difficult population to work with, I'm sure more people would be interested!

 

[futureapppsy2]

Funny--out of all the clinical assistantships here, the state of prison is actually the worst paying one! However, even when it was better paying few students seemed to apply. I did know someone who took the prison assistantship--with a primary interest in psychosis/schizophrenia--and really seemed to enjoy it, though.

 

[deleted176373]

Beating a dead horse, but under the right circumstances, military. There are some opportunities to make really good money through the military, you also trade off a lot of freedom as well. You go where they send you for the most part.

Mark

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

As mentioned, the military, federal prisons, neuro, etc are all good clinical options. The most lucrative will almost always be non-clinical, but they will take some time to get, as someone fresh out won't have much to offer (unless they previously had a career in a field that they can leverage).

 

[cara susanna]

My brother-in-law, who is a military internal medicine resident, told me that contracting (I think that's the word, anyway?) for the military pays really well and you can still be a civilian.

Okay, in case I got the word wrong: it's basically that the military doesn't have enough psychologists, so they would refer cases to you.

 

[Wildcat06]

How about for us research-minded folks? What are the most lucrative fields?

 

[busi26]

How about for us research-minded folks? What are the most lucrative fields?

Medical centers and cancer centers (the better ones) pay about $50,000 during 2 year research postdocs (example: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston).

 

[busi26]

How about for us research-minded folks? What are the most lucrative fields?

After postdoc, the most lucrative area for research-minded folks (other than what has already been discussed) is to land a job in a school of public health (e.g., epidemiology, health behavior). These departments pay considerably more than psyc departments averaging around $75,000-$80,000 per year.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

For research folks...definitely outside of psych depts. You can make more money if you can attract "soft" money.