Psychology...What should I do???

[wannabeapharm]

I am a college grad with a bachelors in Business Management and IT and I have work towards an MBA. I am strongly thinking about going into the Psychology/Counseling career.
I will have to go back to school.

Has anyone ever changed careers and went into Psy?

Is the job market good? Im thinking about getting either an MA in Psychology or a MA in Counseling

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[psych101]

No, the job market is not good. You'll probably make much more in a business job. If you're very interested in psych, consider looking into Industrial/Organizational psychology -- even those with master's degrees can do quite well. Good luck

 

[Psychbird]

If you like it, go for it.I changed, and it's tough - I had to go back to school and take a lot of coursework and work in labs while holding down a job. I'll let you know if it's worth it if I get into a grad program this year.

 

[wannabeapharm]

what did you change from? what made u enter psy? i am thinking bout counseling

If you like it, go for it.I changed, and it's tough - I had to go back to school and take a lot of coursework and work in labs while holding down a job. I'll let you know if it's worth it if I get into a grad program this year.

 

[Galia]

I am thinking about switching and doing some steps now. It is exteremely frustrating. Every time I think I got to the bottom of frustration I need to find space to tolerate more frustration.
- One frustration is money, I often feel like spoiled brat when I hear what these people are paid and how tough it is to find a job.
- Classes are managable, but it is very hard to find the right research experience, when one is not from the field. Very hard to manage the hours, a lot of research takes place in the day.
- Also what they actually do in research... the one I am exposed to makes me wonder why they do things that way... coming from business seems extremely inefficient. (I have MBA and respective job).
- Amount of time it takes to get even minimal requirements is frustrating, I am not sure I will be able to apply next december.
- Spending time on GRE is frustrating given you already paid your dues doing GMAT.

* All that related more to applying to PhD, though.

I'd love to hear about Psychbird experience, especially on the research side.

 

[3rdFloorDoc]

The job market is like any other field…good folks have no problems finding jobs. Can you make more money doing other things? You bet. But the salary still isn’t all that bad. An earlier post points the average income for PhD (psychologist) practitioners to be from the mid80s to over 6 digits. Most MSW, LPC types command lower incomes that PhD licensed psychologists, but even at that, the salary for a master’s prepared licensed professional isn’t anything to sneeze at! I’d rather have my mid80s to 6 digit salary and BE HAPPY than “making a killing” working in “business” or something else that I wasn’t passionate about.

 

[psych101]

The job market is like any other field…good folks have no problems finding jobs. Can you make more money doing other things? You bet. But the salary still isn’t all that bad. An earlier post points the average income for PhD (psychologist) practitioners to be from the mid80s to over 6 digits. Most MSW, LPC types command lower incomes that PhD licensed psychologists, but even at that, the salary for a master’s prepared licensed professional isn’t anything to sneeze at! I’d rather have my mid80s to 6 digit salary and BE HAPPY than “making a killing” working in “business” or something else that I wasn’t passionate about.

Huh??? Yeah, I really enjoyed the $38k job I took right after I got my PhD. That was going to jump to $40k after I was fully licensed. Plenty of dough to pay off those $100k loans. Look me up in about 5-10 years and maybe I'll reach the $80 mark. But I won't hold my breath. Or maybe I'm just not "good folks"

 

[3rdFloorDoc]

Hi PSYC101. You may wish to consider a few points:

1. APA publishes salary data every couple of years. See http://research.apa.org/salsurv.html for more information.

2. Salaries "just out of doctoral training" are much lower than salaries for licensed experienced psychologists.

3. If your job is not satisfying to you, for any reasons, including salary, perhaps you need to consider a change.

4. You may wish to present your employer with data, such as the APA data and the other data listed on this site and cited earlier in this thread. Based on the APA data, you will also note that licensed private practice PhDs generally make a bunch more than those who work for someone else. If you have your license, you may wish to consider starting a private practice.

5. I didn't mean to imply that you weren't "good folks" because you believe your salary to be low. The original question asked about job market (which I take to mean availability of jobs not salary). The market is good for good psychologists. I personally don't know any "good" psychologists who are unemployed but do in fact know several bad ones who make good livings.

6. Finally, I don't know where you are in your career, but I've been out for seven years now and my salary falls in the figures previously quoted. Incidentally, I would have killed to make 38,000 at my first post-doc position!

Just my thoughts...

 

[PsychMode]

I am a college grad with a bachelors in Business Management and IT and I have work towards an MBA. I am strongly thinking about going into the Psychology/Counseling career.
I will have to go back to school.

Has anyone ever changed careers and went into Psy?

Is the job market good? Im thinking about getting either an MA in Psychology or a MA in Counseling

If you are going to do counseling at the master's level, I would suggest the MSW/LCSW route. For better or worse, SWs can pursue independent careers as counselors or therapists. Also, the MSW degree is more versatile than the master's degree in counseling or psychology. In fact, if your sole aim is to become a clinician, then you might as well get a master's degree being that you can practice independently at the master's level.

I agree with another poster who suggested industrial/organizational (I/O)psychology. This continues to be a hot field in psychology and they make the most money. Although I/O is definitely not for me, I recommend it to anyone who may be interested in both psychology and business.

 

[psycholytic]

I posted another thread on PsyD vs. MFT and wanted to ask you if you could give me some advise?

I am in the position to face a school debt of appr. $ 100,000 when I would go to the program of my second choice (that is if # 1 does not take me).

If I work my butt off for a year post internship and almost take nothing of that money for living expenses, but put it towards paying off my loans, would I be able to reduce it about 30,000?

Would you get that deep into debt and if yes, how would you repay (chunks vs. small payments)

Thanks for your reply.

 

[psych101]

psycholytic, I would think long and hard about going $100,000 in debt. I am in that boat right now and looking at many years of loan repayment. As 3rdFloorDoc mentioned, folks who have been working a few years can reach the mid-80s to 100k mark. I am now in a position making more than the original 38k I referenced in my last post (though not quite 80k). The APA salary data can certainly be one helpful resource. But check it out -- Table 15A of the 2001 report shows that, for all psychologists in all setting, those making a median income of $77,000 had 15-19 years of experience! The figure for licensed clinical psychologists in Table 15B shows either 75k (for women) or 82k (for men) with 15-19 yrs experience. You can look at your median by state or geographic region, but this can be somewhat misleading because it includes all psychologists (though my income is right where it should be according to this table). And, in my personal experience, it is the private practice folks -- especially those who can find a uniqe niche -- who tend to do best. Working for any agency these days can be tough.

I'm not sure what would work best for your particular situation regarding loan repayment, but just keep in mind that you might be struggling to find a job with a decent salary, at least until you're licensed and perhaps even until you have a few years of experience. I say that because I sure wish someone had told me that upfront so I would have known what I was getting into. Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do!