1) What percentage of your time is spent doing therapy/seeing patients vs other tasks?
2) If you are not willing to move around the country, how difficult is it to find a job that involves research, administrative duties, ect. (i.e., not purely a clinical role)?
3) If you had to take a job that was a purely clinical role because of geographic restrictions, would it then be difficult to move into a job that involves research?
4) Do you find that doing therapy is draining (especially for someone who is introverted/ has a hard time being "present") or becomes repetitive over time?
Keep in mind that I'm still in training, and not licensed yet:
1. 60% (seeing individual patients, doing intakes/assessments, conducting groups); rest of time is spent in administrative tasks (writing notes, reports, etc.), team meetings/rounds, diadactics/colloquia
2. You need to be in large metropolitan areas if you cannot or will not move. But, you better be at the top of your game to keep busy/competitive b/c large metropolitan areas are usually in high demand and fill positions quickly.
3. I agree with the others' comments about AMCs....or you could begin teaching adjunct and get into academic research that way, but you have to keep publishing when you are "purely clinical," so I would keep close ties with graduate school researchers or fellow students to tag onto your & your mentor's current research to keep it going and stay involved in the research work. I've seen this done and have been part of others' research remotely.
4. I agree with the others...why are you doing therapy if you are such an introvert and find others draining?!? The only portion that is really draining is (like others said above) heavy caseloads and if you feel particularly disconnected that day due to personal reasons (like feeling sick or too much going on in your own life), but like others said you usually perk up when the session gets going and your focus goes to the patient/client in front of you, and then you are doing your job. Even though each person is individually interesting, even both process & content of sessions can sometimes seem repetitive (like 'Why is EVERYONE depressed today?', or 'Here we go again: Meet-Greet-Chat-Reschedule')...but if that happens, you have just depersonalized your job and may need to figure out why. It all boils down to the therapist's self-care if you find therapy draining after making it through training.
(Hey, I'm a poet and didn't know it.)