2 answers
David
Student
Covina, California
3
Questions
Updated
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What are the pros and cons of being a psychologist?
#psychology #psychologist
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2 answers
Jordan Lin
Non-profit Consulting
1
Answer
Washington, Washington
Updated
Jordan’s Answer
Depends on the type of psychologist! There are 3 routes:
- Clinical (counseling, mental health, etc.)
- Research (higher ed, teaching, R&D, etc.)
- Applied (Occupational, Sports, coaching, etc.)
I can only speak to the third.
Pros: combining theory + practice helps make me a better problem-solver and innovator, I get to use my psych to be an advocate to improve people's lives at work, I feel like studying psychology gives you a leg up in knowing the best ways to navigate life, psychology is broadly applicable to most other fields, soft skills are desperately needed in today's workplace and studying psychology is a great way to get them.
Cons: Helping people is not the primary motivation of most businesses, the connections between psych and my career is something that doesn't speak for itself so I have to speak to it in interviews, psych is a broad category so you need to explore widely to discover what you like, some psych paths don't have clear next steps (very create your own adventure).
Explore the different domains of psychology and how they translate to career paths.
Think about what is most important for you to get out of a major. Psych is a great starting place!
- Clinical (counseling, mental health, etc.)
- Research (higher ed, teaching, R&D, etc.)
- Applied (Occupational, Sports, coaching, etc.)
I can only speak to the third.
Pros: combining theory + practice helps make me a better problem-solver and innovator, I get to use my psych to be an advocate to improve people's lives at work, I feel like studying psychology gives you a leg up in knowing the best ways to navigate life, psychology is broadly applicable to most other fields, soft skills are desperately needed in today's workplace and studying psychology is a great way to get them.
Cons: Helping people is not the primary motivation of most businesses, the connections between psych and my career is something that doesn't speak for itself so I have to speak to it in interviews, psych is a broad category so you need to explore widely to discover what you like, some psych paths don't have clear next steps (very create your own adventure).
Jordan recommends the following next steps:
Alexis Chase
Retired Warden - Female and Male Prisons
38
Answers
Alpharetta, Georgia
Updated
Alexis’s Answer
There are 20 types of Psychologist fields: Aviation, Biopsychologist, Clinical, Cognitive, Community, Comparative, Consumer, Counseling, Cross-Cultural, Developmental, Educational, Engineering, Environmental, Forensic, Health, Industrial-Organization, Military, Personality, School, and Social. Internship/Residency is required for most Psychology fields. Some Pros would be: Psychologist can earn a good salary {median salary $80,370 in 2019 and median hourly rate $38.64 in 2019}, you can help people, you can find meaning in your life, people will be grateful for your work, just to name a few. Some Cons would be: being a Psychologist can be stressful, patients can be difficult or annoying, you have to deal with many problems, and it can be dangerous, just to name a few.