Hi everyone,
Both Val and I are beginning to think about what to do after our psychology degree. Some people know what career path they want to follow, others are not so sure. Luckily, we have some great resources and support available for everyone. We have a dedicated careers officer specifically for the BSc Psychology programme, who runs sessions on CVs and cover letters and offers one to one support for anything career related.
A BSc in Psychology allows you to pursue so many different careers after graduation and enables you to specialise or continue to pursue a broad range of interests. Having so many options can be daunting, but there are many opportunities to explore these during your time at King’s.
We want to do different things after graduating and thought it would be good to share our thoughts:
Val: I love how psychology can affect others and ever since my GCSE’s, I decided that I wanted to be part of that change. Many people say that the goal is to find a job that you like doing, and in the far future I would love to be a Clinical Psychologist. I have learnt that it’s a much longer path than I initially expected, but that’s also where the career talks have been really helpful. Hearing from people who have achieved their goals (and my eventual goal) is very empowering.
The balance between the volunteering opportunities, research and clinical work that I’ve managed to accumulate at King’s will definitely be beneficial. Here are my top tips if you want a career in psychology:
- Use the Fresher’s Fair at the beginning of year to find something that interests you, maybe volunteer to work for a charity if you want to gain clinical opportunities working with clients.
- Sign up for our ‘Research Studentship Scheme’ where the psychology department pairs students with professors in our faculty.
- Take up a position within a clinical setting, this will definitely be one of the hardest tips to achieve but you can make use of the connections that King’s have.
Some people have chosen to do a Professional Placement year (also known as a sandwich year) between second and third year to do research or clinical work. There are options ranging from working with researchers, to working in a prison, to more community-based clinical work at IAPT services. Many people that we’ve talked to have decided to go down this route as you get the opportunity to work in a high calibre position that is otherwise difficult to obtain and makes you a much stronger candidate in future.
Pauline: I am not so sure what I would like to do upon graduation but chose to study Psychology because I love the subject and knew it would give me a range of options after graduating. King’s has provided me with many opportunities for me to explore potential future careers and develop my employability. For example, the Careers and Employability team run the Leadership & Professional Skills Award. I am interested in the intersection between arts and sciences and how the public interact with science and have been able to explore this at events such as the “Arts and Health Hack” that bring together students from these fields to come up with creative solutions to societal challenges. At these sorts of events you can meet with employers and there are internships available that you can interview for. I am currently undertaking a King’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, this is a scheme that provides opportunities over the summer for students to work with and learn from academics. There is also lots of other support at King’s to help you get experience that will allow you to see if a career path is right for you or not. King’s has a dedicated internship programme that includes opportunities during term, over summer or even abroad. My advice would be to try out as many things as possible and sign up to the free events and courses as you never know what might interest you!
If you have any questions please message us on Facebook, we are more than happy to help!
Val and Pauline
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