It can be slightly daunting to consider what you’re going to do after you graduate, especially when there are so many opportunities out there! But don’t fret – you’ll find what’s right for you.
At the beginning of the academic year, King’s Careers and Employability provided all students with a programme detailing a range of events organised specifically for the IoPPN students at Denmark Hill, various careers fairs, and workshops providing guidance on CVs, interviews, networking and social media, transitioning to the workplace and discovering your future.
Never really knowing which career I’d like to pursue, this programme reassured me greatly. Attending different events gave me a taste of the many areas I could explore career-wise, such as: Clinical Practice, Counselling, Therapy and Support, Non-clinical Careers and Mental Health Research.
King’s Careers and Employability also split your career mindset into 3 helpful stages, and the relevant steps you can take:
- Discover – ‘I’m just starting to explore my career options.’
- Focus – ‘I have a few ideas about my career options.’
- Action – ‘I have a clear idea of careers that interest me.’
“Try to figure out what you’re most passionate about in life and what you’re good at, and the mixture between those two, and then you should give it your all, all the time. You have to work really hard if you want to get anywhere with whatever you do; if you work hard enough, you’re going to succeed.” – Avicii
A good place to start on your journey is determining which area you’re interested in or what you’re passionate about. For me? Mental Health. I went ahead and booked myself onto an event: Discovering Careers in Mental Health Research where I had the opportunity to hear from industry professionals from a variety of backgrounds pertaining mental health, sharing their personal career journeys to where they are now! Everybody had taken such individual routes, some quite straight-forward and others more obscure. It was so comforting and inspiring to see that, even those quite far in their careers weren’t too sure where they were headed when they were in my position!
I have considered pursuing a PhD within Mental Health research, other research routes outside of academia (such as user-centred research for mental health-related applications), or perhaps medical writing after completing my Neuroscience MSc.
No matter what the next chapter holds, I know that I’ll be well-equipped with my Neuroscience MSc from Kings in hand!
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