Introduction

These web pages describes 15 helping professions that undergraduate psychology majors interested in a service career might wish to consider. Each of these careers involves some amount of graduate training beyond the bachelor’s degree, usually a master’s degree. Please do not interpret this to mean that in order to pursue a service career, graduate school is necessary. There are many bachelor’s-level helping-oriented jobs, and most university career centers can provide interested students with information about and help in locating these. Here the focus is on helping careers requiring postgraduate education because such information is harder to find.

Guide to the Career Profiles

All of the 15 different career profiles in this manual are organized around the same 3 key issues (job description, training, and additional informational resources). Please take a minute to familiarize yourself with the specific categories of information and their source(s).

Job Descriptions

Overview and Typical Job Duties

Job Outlook

Potential Earnings

Unusual Career Choices for Psychology Ph.Ds

Professional Degree Required

How to Find Programs

Entrance Requirements/Admissions

Print Resources

Internet Resources

Overview and Typical Job Duties

This information is based on many sources: the Occupational Outlook Handbook; FOCUS and SIGI (both computerized career counseling and search programs); publications of the career’s national organization(s); graduate school literature; and assorted books and journal articles.

Job Outlook

In order to be consistent across professions, I generally ignored the potentially biased information on job outlook presented by a profession’s accrediting body or organization. Instead, I consulted three national data bases:

1. Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH, 1994-1995 edition): Job outlook summaries for each profession. I adopted the OOH rating system, with jobs rated as growing "much faster than average" (increase of 41% or more); "faster than average" (increase of 27-40%); and "about as fast as average" (increase of 14 to 26%). None of the jobs included in this manual are expected to grow more slowly than average or decline in growth.

2. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998): Report on the 30 occupations with the fastest projected rate of growth, 1996-2006. I noted if a profession was on this list (BLS).

3. Michigan State University Collegiate Employment Research Institute (1997): Estimated supply and demand for college graduates of 1997-1998. I followed MSU’s five- category rating system, classifying jobs as high demand/limited supply (the ideal category from a student’s perspective); good demand/possible shortage; near balance/supply equals demand; adequate supply/some oversupply; and surplus/substantial oversupply (the worst category from a student’s perspective).

Potential Earnings

I first consulted the OOH for information and then checked FOCUS and individual professional organizations for supporting data. I included national averages for both starting and median salaries. Keep in mind the difference between these figures. Starting salaries are the earnings one can reasonably expect in one’s first job in the field, usually obtained soon after graduation. Median salaries represent the midpoint earnings level of all workers in a field, i.e., employees at all levels of experience.

Professional Degree Required

This section contains a description of the specific graduate training necessary to pursue each field at the entry level and an estimate of the time the degree takes to complete.

How to Find Programs

I included specific directions for obtaining a complete list of graduate programs in the field. Note that many professional organizations now include such a list on their Internet homepages. Developing Internet search skills is invaluable in seeking out career and graduate school information.

Entrance Requirements/Admissions

This section provides a list of courses prerequired for admission as well as other expectations for applicants. I also included information about the competitiveness of graduate programs, based on an examination of graduate school brochures as well as published information about the median GPA/GREs of entering classes.

For More Information

At the end of each career profile, I have listed helpful resources and addresses of relevant professional organizations (Print Materials/Organizations) as well as useful Internet addresses (Internet Resources). I also recommend the following references for general information about graduate school application and admission as well as helping careers:

Print Resources

American Psychological Association. (latest edition). Graduate study in psychology. Washington, D.C.: Author. (Published annually.)

Buskist, W., & Sherburne, T. R. (1996). Preparing for graduate study in psychology: 101 questions and answers. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Collison, B. B., & Garfield, N. J. (1990). Careers in counseling and human development. Alexandria, VA: American Association for Counseling and Development

Keith-Spiegel, P. (1991). The complete guide to graduate school admission: Psychology and related fields. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

U. S. Department of Labor. (latest edition). Occupational outlook handbook. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office. (Published annually; available in the Career Library.)

Internet Resources

For general graduate school advice on the Internet:

Graduate School admissions advice

Graduate School in Psychology

Peterson’ guide to graduate schools

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