Earlier I said that it is useful to study the job market, or careers, from the point of view of people who already hold jobs in which they use the knowledge and skills imparted by an education in psychology. It is now time to look at such jobs.
The first thing you will notice is the immense variety that exists. This should not come as a surprise, given what I have said so far about skills. In the USA, even the CIA regularly advertises for psychologists, and they ask for areas of expertise like these: research methodology and experimental design, attitudinal survey development and implementation, advanced statistical analysis, test validation and development, job performance measurement and evaluation, personnel selection and placement, human-computer interface issues, organisational analysis and development, database design, development and manipulation.
Second, keep in mind that these people landed in their current jobs via a very circuitous route. Starting out, you can expect to move in and out of jobs and organisations. Your degree therefore is a platform to start off from, but it is almost impossible to predict where you are going to end up.
Third, the jobs, and job advertisements, mentioned below, are a mixture of high level, senior posts, and posts that require little experience. I don’t discuss entry level posts much, because what I want you to see is the end point. But the skills I referred to above are exactly the kinds of generic skill entry level jobs typically ask for. Psychologists (and other professionals and graduates too) are expected to perform tasks and duties that go beyond narrow job functions and specialist applications.
A sample of job titles held by South African psychology graduates include the following:
Minister and deputy-minister in the national cabinet
University vice-chancellor
Director-general in government departments
A director in the National Intelligence Agency
Consultant to a commercial bank
Applying psychological principles to health and sport at the Sports Science Institute
Human resources specialist at a brewery
Change management consultant at a private consulting firm
Recruitment officer in a clothing retailer
Project writer for a university foundation
Researcher for a consulting firm
Senior scientist at the Medical Research Council
Researcher in the South African Parliament
Manager, Organisational Development in an insurance company
Executive Director and Director, at the Human Sciences Research Council
Project Manager: People Development in a clothing retailer
On the APA website (http://www.apa.org/careers/resources/profiles/index.aspx), they list what they call interesting careers, and they give details of what it is that each person does, and how they got there.
Acquisitions Editor
Research Psychologist in a Medical School
Research Director for a Non-Profit Organization
Experimental Psychologist in a Behavioral Science Research Firm
Medical Error Consultant
Social Psychologist in Rehabilitation Technology
Psychology Emerges in a Multimedia World
Engineering Psychology in Research and Development
Becoming a Science Writer
Technology Consultant in the Telecom Industry
Social Science Analyst in the Public Sector
Research Psychology at Microsoft
Human-Computer Interface Designer
Cognitive and I/O Psychologists in the Technology Industry
Highway Safety Research Analyst
Policy Scientist as an Independent Consultant
International Market Research Consultant
Human Factors Expert
Statistical and Methodological Consultant
Psychologist in the White House
Police Psychology in the Federal Government
Clinical Neuropsycho-pharmacologist
Market Research Consultant
Human Factors Psychologist in Aviation
Academic Research Administrator
Science Museum Education and Research Specialist
Chemical Senses Scientist
Chemical Senses Scientist
NASA Research Psychologist
Design Psychologist
Forensic Psychologist in the FBI
Human Resources Research Organization
Corporate Investment Strategist for the Military
Federal Drug Science Specialist
Executive Search Consultant
Organizational Development Consultant
Trial Consultant
Expert Witness in Employment Discrimination Cases
The same APA website also lists tasks that psychologically-trained people perform in these jobs. I am sure that a survey of South African psychologists will produce a very similar picture; indeed, if you look at the list of skills and duties from Richter et al.’s study (1998), you will see the similarities. This is not surprising, because psychology in this sense is truly an international discipline, so that one gets qualified to do very similar things, no matter where you qualified.
Tasks performed by psychologists in South Africa
Administration
Event Planning/Activities Coordination
Personal Assistant
Motivation
Advising
Negotiation Analysis
Performance Evaluation
Polling
Assessment of Public Policy
Business Process Engineering
Recruitment and Selection
Computer/Human Interface
Rehabilitation
Consulting
Research
Counselling
Safety Data Analysis
Sensory Evaluation / Perception
Design Software Engineering
Statistics
Editing
Strategic Planning
Ergonomics
Stress Evaluation
Experimental Design
Teaching/Training
Monitoring and Evaluating
Time-Motion Study
Facilitation
Work Design
Focus Groups
Writing
Forensics
Interviewing
Market Research
Change Management
Customer Satisfaction Measurement