Another career or job question BOO! (Psychology Graduate)

[Monkey Puzzle]

Eh? Every degree requires further training to go into a job, except perhaps medicine.

Sadly not, it probably requires the most post-graduate training and study for further exams to do the job.

 

[PardonTheWait]

Uni will only do you any good if you do a degree in the field in which you wish to be employed.

If you take a ******** degree in a ******** subject, you will find yourself only worthy of ******** jobs.

 

[Monkey Puzzle]

Uni will only do you any good if you do a degree in the field in which you wish to be employed.

That's nonsense.

 

[Haiku]

Is it really though? With the Government's stated ambition of 50% university attendance, a degree has lost much of its traditional value. Course, mark and the actual university you attended will only become more important.

 

[Monkey Puzzle]

Is it really though? With the Government's stated ambition of 50% university attendance, a degree has lost much of its traditional value. Course, mark and the actual university you attended will only become more important.

My point was that the generalisation that only degrees specific to your job are worthwhile was false, rather than that all degrees are worthwhile. I agree with you that degrees have been devalued by greater uptake into what used to be polytechnics and lower entry standards.

 

[CryptKeeper]

Start your own company, working for other people is for chumps.

 

[SaBBz]

Where did you go to university? Also what kind of jobs have you been applying to?

 

[Mad old tory]

My point was that the generalisation that only degrees specific to your job are worthwhile was false, rather than that all degrees are worthwhile. I agree with you that degrees have been devalued by greater uptake into what used to be polytechnics and lower entry standards.

Bingo, would you think an engineering degree was relevant to a finance career? It isn't really, but the basic skills such as the maths involved are useful in finance and many engineering graduates apply for financial sector jobs to make more money than the average job in engineering would pay.

 

[PardonTheWait]

That's nonsense.

'field' was the wrong word. I mean relevant to what you want to do.

Degree < three years of experience, in so many cases. Of course there's jobs where you *need* a degree to get in, but for a huge amount of jobs, it won't do you as much good as experience.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Uni will only do you any good if you do a degree in the field in which you wish to be employed.

If you take a ******** degree in a ******** subject, you will find yourself only worthy of ******** jobs.

nice to see someone else with their head screwed on the right way

Degree < three years of experience, in so many cases. Of course there's jobs where you *need* a degree to get in, but for a huge amount of jobs, it won't do you as much good as experience.

very true. I know for engineering you have to do it at a good name uni for it to be worth something, but then in this field, experience>>> the degree, but you need the degree to get as job as an engineer in the first place (thats an engineer as an engineer, not a boiler fitter)

 

[semi-pro waster]

but I gotta stress you need a career where you will use your degree or you WILL have wasted 3 years of your life.

Because the entire point of going to university, using 3 years of your life and getting in dept is to get a better job! If not then really, what is the point?!

You both appear to have a pretty narrow idea of what makes doing a degree worthwhile. Sure, in many cases the aim is to get a better job but you'd be doing yourself and your university a great disservice if that is all you take away from it.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Im nearly at the end of my Psychology degree, last semester right now. There are lots of Psychology jobs available, whoever said a hospital only had 1 or 2 psychologists is wrong, most have a whole psychological team working for them comprising of several clinical psychologists, assistants and trainees.
I'm looking at going into forensic psychology at the end of my degree and have been keeping a close watch on the prison service website as trainee forensic psychologist and trainee psychologist position in general go up quite a lot on there but none in the north west so far. I'm *hoping* for a 2:1, imo you'd be lucky to find any sort of psychology job with a 2:2 without experience, heck even with a 2:1 or a 1st most jobs require you have some previous experience of working in a similar field, which is why i've been emailing lots of places in the NHS and CAMHS to see if they need voluntary workers or offer student placements.
I know the prison service will take on newly graduated students with no previous experience, which is what i'm looking to go into anyway.
Psychology as a degree I don't think is useless, there are so many different branches you can go off onto at the end of your degree such as sport psych, educational psych, occupational psych, counselling, therapy, forensic psych, clinical psych, business/marketing. Its a very broad degree in that respect but competition is very high to get on some of the post grad doctorate courses for clinical psych etc.

I accept I will probably be in the same boat as the OP when I finish but i'm doing everything I can before I finish my degree to make it a damn sight easier to get a job in a psychology related role.

@ The Op - Was your degree BPS accredited (Pretty much worthless otherwise)? Have you used your membership for their job bulletin sites? Enquired about post graduate psychology qualifications? Have you actually applied for any jobs?

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

There are lots of Psychology jobs available

The jobs available:graduates ratio is tiny.

 

[chesterstu]

I don't think it's about the uni at all. It's more about the degree and the person. I've been out of uni 9 months with a 2:! in software engineering from the University of Chester. The uni only got uni status 2 years ago and is barely a step up from an old poly technic college. But i left in May and started a Grad Job in june as a programmer on 18k then at Christmas moved on to another company in a role on 22k a year with 6 monthly pay reviews.

Uni is a not a waste of time if you use it to your advantage and not just expect oppertunites to come your way because of it. But you did only get a 2:2 in a subject that a lot of people do and if that was me i would have considered that a fail

 

[dowie]

of course there are, thats my point.
If psychology requires further training for a job then it proves the psychology degree isnt very useful

no it doesn't

plenty of academic degrees are not directly relevant to 'a job' it doesn't stop them from being valuable

a mathematician, for example, isn't trained to be a city trader - however they are highly sought after as a result of their mathematical ability - it is much easier for a bank to train a applied maths post grad in finance than it is to train a finance guy in applied mathematics. This is why mathematicians and physicists are earning huge sums of money applying their academic knowledge to, for example, complex derivatives despite not being trained specifically for 'a job'.

Because the entire point of going to university, using 3 years of your life and getting in dept is to get a better job! If not then really, what is the point?!

the point of university is to undertake further study in a particular subject area

the fact that this can often lead to better career prospects as a result of valuable skills people acquire is a big motivation for people wanting to attend but isn't the purpose of the university (or at least the proper universities)

 

[Kitchster_uk]

Don't get too disheartened mate, ignore the haters!

I got a 2:1 Music degree and within 4 years had become a bank manager. Apply for some of the graduate schemes aroundm, many will take a 2:2 so long as you can prove you are actually more useful than it suggests. THe cognative tests and assessment centres tend to weed most of the 'rubbish' out anyway. Either that or join a company lower that has it's own internal management academy further down and work your way up.

 

[hlw86]

I too will soon be graduating with a Psychology degree.

Your degree MUST be BPS accredited or, as CDj-Rossi said, it's worthless in the field of psych.

With your degree you can apply for an assistant psychologist or a research assistant post in an NHS hospital, or as a trainee psychologist in forensics. However, sorry to say that with a 2:2 you will find it difficult as loads of graduates with 2:1s and 1sts will be doing this.

If you're not that fussed about Psychology per-se (or can't get on an assistant / trainee role) then go for a managerial / assistant managers role in a business. Although you do not have a directly relevant degree, you can point out the relevant aspects of your psych course in the application. Things such as meeting deadlines, teamwork skills, time management abilities, good oral and written skills etc are things that you gain from any degree.

Psychology is a field that to go far in you have to have more than an undergrad degree I'm sorry. Assistant posts are OK at around £15k a year, but are usually used to get experience for further study.

 

[Peanut Butter]

Having a degree in pschology is useless to an employer, as you arnt actually trained in real world job.

Rubbish. People with engineering degrees aren't trained at a real world job, as they need to be further trained in the subject matter of the sector they go into. Medical graduates aren't trained to work as a doctor, they have a two year training period after they graduate before they are a fully fledged doctor.

However, subjects like Pyschology are tricky as they don't show a particular skill that you may excel in, so dependent on the uni (and yes uni does matter as much as some people may hate it) it may become slightly worthless.

 

[Sarduk]

Rubbish. People with engineering degrees aren't trained at a real world job, as they need to be further trained in the subject matter of the sector they go into. Medical graduates aren't trained to work as a doctor, they have a two year training period after they graduate before they are a fully fledged doctor.

However, subjects like Pyschology are tricky as they don't show a particular skill that you may excel in, so dependent on the uni (and yes uni does matter as much as some people may hate it) it may become slightly worthless.

Rubbish. I am set for a 2:1 or 1st in Computer Science from a top-5 University, and I am statistically one of the most employable people in the country.

Why do I fall into "most employable"? Because; (1) I picked a decent degree that will reasonably match what I want to do in life and (2) I picked a decent University who do not just cram you with theory and numbers, but who balance between the practical and theoretical understanding of the area.

What about Vets? Civil Engineers? Electrical Engineers? These go straight into jobs where they apply their skills without any further training.

You also neglect to mention that a 'generic' good degree like English, Maths, History from a very good University is very valuable to a huge range of employers.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Yeh i'm hoping to get on some sort of assistant/trainee role for the experience, not to bothered about the pay at the moment as I will still be living at home, as its primarily going to be for gaining experience. Even if I can't get into some sort of psychology related training, I might do a masters in forensics psychology anyway, or just try and get into a graduate scheme with a big company.

Whether any of this happens or not though is a different matter.