Job opportunities for Psychology student
- Psychology Cap
- Mar 26, 2023
- 7 min read
A huge concern for psychology students is their work experience and career opportunities after graduating. This blog post is aimed at listing some of the available opportunities to students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels to increase your relevant clinical experience.
Entry-level positions for psychology students who want to pursue higher-level training programmes
Teaching Assistant
The Teaching Assistant role is rarely mentioned by those aiming for a clinical career. Yet, this position can assist you in acquiring what I refer to as "transferable clinical skills". A transferable clinical skill is one that you'll need as a psychologist and can learn thanks to the experience you gain through applying it in another setting. For example, communication is a critical skill for psychologists but it is not only taught in school or by doing an Assistant Psychologist role. This ability can be developed while working as a waitress or barmaid and then applied in clinical settings. This type of transferable skill is prevalent in the role of a Teaching Assistant.
This role consists in supporting students' access to learning and helping teachers in managing their classes. Under the supervision of teaching personnel, work may be done in the classroom or elsewhere other than the primary teaching location. In Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools you will interact with children with various types of conditions. This includes children with communication and interaction difficulties (e.g, Autism spectrum), social, emotional and mental health needs that are preventing the child to learn, sensory and/or physical impairment (e.g., hearing difficulties, visual impairments, mobility difficulties) and challenging behaviour. This role will develop your ability to interact with the neurodiverse community by better understanding their daily life difficulties.
Moreover, in a special educational needs class, you are usually working with a teaching team having different experiences and qualifications which can be transferred to a multidisciplinary setting in a rehabilitation unit or hospital where not everybody has a background in psychology. By having a theoretical understanding of why a child with ADHD or Autism behaves the way they do, you might contribute to the psycho-education of some of your colleagues which is a critical competence of psychologists.
You might also have the opportunity to engage with the student in 1-1 activities. This will develop your ability to keep the student engaged and learn how to support someone with learning disabilities in cognitive tasks. This skill is essential for a psychologist assessing patients who might not want to be evaluated or who may easily be distressed by the tests. Another significant advantage of this position is that it will increase your interest in psychology as you will observe the progress of the young people you worked with.
Support worker
A support worker is someone who watches out for others' welfare in their day-to-day activities. By offering both physical and emotional support, they enable persons with various physical disabilities and mental health requirements to live more freely and to the fullest of their potential.
As a support worker, you will spend a lot of time working one-on-one or in pairs with patients, which will help you become more engaged in the work and have a greater understanding of what a service user might experience. This extensive time spent with the service user will help you to develop strategies to manage difficult behaviour or provide care to a variety of populations. This is an extremely valuable and rewarding job as you will support the patient and its family. In terms of transferrable skills, this role will help you to develop your ability to understand what the service user wants even when they do not have the ability to verbalise their needs. Your emotional resilience, patience and time management will also be solicited to achieve to provide efficient care to the service user. Also, you will frequently need to collaborate with other healthcare professionals and be able to communicate with them effectively in order to raise any concerns you have about a service user or provide a clear overview of their current condition.
Healthcare Assistant/rehab assistant
Each care assistant role will benefit you massively in your psychology journey, especially if you are working within a hospital. As a Care Assistant, you will have a better understanding of what it is to answer the needs of patients who had life-changing conditions and lost their independence. You will work closely with an array of other disciplines and might end up networking with chartered Psychologists who can give you advice on your career. As a Care Assistant, you will make sense of all you have learned during your study and expand your knowledge of the subtleties of certain conditions. You will also develop skills such as communicating during handovers, reporting the day and activities of patients, observing their behaviours and acting accordingly to the therapeutic plan. A care assistant role is both tremendously rewarding and tiring. Still, at the end of each day, your reflective journal will be filled with experiences that will influence which kind of Psychologist you will become.
Research Assistant
As a research assistant, your duties will include gathering experimental data, creating presentations, and editing written materials. The ability to follow instructions and protocols given by primary researchers is essential to success in this job. To discuss the benefits of this role, we reached out to Hannah Gloudon, a former psychology student, who decided to become a research assistant after her degree.
What made you choose this path?
I actually chose this path on a whim. I finished my undergraduate psychology degree during the first year of covid and have spent more than 1year working as a nursing assistant on an acute mental health ward (amazing experience, cannot recommend enough!!), I was ready for a change.
I spent time looking at trac and nhs jobs and applying to anything in my area that sounded interesting.
I had never considered working in research before, I think we are all under the impression that after uni an AP job is the only option.
Now I couldn’t imagine myself working as an AP and I am considering staying in research for longer.
What you’ve gained from the role?
I have gained so much from this role, confidence, and competence and I feel I have really come into my own.
As a naturally inquisitive person, I think research is a perfect fit for me as the whole point of the work is to find things out to help others.
I honestly cannot recommend mental health research enough.
What were the requirements?
I cannot remember the exact requirements as I got the job over a year ago now, however, I think they were the usual for post-undergraduate level entry roles. This included requiring experience in conducting research previously - for this my qualitative dissertation was sufficient.
Working in research offers so many possibilities and opportunities. The role and jobs of a research assistant are very varied; from admin tasks, completing measures with participants to supporting grant/funding applications.
There are great progression opportunities and it’s a wonderful place to focus on and explore your interests and passions.
Assistant psychologist
The position of Assistant Psychologist is the one that is most sought after, and it is easy to understand why. Under the direction of a licenced clinical psychologist employed by the service, you will assist with psychological assessments and interventions, therapeutically related administration, the performance of audits and other team projects as necessary. You'll typically work as a member of a multidisciplinary team, which will typically comprise social workers, occupational therapists, mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists (clinical, counselling, forensic, or health), and others. This position will give you a better understanding of what it takes to be a psychologist. The requirements for the job are typically more stringent than the one we previously described because it is such a highly coveted employment by psychology graduates. But, any of the aforementioned roles, together with the knowledge you learned while studying, will assist you in your application and interview for the post. It is important to admit that not everybody has the opportunity to gain experience while studying or getting accepted into program without having had a paid experience especially when someone comes from a minority group. due to this observation the HEE program installed by the NHS, have funded several institutions for them to employ more Assistant Psychologist coming from minorities (more info are provided in the links below).
Bonus
Volunteering
Volunteering is always good for your career. It is also well adapted to people with a tight schedule. Do not underestimate the benefits of volunteering as once again you show your engagement in the field. for those who aspire to become a chartered Psychologist, a good amount of clinical doctorate programs value the time you spent as a volunteer as relevant clinical experience. Another hidden advantage of working as a volunteer is to meet people working in mental health as it can be your way into further relevant clinical experiences. It's important to acknowledge that not everyone has the chance to obtain experience while enrolled in school or accepted into a programme without having first completed a paid internship, particularly if they belong to a minority group. In regards to this issue, the NHS's HEE programme has supported various institutions to hire more assistant psychologists who are members of underrepresented groups (more info is provided in the links below).
When applying for the doctorate, you will be asked to provide relevant clinical experience. It is easy to think that the only way to acquire this kind of experience is to have an Assistant Psychologist role. However, when looking at your experiences you should ask yourself these questions: what are the clinical transferrable skills I acquired in my recent experiences? How will these experiences make me a better psychologist? If you approach your application this way you will figure out which experiences to look for besides your studies and how to reflect on them to make a more competitive application.
Further links
Assistant Psychologist
Research
Healthcare Assistant
Teaching Assitant
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