Presentation for sophomore Psychology majors.

1. JILL F. FOREST, M.A
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF CAREER SERVICES
CAREER AND COUNSELING CENTER
SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY
Starting Your Career in Psychology

2. Most people
who
major in
Psychology
become
Psychologists.

3. Career Areas in Psychology
Business
Human Human
Admin. Research Education and
Services Resources
Industry
• Direct care • Community • Market • Teaching • Recruitment • Sales
for people Relations Research • Student • Labor • Management
• Counseling • Fund Raising • Data Affairs Relations • Public
• Therapy • Grant Writing Analysis • Adult • Org Relations
• Crisis Work Learning Development
• Training

4. Job Titles
(Some)
 Police Officer
 Health Care Facility Administrator
 Benefits Manager
 Volunteer Coordinator
 School Counselor
 Dietician
 Fundraiser for Non-Profits
 Student Affairs Professional

5.  Student Life
 Career Services
 Int’l Student
Services
 Athletics
 Multicultural Affairs
Professional Orgs
 NASPA
 ACPA

6. SPECIALIZATIONS IN
PSYCHOLOGY

7. Consumer Psychology
Are you interested in why and how people buy some products and not
others? Have you ever wondered how media messages influence a
shopper's buying choices? You might be interested in the growing field of
consumer psychology.

8. If you are interested in becoming a consumer psychologist, focus on taking courses
that will build your understanding of human behavior, marketing, social psychology,
personality and culture. In addition to learning more about the factors that influence
how people think and behave, having a solid background in advertising and
marketing can also be very helpful.

9. Health Psychology
Where do they work?
Health psychology is a • health clinics, hospitals, and universities.
growing field that focuses on • Health psychologists often work in one of
three main areas: research, public
psychological, biological, and policy, and clinical.
social factors that impact • APA Division for Health Psychology
individual health

10. Join UsMembers Login
•
Forensic Psychology
What they do? Where can they work?
 Forensic psychologists apply
psychological principles to legal  Check out
issues. Their expertise is often
essential within the judicial indeed.com
system. They can, for example,
help a judge decide which
parent should have custody
of a child or evaluate a
defendant’s mental
competence to stand trial.
 Forensic psychologists also
conduct research on jury
behavior or eyewitness
testimony. Graduate
 Some forensic psychologists Student
are trained in both psychology Membership is
and the law. ONLY $25.00

11. Industrial Psychology
What do they do?
 Apply psychological principles
and research methods to the
workplace in the interest of
improving productivity, health
and the quality of work life.
 Many serve as human resources
specialists, helping organizations
with staffing, training and
employee development. They
may provide employers with
testing and other valid selection Where do they work?
procedures in their hiring and
promotion processes.
 Others work as management
consultants in such areas as
strategic planning, quality
management and coping with
organizational change.

12. Training Needed
 APA suggests that sports  Sport psychologists help
psychologists should be athletes refine their focus
licensed psychologists on competition goals,
with "experience in become more motivated,
applying psychological and learn to deal with the
principles in sports anxiety and fear of failure
settings.“’ that often accompany
competition.
 The American Board of
Sports Psychology**  The field is growing as
sports of all kinds become
more competitive and

13. Engineering Psychology
Relationshi  Design and develop products for
p between consumer and military use
people and
machines.  Medical technologies
It makes
machines
more
intuitive to JOB TITLES (SOME)
work with.
 Interaction Designer
 Usability Engineer
Human
Factors and  Computer Applications Trainer
Egronomic
Society  Human Factors Design Engineer
(hfes.org)

14. BEST PLACES TO
LOOK FOR
JOBS/INTERNSHIPS

15. What’s on your resume now??
Co-curricular Activities are
CRITICAL
 Community Service
 Student Government
 Certifications
 Orientation Leaders
 Resident Assistants
 Professional/Student Associations
 Study Abroad

16. Work Experience
 SPSU, Recreation Center Marietta, GA
Aerobics Instructor August 2011-present
 Supervise and organize aerobic fitness classes
for SPSU-fit Program: includes Challenge Step.
Step and Cardio and Tone, and Jump and Jab
(cardio kick-boxing)
 Instruct Water Aerobics classes

17. Professional Associations
Others?

18. Internet job postings only account for
…
25% of the job market

19. 1. Use SPSU’s Career Link
Career Link
 Search employers who hire in your major
 Searching for a career job?
 Enter your “Major” and then “Full-time Career”
 Searching for any job?
 Enter in “Full-time Misc”
https://www.myinterfase.com/southernpolytechnic/student/home.aspx

20. 2. Non-Profit Job
Databases
Organizations/agencies hiring in Psychology

21. 3. Job Site Aggregators
 Job search engines that show you
unadvertised jobs from company websites
 Small, mid-sized and large companies

22. 4. The Federal Government
 GA is a state w/a high number of feds
 Go to www.Makingthedifference.org
 By 2016, 40% will retire
 86% of federal jobs are outside of
Washington
 Time consuming to apply – be patient
 Loan forgiveness

23. 5. R U ?
 How LinkedIn can help a Psych student?
 Social networking site for business
connections
 100 million+ members to date
 Connect to people in your field
 Join groups in LinkedIn!

24. The Career and Counseling Center
The Student Center #243
Jill F. Forest - Jforest@spsu.edu
678-915-7391
We’re on !
“SPSU Career Services”
We’re giving away a 100.00 iTunes gift
card this semester

25. Evaluations