In My Own Words…

Diemmy Nguyen

Freshman Seminar

March 7, 2010

Researching Careers

I never knew what I wanted to be until I took a psychology class at Baruch College. It was so interesting and different from any other class I’ve taken before. If I become a psychologist, I am able to professionally analyze the human mind…I get to study why humans do the things they do. Although this sounds straight forward and maybe even simple, the road to becoming a successful psychologist is anything but simple. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Acceptance to graduate psychology programs is highly competitive (1).

My personal attributes and strengths are: being a good listener, giving good advice, and doing well in the psychology class that I took. Psychology values these strengths very much. I’m interested in becoming a clinical psychologist. Clinical Psychologists: are concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disturbances (2). Other clinical psychologists work in universities and medical schools, where they train graduate students in the delivery of mental health and behavioral medicine services (6). It is known that clinical psychology is “The largest specialty” (4). I think I’m a better listener than speaker but when I need to, I’m ready to use the information people have told me and then give them advice based on that. Also academically, doing well in psychology courses gives better job opportunities because it shows you know what you’re doing.

You should always have backup careers in mind. Just in case I change my mind about wanting the intensity of clinical psychology, I can also be a counselor. Counselors also help people, but they do  not often deal with psychosis. They use many methods including personal consultations and examinations to help people deal with everyday pressures and find ways to live happy, productive lives (3). Examples of what a counselor does are: help teens get over peer pressure, help married couples rekindle their love, and talk to people in general when they feel distressed. Students who go on to careers within the field of psychology can work in areas such as education, justice, health, research and clinical or counseling psychology (5).

Being a psychologist requires a quite a bit of schooling and an advanced degree (3). Becoming a clinical psychologist requires the most amount of schooling, because you need a PhD. This means that even after I finish college, I have to attend graduate school for another five – seven years. The job market is very competitive, so that means I would have to have my degrees ready to have a better chance of landing the job that I want. The skills for becoming a clinical psychologist are the same for if I wanted to become a licensed counselor.

It is appropriate to recognize our strengths and weaknesses now, so that we can find a job in the future that we both like and are good at. I myself want to become a clinical psychologist, but I know that I must have alternative careers in mind just in case I can’t fulfill that dream. It takes a lot of schooling to get a PhD, but when you are through with it, you get to enjoy the benefits of your hard work.

Bibliography

Sources

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Psychologists, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos056.htm (visited March 07, 2010).

2. Hunter College, An Introduction to the Fields of Psychology, http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/~bseegmil/hdbk/fields.htm

3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Psychology Careers, Jobs and Employment Information, http://www.careeroverview.com/psychology-careers.html

4. Salisbury University, The Various Fields/Specialties Within Psychology (Subfields), http://www.salisbury.edu/careerservices/students/typesofpsychology.html
5. Open Polytechnic, Kuratini Tuwhera, Psychology Career Options and General Information, http://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/commonquestions/faq_psychologytwo
6. Psychology Information Online, Careers – Clinical Psychology, http://www.psychologyinfo.com/students/careers-clinical.html
I found these six information sources by looking up Occupational Outlook Handbook using Google. I also looked up Attributes and Careers ending with gov, edu, and org on Google.