Courses prevent senior panic by teaching undergraduates about career options

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

Entering her sophomore year, psychology major Erin Eichstedt had a hazy notion that psychology involved graduate school. She figured she might send out an application some time close to graduation.

Then she took a careers course offered by her school, University of Wisconsin­La Crosse (UWL), and found that "I have to make a serious commitment to grad school early on if that's my goal." Says Eichstedt, "Getting ready for grad school means internships, résumés, relationships with faculty, good grades and student activities."

She also realized that many psychology majors go on to jobs outside of psychology after graduation or earn master's degrees--that earning a PhD isn't the norm as she'd thought.

UWL recently added the careers course to teach students about graduate school, jobs and career preparation early on, rather than as Eichstedt puts it, "waking up too late [to career preparation] in your senior year."

The course, installed just last year, also clears up misconceptions that majors can practice therapy with a bachelor's degree, or that, conversely, a PhD is the only future path for psychology majors, says UWL Psychology Department Chair Betsy Morgan, PhD, who co-developed the course with UWL assistant professor Emily Johnson, PhD.

Morgan's department is part of a small but growing effort to formalize psychology students' career preparation and prevent "senior panic."

West Virginia University, Georgia Southern University, Marian College and Indiana University­Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) have begun offering--sometimes even requiring--such courses. Their aim is to explain ways of applying a major that's popular but less niche-oriented than other majors, such as business and education.

"We'd get seniors who didn't know what to do with the major, who had little clue that getting into graduate school was a competitive event, not a foregone conclusion," says Margaret Lloyd, PhD, who spearheaded Georgia Southern's course.

"Students needed much more than advising. They weren't going to the water, so we decided to bring the water to them."

Job options

Typically, universities offer careers courses in a one-credit, pass/fail format and encourage students to take the courses as sophomores. The course setups vary, however.

At Marian College, for example, faculty include career preparation in some classes and in development advising activities.

According to APA's Research Office, 70 percent of bachelor's-level graduates find jobs after graduating, more than 60 percent of them outside psychology. That often shocks students, says Mikki Poynter-Jeschke, who teaches a careers course at IUPUI that is required for all students in the major.

Undergraduates tend to underestimate the applicability of their skills--their writing, interpersonal, research and critical thinking abilities.

Students are marketable in jobs outside of psychology, such as human resources, community relations, sales and marketing, as well as more traditional psychology-related jobs, such as as social services, correctional work, juvenile rehabilitation work and crisis counseling, she says

"Students are surprised when I bring recruiters and former psychology majors into class who are working in finance, business and marketing and the not-for-profit sector. I am seeing more and more employers seek out psychology majors for positions not traditionally related to psychology. Employers tell me it's because these students have developed good quantitative problem-solving skills as well as strong people skills," she says.

Drew Appleby, PhD, who team teaches the capstone course with the other three full-time faculty members at Marian College, says he exposes students to job options such as marketing managers, technical writers, sales representatives, employee-assistance program specialists, among others.

Graduate school tips

Psychology students also tend to underestimate their graduate-school options, says Katherine Karraker, PhD, an associate professor at West Virginia University, who has taught a careers course there for eight years. When she explains the tough competition for doctorates in clinical psychology, students sometimes think that counts out graduate school, she says.

In response, Karraker explains the range of master's programs they can pursue--in social work, for example, or special education or early childhood education. Karraker also enlightens students about the wide-ranging graduate programs in psychological research, and the need to start building their research skills as undergraduates. Vivian Maley, an IUPUI sophomore, says her careers course turned her interests from therapy to research.

"Now I'm thinking about working with a professor on fetal alcohol syndrome research," she says.

Résumés and interviews

Besides informing students about their career options, most careers courses also teach students about seeking internships and emphasizing their strengths in résumés, cover letters, interviews and applications.

Students in Appleby's classes at Marian College, for example, develop a "professional planning portfolio," featuring recommendation letters, résumés and goals for a job or graduate school.

Lisa Decker, a psychology major and former student of Appleby's, says the portfolio helped her grasp how psychology translates to her interest area--paralegal work. On her résumé, she enumerated the interpersonal, computer, organizational and research skills she'd learned in her major, and pitched them to law firms. She also arranged a mock interview with a lawyer to fulfill another of Appleby's course requirements. That move landed her a job with his law firm.

"The lawyer was impressed with how my psychology skills relate to law," says Decker. "Drew's course gave me the confidence and understanding to explain it to him."

For further reference

* Appleby, Drew. "The Handbook of Psychology," (Longman Publishers, Addison Wesley Longman, 1997.)

* DeGalan, Julie & Lambert, Stephen. "Great Jobs for Psychology Majors." (VGM Horizons, NTC Publishing Group, 1995.)

* Morgan, B. & Korschgen A. "Majoring in Psych?: Career Options for Psychology Undergraduates." (Allyn & Bacon, 1998.)

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