By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

From her window office at Sun Microsystems in the Silicon Valley, psychologist Dana Miller, PhD, sees to it that the next wave of computer technology is user-friendly. Her division, JavaSoft, is building software that can link all different types of computer systems, and Miller uses her human behavior savvy to ensure that the average PC owner can easily use the products.

Meanwhile, in the bustling police headquarters of Westminster, Calif., psychologist Douglas Kent, PhD, is investigating the lure of gangs for Asian youth. With funding from the U.S. Justice Department and state sources, Kent employs four researchers and several interviewers to talk with gang members so he can design a program to debunk what they perceive as gang benefits.

And in a U.S. West usability lab masquerading as a living room, psychologist Marita Franzke, PhD, tests the difficulty of using Pay-Per-View and other telecommunications technologies. She watches a channel surfer struggling to order a Pay-Per-View movie and recommends ways to make the service simpler to use.

Miller, Kent and Franzke all graduated recently from doctoral programs in psychology that have a strong history of theory and research?programs whose graduates have often entered academic careers. But instead of graduating students primarily for work in academe, as many research programs do, their programs are equipping students for a variety of careers?from academe to business and government.

The key to the training that Miller, Kent and Franzke received at Rice University, Claremont Graduate University and the University of Colorado is flexibility, they say. Their programs promote thinking and training that geared them to find their own niches in the field.

And in today?s rapidly changing marketplace, flexibility is an asset, says Robert Dipboye, PhD, chair of the Rice University program.

Rice University?s three tracks in cognitive psychology, industrial/organizational psychology and human factors give students a solid foundation in research methodology and psychology, so they can pursue either academic or applied work, he says. While Rice still produces high numbers of academic psychologists, the current tight academic job market, along with academic research cutbacks and a trend toward more part-time instructors, has many of its graduates seeking less familiar careers. Rice graduates work in diverse places?from university psychology departments and medical schools to NASA and the military, to oil and telephone companies. At the moment, the omputer industry, in particular, is scrambling for them, says Dipboye.

The need for training that fits psychologists? diversifying careers has sparked several APA initiatives?including the Task Force for Non-Academic Employment of Scientific Psychologists?which examined growing careers in applied research. Most recently, the APA Task Force on Training Needs in an Emerging Marketplace, created by APA?s Council of Representatives in February, planned a study of psychologists? career outlook?and training that accommodates it. The task force lauded the Rice, University of Colorado and Claremont programs for providing model training in research psychology and noted that the more populous areas of clinical psychological services are likewise faced with significant workplace changes. They too need to to prepare and teach graduate students broadly but with skills that are useful.

?The field of psychology is evolving from a mental health profession into a broader health, leadership and organizational profession,? says Lee Hersch, PhD, the task force?s chair. ?Psychology?s stakeholders?students, faculty and practitioners?need to gear themselves for the shift.?

The new marketplace calls for entrepreneurial students, updated training programs and a field that touts its unique contributions in emerging arenas, the task force recommended in a report released this summer. To pinpoint and tap those emerging arenas, more marketplace data are needed, the task force says.

The marketplace today

Psychologists with clinical training still have a strong foothold in mental health-care practice and those with research training can still find jobs in academe, but not as easily as they once could. Managed care, less government funding of psychologists? research, diminishing tenured professorships and other marketplace changes are prompting many aspiring psychologists to seek training that prepares them for applied niches.

Twenty years ago, the largest single proportion of psychologists worked in academe, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Today, the largest single proportion work for business and industry, and that includes incorporated private practice.

And the market has been friendly to psychologists, the data show. Psychologists land jobs at higher rates than physicists, chemists and other scientists, according to NSF surveys. While there may be fewer jobs in academe, psychologists often find work elsewhere because their training prepares them to work with people in a variety of ways, not just with test tubes, says Barbara Gutek, PhD, a task force member and University of Arizona professor.

The self-styled psychologist

Psychologists will increasingly find work in technology, forensics, criminal justice, business development, public policy and neuroscience, predict task force members.

Doctoral graduates are entering a world where the ?career? professor or independent practitioner is less and less the norm. The trend is toward a protean professional, says task force member Mary Beth Kenkel, PhD, chancellor of the California School of Professional Psychology. Psychologists today often juggle several part-time jobs and roles. They consult, run workshops and launch their own businesses?nearly 20 percent of them are self-employed.

Douglas Kent is a case in point. In the past he augmented his police research with part-time teaching, and he now spends his spare time consulting with nonprofit community agencies on program design, management and evaluation.

Finding niches

The key to finding innovative careers is targeting a niche that needs psychologists?then pursuing it vigorously, says Sun Microsystems? Miller. Knowing that she wanted to apply cognitive science in industry, she did her doctoral work at Rice University in Houston?a program with ties to the computer industry. During the summers she worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Compaq and Apple. Some of her professors were surprised that she took only applied internships and passed up academic research. ?I?ve always been most interested in how research applies in the real world because I need to see tangible results,? Miller says. ?In industry, you see the products you?re working on and you see the difference you?ve made.?

A taste of the real world also triggered Douglas Kent?s interest in criminal justice. While working on his social psychology doctorate at the Claremont Graduate University, Kent started helping a friend crunch data for the Westminster Police Department. The department?s efforts to dismantle gangs fascinated him and he saw an opportunity to help. Kent conducted a rigorous evaluation of its gang-reduction program, which so impressed the police that they asked him to evaluate their domestic violence program and created the research office he now runs.

?The best job opportunities are often those that one creates for oneself,? says Kent.

And the best way to prove one?s job worthiness is through practica and internships, says Marita Franzke, PhD. She interned with U.S. West, the telecommunications company she works for in Boulder, Colo., when she was halfway through her doctorate. To get the most out of the experience, she took a one-year leave of absence from her training program?enough time to make a strong impression on the company.

After she completed her dissertation on human-computer interaction, the company immediately snapped her up. Now Franzke works on making a host of technologies user-friendly?from voice mail, to Yellow Pages directories on the Internet to Pay-Per-View. Like, Miller, she?s always wanted an industrial research job because the results are immediate.

?Stepping into a new project, quickly understanding where you can have the greatest impact and then working with a team to achieve those goals makes the job fun and challenging,? says Franzke.

Progressive training

A supportive training program is also key to finding less traditional jobs, says Miller. The programs that she, Kent and Franzke attended at Rice University, Claremont Graduate University and the University of Colorado emphasize internships and applied research. Faculty there value and promote preparation for applied careers as much as preparation for more traditional academic careers, they say.

The programs foster relationships with industry and brief their students on marketplace trends.

For example, Claremont?s doctoral program encourages students to take electives in such areas as management, education and public policy and requires students to gather portfolios that record their activities?internships, practica, program evaluations or literature reviews?in a specialty area such as health or forensic psychology. The program also hones students? presentation and teamwork skills to help them in the workplace, says program chair Dale Berger, PhD.

?Students today need to be proactive about recognizing marketplace forces and figuring out what makes them valuable to various organizations, and their training can support that,? says Berger.