Graduate training for the 21st century

By Richard McCarty
Executive Director for Science

Students who will be entering graduate programs in psychology in the next several months will receive their PhDs early in the 21st century. Current data suggest that at least 50 percent of these students in scientific psychology will seek nonacademic careers. One thing that I am struck by is how open most undergraduate and graduate students are to working in applied science settings.

In contrast, it is equally striking to me that many faculty members are completely turned off to the thought of one of their best graduate students taking anything but a tenure-track position in an academic department, preferably one that has a graduate program. In keeping with the work force theme of this issue of the Monitor, I will share some of my thoughts on the future of nonacademic careers in psychology.

Kudos for the academy?

Let me begin by extolling the virtues of a career in an academic psychology department. Too often, talented undergraduate psychology majors are not encouraged to consider graduate school as an option. Many faculty advisers view the academic job market as tighter than bark on a tree. Still others complain that academic salaries are too low and demands too high.

My personal view goes very much counter to these suggestions. A tenure-track or tenured faculty position at a college or university is a position of privilege that comes with high expectations. I can think of few other vocations that offer so much freedom to pursue one?s interests and to influence and inform others. When the match between faculty member and vocation is optimal, the job takes on all the elements of a calling. Such is the case with the most successful faculty members I have encountered during the course of my career. Students at all levels quickly recognize those who have a calling from those who are going through the motions.

?and for industry

As fantastic as a faculty position can be, it is not for everyone. This may sound like a modest insight after 20 years as a faculty member. However, I have worked all of that time in a graduate psychology department that has placed a great premium on placing its PhD students in academic positions.

Some of my change in perspective has been driven by the fact that several of my students have taken jobs outside of 'the academy' after they completed the PhD, and they have flourished. I have also been influenced by the findings of APA?s Task Force on Nonacademic Employment, co-chaired by Gary M. Olson and Judith R. Olson of the University of Michigan. Finally, I have been struck by how many of my most capable undergraduate major advisees over the years were interested in applied aspects of psychology. These include everything from criminology to software development and many others.

Educating for the 21st century

Many graduate psychology departments will face important issues relating to nonacademic employment as we approach the next century. Some departments will focus exclusively on training the next generation of scholars and will remain relatively 'user unfriendly' to those graduate applicants who express an interest in a nonacademic career.

Other departments will develop a flexible approach to graduate training, encouraging some graduate students to enter academic careers while supporting other graduate students in their efforts to work in applied settings. Still others will focus their attention on training graduate students, often at the master?s level, to work in applied settings.

In the end, market forces will guide some of these decisions if greater numbers of graduate applicants wish to pursue nonacademic careers.

Many departments have already come to appreciate the benefits of accepting graduate students who want to work in applied settings. These departments have developed flexible curricula that allow graduate students to pursue internships and work-study arrangements with companies during their formal graduate training. The departments often benefit by developing close working relationships with several companies that employ their graduates. Our colleagues in schools of engineering have been doing this sort of thing for many years, and it is a model that works well.

Psychology as a discipline is fortunate in that the vast majority of our PhDs are fully and appropriately employed. Many successful companies, government agencies and private foundations realize that hiring research psychologists makes great business sense. The next step is for our more traditional graduate advisers to value and encourage graduate students who choose to pursue a nonacademic career. It?s the right thing to do.