Flexibility is key to a successful career

By Bridget Murray
Monitor staff

By now you?ve heard the talk about 'diverisifying' your work settings and activities?venturing outside the standard psychology realms of clinical practice or academe, and dividing your time between, say, teaching, clinical work and business consultation.

While some may find freedom in the decline of the straight-and-narrow career path, others see it as unsettling. Without clear direction, how do you build a career that?s custom-made for you?

Steve Williams, PhD, a graduate of Howard University, says the first step is to be adaptable. Williams, for example, plans to use the research skills gleaned from his clinical psychology training to pursue work in demographics and policy-making. After he finished his internship at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida, he came to APA?s Research Office, where as senior research associate, he designs and conducts studies that guide psychology-related policy.

Williams will elaborate on the flexible thinking that landed him the job?and offer other tips for handling the new world of careers?at a panel called 'Rebirth: diverse career strategies,' held from noon to 1:50 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 16, at APA?s Annual Convention, Aug. 14?18, in San Francisco.

It?s the second panel in a convention series called 'Careers and change: death, rebirth and midcareer shifts.' The three sessions in the series examine shifting employment roles for psychologists.

See the May and July Monitor issues for articles on the other sessions.

These articles provide snippets of the presenters? topics. The actual sessions will provide full exploration and discussion of their topics.

At this second session, five other panelists will join Williams in offering career tips. Topping their list: Be willing to promote and apply your skills in new settings. Also be open to part-time consulting or contractual jobs.

'If you have several sources of income and lose one of them, you won?t miss it like you would if you just had one,' says Williams. 'It?s just like stocks. You don?t put all your money in one. You diversify.'

For the psychology student

Williams began planning for his professional life in graduate school by squeezing career preparation into his busy schedule. He and the other panelists suggest some ways to do it:

? Seek practical work experience. This is especially important if practicum experience is not a required part of your training program. APA surveys of psychology graduates show that internships are key to landing jobs. If you want to find work in a nonstandard career area, such as management, business or computers, an internship is the way to do it, says Williams, noting that an internship led to his job at APA.

? Equip yourself with 'vogue skills.' Proficiency with computers is useful in just about any job, says Williams. Another panelist, Jessica Kohout, PhD, director of APA?s Research Office, suggests taking classes on billing if you?re going into health care, management if you want to run your own agency or marketing if you want to offer workshops to companies or do market research. If your schedule is packed, attend a workshop or seminar, she suggests.

? Gear yourself for booming areas. Some market areas are 'going begging' for psychologists, says panelist Peter Merenda, PhD, a psychometrician who?s partially retired from the University of Rhode Island. For example, his area of psychometrics particularly needs people, as do companies specializing in polling, demographic research and statistical analyses of standardized test results, he says. Almost every week, testing services and professional examination companies contact Merenda about their need for psychologists. Other emerging routes for psychology include human factors and technology, forensics, custody evaluation, divorce mediation and clinical neuropsychology.

? Connect yourself with people in the field. Contact people whose careers interest you, ask them how they got there and follow them around for a day, suggests Florence Denmark, PhD, another panelist and a professor at Pace University in New York City. Also consult your academic adviser about your career interests, she says.

Finding the unusual job

Today?s job market offers opportunities that you?d never think of in graduate school, says experimental psychologist, Catherine Gaddy, PhD, slated as the panel?s discussant. She always thought she?d wind up in academe, but she?s never found an academic position that suited her. Instead, she started her career in human factors, helping the nuclear power industry prevent another Three Mile Island accident by reworking the design of computers that control plants and working with managers to communicate better with plant employees. Now she researches doctoral employment patterns at the Commission of Professionals in Science and Technology in Washington, D.C., and does human-factors consulting.

But, panelists say, graduate school doesn?t always prepare students for unique niches like Gaddy?s. They suggest several strategies for finding those unusual jobs:

? Be willing to reconceptual-ize your professional identity. If you?re aiming for an unconventional job, consider tailoring your title to the type of job you?re pursuing, instead of automatically using such labels as 'clinical psychologist,' 'developmental psychologist' or 'social psychologist,' says Williams. In certain cases, you can use more generic titles, he says, but make sure that the ones you choose are appropriate and ethical.

'If you think of yourself strictly as a subfield, you pigeonhole yourself into a certain kind of role or work,' says Williams. Sometimes alternative titles more succinctly describe your preparation for a particular job, he says. If you?re a clinical psychologist applying for a job in personnel selection, for example, you could present yourself as a personnel manager and emphasize your training in understanding personality traits, he suggests. If you?re pursuing a job in organizational training, you could bill yourself as an executive coach.

? Educate potential employers about what you offer. Emphasize that your training isn?t just in one particular area such as therapy?that your background in statistics would make you a good statistician, for example, or that your grounding in research and human behavior prepares you well for work in areas like market research, say Williams and Kohout. When seeking an unconventional job, also be strategic and savvy about the people you select as references, advises Williams.

'Ideally your references should be well-versed in that field, be able to elaborate on those skills that are less obvious and relevant to that job and be able to ?talk the lingo? when communicating to your prospective employer,' says Williams.

? Be open to working contractually or part time. Across the marketplace, part-time and contract-based positions are on the rise, panelists say. Although some psychologists are justifiably wary of being exploited or stuck in part-time jobs, contract work is an effective way to build experience and juggle interesting projects, says Morris. For example, in addition to running several community mental health centers and predoctoral internships, Morris also writes books, conducts forensic evaluations and holds continuing education workshops. And for a few hours each week, he sees patients, because that?s 'where my heart is.'

Dealing with managed-care

If you?re headed for a job in practice and you?re not employed by one of the big managed-care companies or panels, you?ll likely find yourself with open office hours, says Morris. Filling those hours requires that you:

? Hone your skills at treating needy populations. Focus on patients who are severely disturbed and who have drug addictions?populations that typically receive Medicaid, Medicare or other federal and state health-care dollars. Many psychologists have historically avoided such patients because treating them involves complex government paperwork, but the mental health needs of such groups are great.

? Focus on areas of opportunity. Target rural health clinics, where psychologists are now paid 25 percent above the usual Medicaid and Medicare rates, because the federal government hopes to draw practitioners to rural areas. Also teach physicians why they need a psychologist in their practice, and offer more brief and group therapy .

? Reconfigure the rates you charge. Find ways to beat competition from other mental health-care providers who charge lower rates, says Morris. He suggests charging patients different rates for different services, the same way physicians do.

? Keep up with policy and regulatory changes that affect you. Track and influence health-care legislation at the state and local level, says Kohout. Consider evaluating the efficacy of brief therapy, crisis intervention, psychoactive drugs and other mental health treatment approaches for managed-care companies. That way you can shape their policy from within, she says.

Look for tips on shifting your work interests at midcareer in the Monitor?s July special issue on work.