Are you planning to enter the workforce with a bachelor’s degree in psychology? If so, we would be proud to support your career journey with Psi Chi’s latest eBook, “An Eye on the Workplace: Achieving a Career With a Bachelor’s in Psychology.opens in new window”
As you are aware, COVID-19 has caused major changes and uncertainty across higher education. This is also true of life in the workplace. Because of these challenges, it is likely more important than ever that you develop career preparation strategies that are not only thorough and time-tested, but also highly adaptable and diverse.
Truth time: Millions of people are currently out of work in the United States (including many college grads and psych majors, we are sure). Therefore, we really cannot suggest, in good conscience, that there are good jobs for psychology majors at this time. In addition, psychology bachelors have the second highest level of underemployment in their first job (see Chapter 6 of the eBook to learn more), which was a leading cause for our decision in 2019 to create this eBook.
Fortunately, with strong preparation during college, we do feel it is safe to say that psychology bachelor’s graduates should be able to successfully compete for good jobs as the pandemic eases. So, once these jobs start becoming available again, will you be prepared to acquire one? Now is the time to develop the necessary skills and experiences that employers will be seeking.
Diverse perspectives
“An Eye on the Workplace” distinguishes itself from other career planning books for psych majors. Why? Because readers obtain diverse perspectives on issues from career preparation to job search from multiple experts and faculty, as opposed to the one or two authors of other books.
Specifically, 18 psychology career experts contributed to the 30 articles published in this eBook. Further, it is also important to note that these 30 articles represent Psi Chi’s best career advice selected from more than 100 articles previously published in Eye on Psi Chi magazine (many of which have been updated by the authors to include more recent application trends and information.)
Data driven advice
Our faculty authors’ advice is also complemented by articles derived from employer-related surveys and feedback from job search experts. This allows us to directly address workplace issues not typically covered in other psychology sources. For example, the first four chapters express the values and uses of the psychology major from the perspective of psychologists. Then, the fifth and sixth chapters detail the survey results of real employers’ perceptions of the shortcomings of the psychology major. Importantly, these two chapters also provide advice about how you can use the available data to increase your odds of impressing future employers and avoiding underemployment.
As another example, Chapter 18 interviews three professionals in the private sector. Topics discussed include how much information job applicants are expected to know about a company before applying, how to personalize applications for specific job openings, and how to make academic experiences applicable during interviews for “nonacademic” positions. In short, our faculty authors provide wisdom and advice on career planning and job search issues; jobsite experts and survey results provide employer- and workplace-driven information.
Bridging the gaps
The path to a successful career is not a sprint, but instead a marathon—and the same can be said for “An Eye on the Workplace.” In fact, even with 25 years of Eye on Psi Chi magazine issues loaded with career advice to pull from, there were still potential holes in the topics being submitted by Psi Chi’s many authors. To address these shortcomings, we examined the organizational structure of the eBook as a whole and then recruited experts to write about specific topics that we felt would help to complete our readers’ abilities to acquire meaningful careers.
These efforts to “bridge the gaps” in everyone’s knowledge resulted in the creation of Chapter 21 about using fit before format when drafting cover letters and resumés. Also, due to an increase in automated application review services, a special article about how to impress robot and human readers alike (Chapter 20) was also a worthy addition to our existing collection.
What you’ll learn
We firmly believe that “An Eye on the Workplace: Achieving a Career With a Bachelor’s in Psychology” will be a useful resource to help you create a results-driven plan to pursue and achieve a meaningful career that is right for you. Five sections of the book include:
- Demystifying the College-to-Workplace Transition.
- Preparing for the Workforce During College.
- The Skills and Experiences Employers Seek.
- Resumés and Letters of Reference.
- Acing Interviews.
Just like our authors, we expect that our readers will come from diverse backgrounds and be faced by unique challenges. Therefore, we are pleased to have also included a special sixth section of the eBook in order to highlight various “Special Topics.” In this section, you will receive specific advice for returning adult students, students working while in college, and students considering a double major.
Our thoughts are with you as you begin preparing for your future career and thank you for reading about “An Eye on the Workplace.” If you would like to learn more before purchasing a copy, you are welcome to view a full list of all chapters and authorsopens in new window. We feel confident that you will see multiple topics that will be handy to your career endeavors. Purchase your copy on the Phi Chi Storeopens in new window website.
About the authors
Paul I Hettich, PhD, professor emeritus at DePaul University (IL), was an Army personnel psychologist, program evaluator in an education R&D lab, and a corporate applied scientist—positions that created a “real world” foundation for his career in college teaching and administration at Barat College (Lake Forest, Illinois) and subsequently DePaul University. He was inspired to write about college-to-workplace transition issues by graduates and employers alike who complained of the major disconnect that exists between university and workplace expectations, cultures, and practices.
In 2013, Bradley Cannon joined the Psi Chi Central Office staff in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Originally an intern, he is now Psi Chi’s full-time writer/managing editor, working closely with Psi Chi’s department of communications and the editorial team of Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. Bradley received a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son.
