Psychology opens doors into many career pathways. While this is good news in that psychology majors have lots of career options, it can be daunting to make informed decisions about which pathway (or pathways) to pursue. Faculty and advisors are great resources, but they may only know the major career pathways in psychology (such as how to become a clinician or psychology professor). Career services at your college or university is another great resource, especially if you are interested in learning about a broad range of careers. Career services can be helpful even if you don’t know what you need. However, career services is underutilized. Although most students use career services at least once, an estimated three in 10 students never interact with career services (Inside Higher Ed, 2024).
So what’s a psychology major to do?
You can begin your career journey on your own with online resources to guide you through self-reflection and career exploration. To navigate the broad field of psychology, psychology majors must first consider their own skills, knowledge, interests, motivations, and values to determine which career paths to pursue (for more on how to start this journey, see Waggoner Denton, 2024. This understanding will increase your awareness of career pathways that could fit you well. APA has useful resources specific to psychology, such as APA’s Careers in Psychology interactive data tool, Skillful Psychology Student (PDF, 40KB)opens in new window, and Top 20 skills for psychology bachelor’s degree holders.
Outside of psychology, the O*NET databaseopens in new window is a valuable resource that contains detailed job profiles for over 1,000 occupations across the labor market. Each job profile covers day-to-day job activities, work values, relevant skills (including technical skills), and education levels. Pay attention to the skills in each occupational profile because you might gain language to describe skills you possess or identify skills that employers value. A common question is how much can I earn in different jobs? O*NET has this information near the bottom in the section on Wages & Employment Trends.
If you are not sure what type of job to pursue, try O*NET’s interest profiler toolopens in new window to get ideas about careers you might find interesting. Then, use basic search functions. One of my favorites is Bright Outlook occupations. Bright Outlookopens in new window indicates occupations that meet at least one of three criteria: occupations that are expected to grow rapidly, will have large numbers of job openings, or are new and emerging. Bright Outlook occupations are marked by a sun icon throughout O*NET. Additional ways to search O*NET include exploring career clusters, hot technology, industries, job families, and more.
Are you wondering which jobs use psychology knowledge? Search by psychology as a knowledge areaopens in new window to find them and to learn more about the relative importance of psychology knowledge across a range of occupations. Not surprisingly, clinical and counseling psychologists and postsecondary psychology teachers (i.e., psychology professors) are the top two occupations that emerge from this search. A number of health and behavioral health occupations and teachers in K-12 and higher education settings have high ratings for importance of psychology knowledge.
You could also consider careers with an applied psychology focus. Applied psychology focuses on addressing real world issues with psychological science. Are you interested in becoming a health informatics specialist or industrial-organizational psychologist, for example? These occupations use your skills and background for problem-solving. For more ideas, take a look at this article (Schwartz & Stamm, 2024) on career options in applied psychology.
Are you wondering about how artificial intelligence (AI) may affect jobs? Search by degree of automationopens in new window to see jobs with varying levels of automation. AI’s role in the changing nature of work will be an important trend to watch, as there is considerable uncertainty about what the future of work will look like. We are just beginning to see the adoption and integration of AI in our jobs.
What can you do next?
Keep going on your career exploration journey. You can use APA’s Individual Development Plan (IDP), a five-step resource for career planning. The five steps include conducting self-assessment, exploring careers, comparing and contrasting your background with your career goals, setting goals, and implementing your plan. APA’s IDP is primarily intended for graduate students and postdocs. But with some modification, the IDP can be used by anyone at any point in their careers. If you’re interested in an informal plan, you could reflect on questions such as “Where have I been? Where am I now? Where do I want to go?” or “What are my talents and gifts? What brings me joy? Who needs me to do it?” Every time you come to a crossroads in your education and career, do some self-reflection so that you can figure out the best action you can take. By making adjustments as you go along, you set yourself up for a successful career journey.
Acknowledgment
The author thanks APA Center for Workforce Studies intern Karina Ward for feedback on a draft of this article.
About the author
Karen Stamm, PhD, is the senior director of the Center for Workforce Studies at APA. The mission of APA’s Center for Workforce Studies is to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about the psychology workforce and education pathways. Karen’s career journey has spanned both academia and APA. She is a quantitative psychologist who enjoys using data to tell compelling stories. Karen earned her PhD and MA in psychology from the University of Rhode Island and her BA in psychology and English from Boston College.
