Undergraduate psychology majors have a variety of career pathways that use skills, abilities, and content knowledge in psychology, but often psychology majors do not recognize how psychology connects to their career pathways. In 2023, most employed graduates holding psychology bachelor’s degrees indicated that their jobs were not related to psychology (38%) or only somewhat related to psychology (37%). Only 26% of psychology majors indicated that their jobs were closely related to psychology (National Science Foundation, 2025). These perceptions showed little change between 2010 and 2023.
In contrast, psychology graduate degree holders’ perceptions of how related their jobs are to psychology were much higher. About 73% of individuals with psychology master’s degrees and 89% of individuals with psychology doctoral degrees reported that their jobs were closely related to psychology (National Science Foundation, 2025).
Undergraduate psychology education is a critical area in which the relevance of psychology to future jobs could be strengthened. Psychology educators can improve perceptions of the value of the psychology major by encouraging student self-reflection and career exploration to identify career pathways that are good fits, infusing career information throughout psychology curricula, discussing with students the many career-relevant or job-related skills learned as a psychology major, and incorporating coursework that shows real-world applications of psychology.
