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Psychology

Career options

Psychology majors have employment rates similar to other strong liberal arts degrees. Psychology majors have the types of skills and dispositions that employers are seeking. The UWL Psychology Department strongly encourages our majors to visit Career Services, discuss options with advisors, and familiarize themselves with excellent information that is available on the internet. Below we have gathered some preliminary resources to help students get started on their job searches.

Before exploring the items below, you might consider looking at this Online Career Exploration Resource for Psychology Majors (a single PowerPoint slide). It is a list of 300 careers that psychology majors can prepare to enter, which are organized into 15 broad occupational categories that are color coded based on degree requirements.

Also check out these interviews with 13 psychology majors to learn how they prepared for their careers, are using their psychology degree in their day-to-day work and what advice they have to offer you—current psychology majors—as you prepare for graduation.

In October 2019 we re-launched the Psychology Career Information Workshop, which is a panel of five UWL alumni who graduated with a Psychology major and working in fields that do not require a graduate degree. Each presented their career paths and then answered questions from the audience. Below are some resources from that event, including a video recording of the evening:

  • FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY A complete listing of psychology fields and specific information regarding these fields.
  • JOB DESCRIPTIONS Dr. Drew Appleby from IUPUI has collected a list of links to occupations of interest to psychology majors from the U.S. Department of Labor . These descriptions identify the skills people in these occupations must possess to perform their jobs successfully.
  • O*NET: The O*NET system is a national source of occupational information, providing comprehensive information on key attributes and characteristics of workers and occupations - you will need to search it by keywords or terms.
  • Social Work certification in Wisconsin: The WI Department of Safety and Professional Services is responsible for licensing of all different types of therapists. There are many opportunities for jobs in human services/social services that do not require the job applicant to be social work certified.  However, for the jobs that require social worker certification a student needs to be certified by the state.  Most students who get certified by the state have an undergraduate degree in social work (BSW) OR a MSW (Master's in Social Work).  UWL majors are eligible for certification BUT will need additional specific coursework as indicated at the site and this coursework needs to be completed at a school where it is taught by social workers.  Specific course work earned at UWL will not count toward the certification application despite the fact that the descriptions may read as highly aligned with UWL course content.
  • Addiction Counseling: Addiction-Counselor.org is an educational resource designed for those individuals looking to begin or advance a career in the substance abuse counseling field. From our state-by-state guides to licensure and education, salary guides and degree information, we help you understand what it takes to earn the licensure you need for the career you want.

  • INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES - Access Going Global through the Additional Resources menu in Handshake - it includes country career guides, employer directories and international job and internships listings.

  • A sample of career searching sites (some may involve fees or subscriptions but you will be warned before you spend any money). Career Services provides information on several options for online searching including sites specifically associated with more psychology-related jobs.
  • LearnPsychology.org: Learn Psychology is focused on providing college students with information and resources on how to land and be successful in a psychology career. We've just updated our open-access guide to non-psychology careers for psychology majors. A psychology education opens a number of unique career opportunities, so we created this guidebook to help graduates better understand how to use their skills and degrees to land jobs in an array of industries.
  • PsychologyDegree411 Jobs Board(http://www.psychologydegree411.com/jobs/) is a free jobs board updated daily with psychology related positions that can be searched by keywords, degree type, and/or by state. Users can also search for internships. 
  • The College Student's Guide to Pre-Professional Psychology Opportunities: Classroom-based learning can only take a student so far, and eventually, psychology students need to seek out real-world training to make themselves more marketable to employers. Learn Psychology created this guidebook to help students find the best internships, work-study programs, and other pre-professional psychology experiences available. Some key elements of the guide are (1)  an exhaustive list of available pre-professional options
, (2) pros and cons for each of the opportunities listed
, and (3) tips for moving into a professional or academic career.
  • Forensic Psychology Online: Contains a wealth of information, including steps on how to become a forensic psychologist, career guides, state-by-state licensing information, educational opportunities, and much more.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Careers in Social Work: Includes interviews with social workers and clinical social workers and a directory of accredited online Masters in Social Work programs.

Human services job searching - additional information

  • Many employers in this area advertise in their local newspapers as they do not have large advertising budgets. Consequently, check to see if the job site you've chosen crawls newspapers for jobs and/or visit the classified ads of the paper in a town in which you'd like to work. 
  • The National Assembly of Health and Human Services Organizations(www.nassembly.org) has a link to jobs and internships across the nation.
  • The local United Way website for the geographical area for which you are interested will provide a list of agencies they support.

Several good sites from other universities

Psychology-related professional organizations

  • APA The American Psychological Association is a good resource that will also include information about joining as a student affiliate.
  • APA's Psychology as a Career
  • APS The Association of Psychological Science is more research oriented than APA. APS has excellent student resources too.
  • PSI CHI This is the international site for Psi Chi, an honors association for psychology undergraduates and graduate students. There is information about the organization as well as student grant opportunities.
  • MPA The Midwestern Psychological Association is an excellent regional group that puts on an annual meeting in Chicago every year. Several UWL students have presented papers through Psi Chi at the MPA conference. Information on membership and the conference is available at this site.
  • Morgan, B. L., Korschgen, A. J., Basten, B. (2022). Majoring in psych?: Career options for psychology undergraduates (6th ed.). Waveland Press. 
  • Dunn, D.S. & Halonen, J. S. (2019). The Psychology Major's Companion: Everything You Need to Know to Get You Where You Want to Go (2nd ed.). Worth Publishers.
  • Kuther, T. L. (2019). The Psychology Major's Handbook. (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
  • Sternberg, R. J. (2016). Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You (3rd ed.). APA