Common Job Prospects for Psych Majors

While majors can definitely shape your future career or act as a direct stepping stone into your desired career path – there isn’t an absolute or guaranteed answer of what job you will end up in with any given major. With that being said, you can use your major to explore different career paths and keep your options open as you consider your post-graduate endeavors. A bachelor’s degree in psychology can help you land in a variety of fields.

According to Psychology Today, top fields for psych majors include Healthcare (17%), Sales (12.6%), Education (9.2%), Social Services (8.5%), and Human Resouces (7.5%).

Not sure what’s on the table for you in your future job search? Keep reading for job prospects for psych majors.

A common field, or path 

If psych majors are using their studies to get into their career paths, they likely will end up in a job that falls into human or social services. The type of jobs psych majors end up with allows them to put their bachelor’s degree to use, from evaluating the needs of a client to creating advised treatment plans in the best interest of their client.

A psychology degree can open up many career paths for you. Still, if you are looking at a more specialized role, graduate school may be higher on your priority list after getting your bachelor’s degree. If you’re unsure of which path to take, consider the jobs below that you can use your bachelor’s degree for, and if graduate school is still needed to get you into your desired career.

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Research

Depending on how you reacted to your coursework as a psych major, you may want to continue that path of seeking new information, without going back to school. If that is the case for you, you can look for a job as a research assistant. As a research assistant, you will ensure that research studies are completed correctly, from recruiting study participants to monitoring data and procedures, and so on.

With research work, you can look for employment through research agencies, organizations, or universities. University-based research careers will often tie into education, so if graduate school is something you want to explore, it’s definitely an option to consider. Research opportunities will vary based on what type of organization you ultimately work for.

Counseling

If you are a people person, a job as a counselor may be higher on your list of interests. You would be helping people on a daily basis, navigating a variety of situations depending on where you end up working. One place of employment you can look into is a school’s counseling office, allowing you to work with elementary-aged kids to high school students.

You can also look into career counseling if you want to help students connect with job opportunities that match their skill set and interests. You would help students complete assessments, explore careers, find job opportunities, and offer guidance on the application and interview process. Taking a trip to your school’s career counseling office wouldn’t hurt as the first step in your future career.

Social Service

Social service is typical for psych majors as it directly ties into common coursework. For example, Case Managers, offer advice to individuals in hard situations. They aid in the creation of treatment plans, connect with service providers, and monitor the client’s situation.

Social Service Specialists can end up in anything from a non-profit organization to a government agency, offering professional help to clients.

Psych majors can also seek out employment opportunities in childcare, from working after-school programs to daycare for children.

Human Resources

A career in the Human Resources field isn’t uncommon for a psych major. A job like a human resources specialist will allow you to recruit and onboard new employees for a company. Your job would include determining open jobs, creating job listings, conducting interviews, and being a contact for new hires’ onboarding experience.

A Training and Development Specialist is needed by organizations who need to train their employees, looking for professionals who can plan and execute the employees’ training.

Media and Advertising

Media careers, while unexpected, can allow psych majors to thrive. Media roles like management and production can allow psych majors to use their knowledge of human behavior to get the job done.

Advertising requires professionals to craft enticing advertisements for target audiences – a psych major’s knowledge from their education would definitely come in handy.

It is important to remember that your major should never act as a limit to what career paths you can explore, but it should be something that encourages you to find a career that interests you, something that can be explored through a work-study or a course about a certain subject. With these job prospects in mind, you can reassure yourself that there is definitely no limit to what you are capable of exploring as a career – good luck!