I am in college right now and after reading that post regarding the credibility of psychology as a science, I began to wonder, although I plan to attend grad school after I graduate, what if I were put in a circumstance where I had to find a job?
Would I be able to find a full time job that puts my degree to use?
For some reason I think the straight dope would be full of psych major graduates, so help me out. 
I was in your boat ages ago, and unless things have changed drastically, the short answer is no. There really isn’t much out there unless you get a Masters in Psych. About all you have to “sell” in the employment market is a generic college degree under your belt.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
However, a generic college degree does open a hell of a lot more doors than if you didn’t have one!
How do you feel about working in social services? There are a LOT of places who will be more than happy to hire someone with a BA in Psychology (or Sociology) to work in social services.
Pay? Oh, you’d want to be paid for this? Well, now, that’s another story. In my area (Central Pennsylvania), working in social services with a BA in Psychology will start out about $10/hour (yes, that’s TEN DOLLARS PER HOUR), and can go up to around $14/hour. That’s starting out, without lots of experience. My first job, out of college, with a BA in Applied Behavioral Science (which is very much like Psychology and Sociology), I was Director of a community health division in a small nonprofit. I left (after being there for two years,working full time) at $24,500 a year. And, that was about five years ago.
The good news is that I didn’t make enough money to have to start paying back my school loans. (Gotta look on the bright side of things.) I qualified for a Hardship Deferance because I didn’t make Jack Squat in income.
Ever thought of Med school? You did courses in neurosciences right?
Been there, although by the time I was there I knew I didn’t want to pursue a career in psychology.
Human resources puts the industrial/organizational aspects of a psychology degree to work.
The other area as mentioned already is social services. One job in that field that I think is pretty cool is job coach for people with disabilities. You learn the job with the person, then work with them and the employer to get the new employee up to speed with the right job aids and assistive technology.
Since you are already planning on grad school, you might be best off looking for a research assistantship with a psychology professor. (Except for the “What, taking care of rats is not putting your degree to work?” factor).
The only job that I know of that would actually let you use your degree is being a paid Research Assistant for a large psychology study. Some research institutions run studies that are so large that they need full time research assistants to handle administrative tasks and administer parts of the study. Even these positions are very competitive however. It would be a huge plus for getting into a good graduate program later.
I have a BA in Psychology. I went into a Ph.D. program in behavioral neuroscience after that but dropped out. Now, I work in IT.
Psychology is generally just a generic college degree. However, most other liberal arts degrees are too. Engineers and architects may have a degree that will get them a job but they cannot venture outside of that little world without drastic changes. You will be in the same situation as millions of other liberal arts grads, most of whom actually find their way and do quite well.
You have to be creative and have a little luck.
If “aid in finding a good job” is a primary measure for you, then I’d start investigating a different major.
I mean, some jobs that hire psych grads (Social Services for example) will hire ANY grads. But there are other jobs that require a more specific degree that won’t hire a psych grad.
Some of us are fortunate enough so that our passions undergraduate (computer science and mathematics) also lead to gainful employment in those areas.
My wife has a degree in sociology. She was working as a sales person at Nordstrom until she started her own small business. But the sociology degree was really nothing more than “something to study” while she was in school. What’s she going to do with that?
I’m trying not to poo-poo psych or sociology. They can both be challenging and interesting. It’s just that there’s a perception (I haven’t read the other thread so I might be repeating those thigns) that a lot of people go into them just as a way to get a college degree while doing the least amount of work.
And don’t think that people in “the real world” don’t know that. And don’t blame “us”. Blame the 20 jerks on my floor in the dorm who were all psych majors (and speech communication majors) who did absolutely nothing for 89 days out of every semester while those of us in other fields were busting our asses.
Unfairly, that perception punishes the ones who actually did take it seriously.
Even another “social science” be it history, economics, linguistics etc. might have a little more cachè.
I graduated college with a double major, a BA in Psychology and Sociology in 1993. Here is my post-college job time line in brief. Not very much money, but they were very memorable jobs.
1993-1994: Full time bartender.
1994-1994: Pre-Employment Trainer/GED Instructor. It was a school for kids that did not do well in traditional high school. Oh, and I was also the bus driver. That lasted 6 months.
1994-1995: Case Manager for elderly clients who were in danger of institutionalization. I had to travel to there homes, and see if services could be put in place to keep them home.
1995-1998: Community Services Coordinator for a local non for profit. My office was housed in the “Clubhouse” area of a low income apartment residence. I tried to bring services to the families to help them be financially self-sufficient, among other groovy things.
1998-present: I’m an administrator for a small department in a University. I also still bartend on the side.
Go to Grad School! I wish I had. My problem was by the time I finished I did not have much interest in psychology/sociology anymore.
Best of luck to you!
What would you consider “putting your degree to use?” I’ve worked with some psych majors who’ve said this, but none of them were ever able to come up with a solid answer.
I completed a BA in psych, took a year off, and then earned a master’s degree in counselor education. Some of my grad school classmates had worked in direct-care positions at mental health facilities, some had worked in Americorps, and a lot of them had taught.
Trunk, psychology is not an easy major. That is what the education major is for.
More relavant to the actual OP, I will tell you my favorite joke:
What does a psychology major say after graduation?
You want fries with that?
Got to grad school. Pretty much any job you can get “using” an undergraduate degree is going to be low-paying and hard. Good experience, but if you want to be a psychologist, you have to go to grad school.
Got another one -
Whats more useless then a psychology minor?
A psychology major.
I once told this to a group of people whos majors I didn’t know about; of course one of them turned out to have recently majored in psychology :smack: