Is the Psychology field calling you? Are you interested to pursue your career as a psychological counsellor? But worried about the career prospects?
Read this article to know more
What is Psychology?
Psychology is the study of the human mind and behaviour. The psychologists will be examining both the individual and group behaviour of humans. The main responsibility of the psychologists is to work towards the understanding of human psychological behaviour, activity, treating mental disorders and counselling people to help them achieve emotional stability. Psychology is the discipline that encompasses a wide range of studies that includes attention, perception, comprehension, emotions, intelligence, personality, relationships, human behaviour and the state of the subconscious mind.
Psychology is the fastest emerging field today when it comes to research. Many types of research are carried out across the world on human social behaviours. Psychology is the combination of different disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and philosophy.
Psychology purely relies based on the data available due to the scientific processes and proven results obtained by the scientific experiments. The experiments are conducted by using carefully designed equipment to produce reliable data about the behaviour, emotions or brain chemistry.
The extensive research conducted in the field of psychology over many years has determined the ways and methods to examine the emotional stability or mental illness of human behaviours. This has helped the psychologists across different countries to develop many counselling techniques that encouraged them to conduct more in-depth studies in the areas of mental development, easing the emotional pain or promotion of healthy behaviour among the society.
What makes Psychology the best career option?
The psychology field has been chosen by many students in recent days. The increase in the demand to understand human behaviour has created a lot of career opportunities for psychology students. The psychology field opens gates to many exciting career paths. This is due to the comprehensive knowledge and exposure that the field provides for the students. The students develop this comprehensive knowledge due to the advancement of the psychological theories and instances of their applications in society.
Psychology students have ample job opportunities in numerous areas. They can work as consultants to the corporate companies or they can even choose to counsel the patients in medical facilities, NGOs, rehabilitation centres etc.
The psychology students are majorly hired in corporate companies, social services, mental health care centres, NGOs, schools, colleges, universities, rehabilitation centres etc. The demand for psychology students is huge and can draw decent salaries. They have the opportunity to work directly with the patients struggling from mental illness and other ailments.
It’s Challenging
Psychology is the most challenging field as it involves the study of human behaviour. The field gives many thrilling experiences when it comes to human behaviour. Every human is different and has a different mental state or behaviour. So, psychology students have the best opportunity to study every behaviour of human beings.
This is a daunting and challenging task but yet interesting. In order to study the psychology of people, the psychologist should be mentally prepared to face the challenges. The students should be emotionally strong if they want to study psychology.
A Rewarding Career Path
Many people enter into the field of psychology to help others who are in distress or disheartened. The psychology students after the completion of the masters can find excellent job opportunities. They are hired in corporate companies, factories, schools and colleges, universities, NGOs, rehabilitation centres etc. They are paid decent salaries and can find good growth in their career.
Variety of career options
The students with master’s in psychology can apply for a broad range of positions in the professional world. Many of them are hired in corporate companies, they are required to interact with the employees and try to counsel them.
They act as ears to the employee’s grievances and help them to come out of their professional problems. Some of them can become sports psychologists and work with sportspersons.
Some choose to work in mental health centres, NGOs, rehabilitation centres. Some are hired in educational institutes where they will be counselling the students. They are hired in rehabilitation centres, where they will be providing psychological treatments to the drug addicts, habitual drinkers, chain smokers and help them quit these habits. Some choose to work as freelancers and can start a career as a psychological counsellor. Some of them are hired in government agencies like child healthcare centres, suicidal helplines, destitute homes etc.
Some psychologists work with individual patients who are suffering from emotional ailments and help them to come out of the depression. They work personally with the aged people who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, Parkinson’s diseases and many other old age mental disorders.
Good salary potential
The benefit of entering this field is that the psychologists can earn good money. The psychology students are highly paid by MNCs and international NGOs. They also earn a decent income by freelance practice.
The psychologist is the novel profession where they will be working for the betterment of the others and needy people. This is the most respectable job that pays decent salaries and provides better career growth opportunities.
Teach undergraduates
The students who have completed their masters in psychology can join as assistant professors for a handsome salary package. The students who have teaching bent of mind can join the colleges and universities and start their teaching profession.
Pursue Research
There are many research organizations that are funded by both government and private agencies. These are located across the globe and are conducting extensive research on human behaviour.
There is a huge requirement of fresh psychology graduates in these research agencies.
The psychology students who are interested in pursuing research can take up PhD programmes and pursue their research on human brains in these organizations. This is the most challenging and daunting task and the scope offered by this is immense.
Even today the human brain has its mysteries and many research organizations and universities are trying to crack it by conducting research on human psychology. They are still trying to understand the human brain and its emotional functionality and the research is happening across all the countries to crack the human brain. They have achieved some rate of success and feel that still there is a long way to go. The psychology students may find this quite interesting and get some good breakthroughs in the research on human psychology.
Job Roles and Placement Opportunities for Psychology students
The psychology students have excellent job openings across different positions and areas of employment. The psychology students are hired in different positions at the organizations. The top-performing students will not find any difficulty in getting jobs soon after the completion of the psychology degree.
Some of the job roles available for psychology students are:
- Social Psychologist
- Human Resource Assistant
- Counselling Psychologist
- Child Support Specialist
- Social Worker
- Special Education Teacher
- Career Counsellor
- Psychotherapist
- Psychologist
- Psychology Consultant
- Educational psychologist
- Research Specialist
- Assistant Professor
There are many organizations that hire psychology students in large numbers. Some of the areas where the psychology students hired are:
- Corporate Companies
- Commercial and Industrial Companies
- Financial Organizations
- Marketing Companies
- HR Departments
- Government Social Services
- Jails/Prisons
- Police forces
- Schools, Colleges and Universities
- NGOs
- Rehabilitation Centres
- Special Schools
- Mental Health Care units
- Counselling Centres
Conclusion
The field of psychology is considered as the most daunting and challenging field in many countries. Many students who choose psychology as their subject should be ready to face the challenges that they encounter during their career. They should have strong will-power to help other patients those who are suffering from emotional and mental disorders. The psychology students should always have a positive attitude so that they can be in a position to treat others by spreading positivity among them.
The psychology field is the most emerging and challenging field with ample job openings. The students who feel they are confident and capable to handle the various dimensions of the human behaviours then they can choose this field as their career. The field of psychology deals more with the emotional aspects then the practical things and students choosing this field should be aware of this and step into this field of career.