An Online Resource to Enable Undergraduate Psychology Majors to

Identify and Investigate 171 Psychology and Psychology-Related Careers

Drew C. Appleby

Brandon S. Millspaugh

Melissa J. Hammersley

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis

Millspaugh, Hammersley, and Appleby (2010) expanded Appleby’s (2006) online resource for job-seeking psychology majors. Appleby’s original list contained a Web address for each of 130 occupations that psychology majors with a baccalaureate degree have entered or are qualified to enter, either immediately after graduation or upon the completion of an advanced degree. These addresses took viewers to the Dictionary of Occupational Title’s (DOT) brief descriptions of the tasks a person employed in each of these occupations is required to perform. The purpose of this resource was to expose psychology majors to the abundance of careers they can enter and then provide them with a quick, preliminary exposure to the nature of these careers. Millspaugh, Hammersley, and Appleby expanded this list by adding Web addresses that take viewers to the detailed documents that describe these occupations provided by O*NET, the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), and other reputable Web sites (designated in the list as “Wild Card” sites). Students can use these much richer documents to probe more deeply into the careers that attracted their interest during their initial exposure gained from DOT. There are three major advantages of this revision for students who would like to investigate careers for which their psychology major can prepare them.

1. The information is much more current. DOT was last updated in 1991. O*NET and OOH are updated annually.

2. DOT provides only a list of the tasks a person in a particular career must perform and a few occupations related to that career. O*NET and OOH contain a far richer collection of information about each career, including answers to the following crucial questions.

a. What knowledge, skills, abilities, tools, and technologies are needed to enter and succeed in this career?

b. What do workers actually do in this career and under what conditions do they carry out these duties?

c. What types of preparation (e.g., job training or education) are needed to enter this career?

d. What interests, values, and work styles (i.e., characteristics) do successful workers in this career possess?

e. How much do people employed in this career earn?

f. How many people are employed in this career and what is the projected need for this career in the future?

g. What are additional sources of information about this career, and what other occupations are related to this particular career?

3. The number of listed occupations has increased from 130 to 171.

This resource also includes information from two other Web sites titled Psychology Career Center (PPC) (www.psychologycareercenter.org) and All Psychology Careers (www.allpsychologycareers.com) (APC), which contain psychology and psychology-related occupations not listed in DOT, O*NET, or OOH. While the descriptions of these occupations are not as detailed as those in O*NET or OOH, they can still serve as valuable starting points for career-exploring psychology majors. These sites are particularly valuable for those who are interested in pursuing cutting-edge specializations in psychology that are not yet listed in O*NET or OOH (e.g., Forensic Psychologist, Biogerontologist, or Multicultural Counselor) or psychology-related careers in the United States military (e.g., Air Force Psychologist or Veterans Counselor).

Rajecki (2008) questioned the validity of several of the occupations contained in Appleby’s (2006) original list because they do not require a bachelor’s degree (e.g., bartender, cashier, secretary, and waiter/waitress). These careers are none-the-less valid entries because some psychology majors report them as areas of employment after graduation. While these are perfectly respectable occupations, their presence on this list serves as a compelling reminder to psychology majors that they may have to settle for jobs such as these if they do not use their undergraduate educations to discover and develop the appropriate sets of knowledge, skills, and characteristics (KSCs) that will enable them to successfully compete for occupations more commensurate with their educational status and financial aspirations. One of the most important messages this resource can convey to psychology majors is that they must take full advantage of their educational opportunities in order to develop the KSCs that will make them viable and attractive applicants in today’s competitive job market. The most recent estimate of the number of psychology majors who graduate each year with a bachelor’s degree is 92,587 (Snyder & Dillow, 2010). This enormous number of graduates verifies the popularity of our discipline, but also makes it crystal clear that psychology majors should understand that the simple possession a Bachelor’s of Arts or a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology will not guarantee them a high-status and/or high-paying job. They must use their undergraduate education to identify and investigate the careers they wish to enter and then take full advantage of their curricular and extracurricular opportunities to create themselves into persons who can be employed successfully in these careers. The information available in this document can help them accomplish these two challenging tasks. For a particularly effective strategy to use the information contained in the O*NET documents in this list, see Rajecki (2009).

References

Appleby, D. C. (2006). Occupations of interest to psychology majors available in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Office of Teaching Resources. Available from http://www.teachpsych.org/otrp/resources/appleby06.pdf

Millspaugh, B. S., Hammersley, M. J., & Appleby, D. C. (2010, April). A comprehensive, online resource to enable psychology majors to answer the question: What can I do with a Bachelor’s in Psychology? Paper presented during the Mid-America Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, Evansville, IN.

Rajecki, D. W. (2008). Job lists for entry-level psychology baccalaureates: Occupational recommendations that mismatch qualifications. Teaching of Psychology, 35(1), 33-37.

Rajecki, D. W. (2009). A job list of one’s own: Creating customized career information for psychology majors. Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Office of Teaching Resources. Available from http://www.teachpsych.org/otrp/resources/rajecki09.pdf

Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2010). Digest of educational statistics: 2009 (Table 286: Bachelor’s degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions by sex, race/ethnicity, and field of study: 2007-08). Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_286.asp?referrer=list

=============================================================

171 Careers of Interest to Psychology Majors

Careers that require a degree beyond the baccalaureate are followed by an asterisk. This list is not a finished product; it is a work in progress. If you discover errors or are aware of any online resources that would enrich this list, please share this information with the first author, who can be contacted at dappleby@iupui.edu.