Career Ideas

Former Member

hiii! bit of a niche question today. however I am really thinking about my future career at the moment and just thought I would post here to see if anyone has any suggestions or has done anything in the past/now that they think would be suitable etc! 

so I have a psychology degree and am currently doing a masters in psychological well-being in mental health. I loved my degree, however I realised a psychologist is not necessarily the role for me (I'm not interested enough in the research side of things to do it as a full time thing). my love for all things mental health & well-being stayed strong, which is why I went for that masters - keeping it nice and broad to see what I enjoy the most. 

I'm learning lots about myself, which is good, but also leaves me so unsure about what jobs would suit me. when I do career tests (my uni employability team has lots to try) they always come up with therapist or teacher which, whilst they sound interesting, I'm still not sure if that's exactly for me. so what is me? well:

• I know I would like to work in something related to well-being. I am really passionate about this!
• In my masters I am gravitating a lot towards 'positive psychology'. this is all about helping people to recognise the strengths and tools that they have within themselves, how to promote happiness and the best quality of life etc. You don't focus on any mental health 'problems', you focus on positive steps moving forward. 
• I have noticed a love of writing/words! Throughout uni I have volunteered with a few different mental health charities and I always gravitate to online roles. I like expressing support and exploring feelings through written language for sure. The same has appeared when it comes to conducting research. Rather than doing a statistical research project in my undergraduate, like most people do, I did a written analysis (interviewing people and analysing the words they say) and I intend to do the same for my masters - all about words haha!
• Creativity is very important to me. I absolutely loved creating the well-being website that I have, and the trouble with roles like a therapist is that I don't really associate creativity with that role, and I've learnt that that's important to me. 

So that's what I know! Very niche I know...but if anyone has any suggestions or ideas of things I could look into I would LOVE to hear them! 

Thank you so much if you made it to the end of this mega post haha

Former Member

Hey @coc0mac what jobs are you interested in❤️

Former Member

Hey, sounds like you have a lot of good ideas about what you want in a job. Do you know what age range you want to work with. Maybe something that could incorporate creativity with psychology could be something like an art therapist or something like that 

Maisy

Research assistant? It's a role I'm trying out for at the moment. Mental health charities sometimes employ people to work on research projects regarding mental health schemes/interventions so you might be interested in something like that maybe. Similarly, they may also hire employees to work on content or for their websites or information leaflets etc.

Azziman

On the writing part, there's lots of research journals on psychology and wellbeing. As @Maisy said, you could work as a research assistant and contribute to papers on there. Or, there are mental health organisations that create magazines and articles, so that could be good and let you be creative.

If you wanted to go down the road of business, lots of companies are placing a lot of focus on employee wellbeing. Perhaps a role like Occupational Health, Human Resources, or any wellbeing initiatives could be something to look into?

I know that you've already have therapist mentioned, but perhaps a counsellor or advisor could be good - maybe in a school, university, or a company that provides services to either of these? I think there's been a greater emphasis on student wellbeing, so it's definitely something in demand.

There's another idea but it's really out there - perhaps being a life coach or mentor? Working with people to achieve their goals and improve their wellbeing, and you'd have the flexibility to be creative in your approach, discussions etc.

Hope some of this is useful - there's lots of opportunities out there for you, so I'd narrowing it down to a few options and researching them, talking to people who already work in that role, looking at any prerequisites you'd need for the role etc. 

Much love

Former Member

Hey @coc0mac

I did a psychology degree too, I ended up working in business so have a bit of insight I can share based upon that. Its a brill time to be looking at Well-being jobs in business at the moment as it’s being recognised as really important. Would be worth looking at Occupational Health vacancies as you really get to help people - in my experience I’d steer clear of HR though (I worked in HR for a year) as I found the job to be more of a hindrance to other people than a help and didn’t get to use a lot of creativity which you mentioned is important to you. There are also consultancies specially set up to help employees thrive. 

There’s also a site called 16 personalities which has a free test and very detailed results on career paths you might like amongst over things.

Hope that might help 😊
Lucy 

Former Member

Wow!! You guys have all put so much thought into your responses, thank you SO much!! Some really great ideas shared which I will take a good look into now. Thank you all, I appreciate it a tonne