So, I found myself needing to look for psychology jobs over in New Jersey not too long ago. Had to make a move, and well, needed to get working again in my field. Figured I’d share how that went down, just my experience, nothing fancy.
First thing, I jumped online. Did the usual, you know? Went to those big job search websites everyone uses. Typed in the keywords, psychology jobs nj, and hit enter. Right away, a whole load of listings popped up. It felt like a good start, seeing so many options scroll down the page.
Digging Through the Listings
I started clicking through them. Saw a lot of stuff, really.
- School psychologist positions, tons of those.
- Counselor roles, both mental health and substance abuse.
- Some hospital jobs, clinical psychologist type stuff.
- Case manager positions popped up quite a bit too.
It looked promising, but you quickly realize you gotta filter through the noise. Some jobs wanted PhDs, some were fine with a Master’s. Location was all over the state, from North Jersey right down to the shore.
Pretty soon, I noticed a pattern. A lot, and I mean a lot, of these jobs needed you to have your New Jersey license already sorted. That was a bit of a thing for me, coming from out of state. Knew I had to get that process rolling alongside the job hunt, which just adds another layer of stuff to juggle. Some postings were also kind of cagey about the salary, just saying ‘competitive’ or giving a huge range, which isn’t super helpful when you’re trying to figure out if you can actually live on it.
Trying Different Angles
After hitting the main job boards hard for a week or two, I decided to switch tactics a bit. I started going directly to the websites of major hospital systems in NJ. You know, Hackensack Meridian, RWJBarnabas, Atlantic Health, places like that. Sometimes they post jobs on their own career pages first, or things that don’t make it to the big aggregators. Did the same for some county government websites, looking for state or county mental health positions.
Networking wasn’t really my strong suit right off the bat, being new to the area. Didn’t know many people. So, the online grind was my main path. I kept applying. Uploaded my resume probably a hundred times. Wrote cover letters until my eyes blurred. It’s a numbers game, partly, right? Just gotta keep putting yourself out there.
I made sure to keep a simple spreadsheet. Nothing complicated, just the job title, the place, the date I applied, and any notes. Helped me keep track of who I’d heard back from (mostly silence, let’s be real) and avoided applying to the same job twice through different websites.
What Came Out of It
It took time. Longer than I hoped, if I’m being honest. Saw plenty of part-time gigs, or fee-for-service roles that felt a bit unstable for what I needed then. Landed a couple of interviews eventually. One was for a school district, another for a community clinic. The clinic one felt like a better fit for my background and what I was looking for day-to-day.
Ended up getting an offer from that community mental health center. It wasn’t the fancy research position or the private practice dream some folks might have straight out of the gate, but it was a solid, full-time psychology job in NJ. Good people, decent work. It got my foot in the door professionally in a new state, and importantly, started getting those hours towards my NJ license.
So yeah, that was my process. A lot of searching, filtering, applying, and a bit of patience. The key was just keeping at it and being realistic about what was out there and what steps I needed to take, like getting that license paperwork moving. It’s definitely doable, finding psychology work in NJ, just gotta put in the time.
