Alright, let’s talk about this Bachelor’s in Psychology thing. I remember finishing mine, feeling pretty pleased with myself, holding that diploma. Then came the big question everyone hits you with, or maybe you hit yourself with: what now? What do you actually do with a BA in Psychology?
First off, let me tell you what I did, or rather, what I stumbled through. Right after graduation, I felt this pressure, you know? Friends were going into accounting firms, engineering gigs, stuff with clear paths. Psychology? It felt way fuzzier.
My First Steps (or Stumbles)
I started by looking at job boards. Typed in “psychology”. Mostly got hits for licensed therapists, counselors, researchers – all requiring Master’s degrees or PhDs. That was a bit of a reality check. The BA alone doesn’t automatically make you a psychologist who sees patients. I knew that academically, but seeing it laid out in job requirements hits different.
So, I broadened my search. What jobs involve ‘people skills’? That was the advice I got. Sounds simple, right? Well, that’s basically half the job market.
- Human Resources: This seemed like the obvious one. Psychology background, understanding people… makes sense. I applied for a few entry-level HR assistant roles. Did a couple of interviews. Found out quickly it was often more about compliance, payroll systems, and paperwork than deep psychological insights, especially at the start. Wasn’t quite what I pictured.
- Market Research Assistant: This felt closer. Thinking about consumer behavior, why people buy things. I actually landed a short gig doing this. Involved helping design surveys, crunching some basic data. It used some of the research methods I learned, which was cool. But honestly, I found it a bit dry after a while.
- Non-profit Work: Did some volunteering and applied for caseworker type roles. This felt meaningful, helping people directly. But the pay was often low, and the emotional toll seemed high. Plus, many roles still preferred or required a Master’s in Social Work (MSW) for advancement.
Figuring Things Out – The Unexpected Path
I ended up taking a job that seemed completely unrelated, working for a mid-sized company in an administrative slash operations support role. Basically, helping keep the office running smoothly. I needed a paycheck, simple as that.
And here’s the funny thing. This is where the psych degree actually started showing its value, just not in the way I expected.
I wasn’t analyzing patients, but I was constantly dealing with different personalities. Trying to get different departments to cooperate. Figuring out why communication kept breaking down between the sales team and the tech team. Smoothing over misunderstandings. Even just listening effectively when colleagues were stressed out.
It wasn’t about applying specific theories from a textbook. It was about the foundational skills the degree gave me:
- Observing and listening: Really hearing what people were saying (and not saying).
- Understanding motivations: Thinking about why someone might be acting defensively or procrastinating.
- Communication: Adapting how I talked to different people to get a point across effectively.
- Problem-solving: Looking at workplace issues from multiple perspectives.
- Research skills: Okay, maybe not academic research, but being able to dig into a problem, gather information from different people, and figure out what’s really going on.
So, What’s the Bottom Line?
What I learned is that a BA in Psychology doesn’t usually hand you a specific job title right out of the gate, unless you pair it with something else or get lucky. It’s not like an engineering degree where you become an engineer, or an accounting degree where you become an accountant.
Instead, it gives you a versatile toolkit. It’s about understanding the ‘people’ element, which, let’s face it, is part of almost any job.
So, what to do with it? You have to be a bit creative and proactive.
Think about fields where understanding people is a major plus:
- Sales and Marketing (understanding customers)
- Management (leading teams)
- Human Resources (once you get past entry-level paper-pushing, or specialize)
- User Experience (UX) Research (understanding how people interact with technology)
- Education and Training
- Customer Service and Support
- Community Management
- Even fields like law enforcement or urban planning benefit from these skills.
You might need to get some additional experience, maybe a relevant internship or volunteer work, or even a specific certification depending on the field you aim for. Or, like many, you might decide the BA was a great foundation, but you need that Master’s or PhD for the specific career you really want (like therapy, counseling, school psychology, I/O psychology).
For me, I stayed in the operations/management side of things for a while, moving up partly because I was decent at handling the ‘people stuff’ that others found tricky. It wasn’t a ‘psychology job’, but my psychology background was definitely an asset I used every single day. You just have to figure out how you want to apply that knowledge. It won’t always be obvious, but the skills are more valuable than you might think at first.
