I was a psychology major, which I regret now. I've been looking for decent jobs but cant find much of anything decent, and when I do I dont have the experience or the degree to back up that I could do it. Are there better places to look than Careerbuilder, Hotjobs, Monster, etc? I've found that everyone wants to always classify me by my experience in Customer Service, which I don't want to do, or with my Spanish fluency, but it's always geared back to Cust. Service. Any ideas or recommendations? Anyone else experiencing this?

2/27/2007 11:54:17 AM

you might have to just suck it up and get a job that would get you good experience, no matter what it is. Or you can look up individual companies/practices and contact them to see if they have any openings. At the least you can give them you're resume and explain to them that you are seeking experience.
good luck

2/27/2007 11:57:28 AM

if you didn't intern anywhere then you're screwed

2/27/2007 11:57:39 AM

and dont depend on the internet to find a job
work with recruiters
try temping to hire

call up companies you are interested in working for / not everyone posts opening online or in the paper

2/27/2007 11:59:32 AM

graduate school

graduate school

graduate school

2/27/2007 12:00:36 PM

^

2/27/2007 12:04:06 PM

yeah pretty much

2/27/2007 12:07:03 PM

Honest question...

Why would you major in psychology if you didn't plan on being a psychologist/psychiatrist??

It is just because it interested you?? I almost considered minoring in psychology because of my Psy 200 professor (is Nacoste still there??). But unless you're going to go all the way, does it offer any relevant job opportunities??

2/27/2007 12:27:16 PM

Quote :

"Why would you major in psychology if you didn't plan on being a psychologist/psychiatrist??"

I originally did want to do that. I came to the decision several years in that I couldn't deal with having all that on my shoulders and the fear of screwing something up for somebody. I tried to transfer to Business but couldn't get in.

2/27/2007 1:07:10 PM

get into human resources / recruiting.

2/27/2007 1:14:55 PM

Psychologist/psychiatrist aren't the only fields! Psychiatry requires medical school and psychologist is just clinical - you can also go into research in a million other fields.

http://www.ncsu.edu/majors-careers/do_with_major_in/showmajor.php?id=70

Careers needing advanced degrees:
# Human Resources Director
# Training & Development Consultant or Manager
# Clinical Psychologist
# Licensed Professional Counselor
# Industrial or Organizational Psychologist
# Rehabilitation Therapist
# Clinical Services Manager

Some more google...
http://www.umt.edu/career/majors/psychology.htm
Account Executive Admissions Counselor Advertising Executive
Business Manager Career Counselor Child Psychologist
Child Welfare Worker Community Service Director Customer Service
Customs Officer EEO/AA Specialist Gerentologist
Guidance Counselor Hospital Administrator Human Resources Director
Labor Relations Specialist Marriage Counselor Mental Health Worker
Personnel Manager Probation Officer Psychologist
Public Relations Specialist Rehabilitation Counselor Sales Representative
Social Worker Teacher Youth Counselor

more google found this about only an undergrad degree in psychology:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun02/goodnews.html


and one more with a ton of info:
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/psych/ba_employment.htm

[Edited on February 27, 2007 at 1:19 PM. Reason : d]

2/27/2007 1:19:00 PM

Classified ads, papers dedicated to employment, etc.

Customer service might not be fun, but if you have experience and speak Spanish and someone wants to hire you, take it. Don't complain about not being able to find a job just because you don't want what you can find.


Google the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Maybe you aren't looking for the right kind of jobs for your degree/there might be kinds of jobs you're qualified for that you don't know about.

[Edited on February 27, 2007 at 1:24 PM. Reason : x]

2/27/2007 1:22:15 PM

good info chartreuse and thanks to everyone who has contributed.

Quote :

"Classified ads, papers dedicated to employment, etc. Customer service might not be fun, but if you have experience and speak Spanish and someone wants to hire you, take it. Don't complain about not being able to find a job just because you don't want what you can find. Google the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Maybe you aren't looking for the right kind of jobs for your degree/there might be kinds of jobs you're qualified for that you don't know about."

The reason i was complaining about the Cust service positions is they only want to pay like 12 or 13 an hour, and barely any more for spanish. I just dont want to accept a $25,000/yr job after spending 5 years in college.

Good point on the Occupational Outlook Handbook. I'm pretty sure I'm not looking for the right kind of jobs for my degree or those that I didn't realize I was qualified for.

2/27/2007 1:35:37 PM

Quote :

"The reason i was complaining about the Cust service positions is they only want to pay like 12 or 13 an hour, and barely any more for spanish. I just dont want to accept a $25,000/yr job after spending 5 years in college. "

$12/hr or $25,000/yr is a lot better than nothing. You take what you can until you can get what you want sometimes.

Hopefully, you'll start finding some more useful things, though.

2/27/2007 1:40:35 PM

Quote :

"I just dont want to accept a $25,000/yr job after spending 5 years in college."

You spent 5 years in college, have no experience, and majored is psy. What kind of salary were you expecting to get?

2/27/2007 1:51:24 PM

I majored in PSY and am making 3x that amount in corporate HR for a fortune 200 company. So it isn't the degree.

Most companies that are worth their salt are far more interested in experience and skill set over what type of degree you have or what school. Bachelors programs are a trial by fire, I've hired six figures IT professionals with English and History BAs...it doesn't matter as long as they have the acumen and experience to back up their skills. You just have to leverage your communication ability. My internship helped, but honestly it's all about getting out there right now with no gaps in taking on work roles.

Get into HR, or find some other specialty FAST - hit a temp agency and network your ass off there and in the role you land. You cannot be passive at this point.

2/27/2007 1:59:41 PM

ugh!

Quote :

"The reason i was complaining about the Cust service positions is they only want to pay like 12 or 13 an hour, and barely any more for spanish. I just dont want to accept a $25,000/yr job after spending 5 years in college. "

this kinda mentality makes me sick
you take what you can get and better yourself through experience.
No one is going to hand you a job just because you went to college. A bachelor's degree just isn't special anymore!

2/27/2007 2:03:39 PM

^^Is that in the triangle?

[Edited on February 27, 2007 at 2:03 PM. Reason : ?]

2/27/2007 2:03:43 PM

with a job detector that I will be happy to sell to you for only 25.99

2/27/2007 2:05:09 PM

try a temp agency. my roommate found her job that way and it's helped open all kinds of other doors.

i'm graduating w/ my psych degree in may and i have no idea what i'm going to do. eek!

2/27/2007 2:18:40 PM

Temp services are probably just going to send you right back into customer service. Not trying to be a drag, but that's been my experience with them.

Like everyone's saying though, take what you can get until you find what you want.

2/27/2007 2:20:43 PM

you gotta do what you can to get your foot in the door with a co. Be it customer service or whatever....suck it up, try to get a job with a co. you like, doing whatever. positions are sure to open that you are interested in, and you'll have a much better chance of getting them if you are already doing a good job within the company.

2/27/2007 2:41:45 PM

Quote :

"you take what you can get and better yourself through experience."

That's exactly what I'm doing, but I dont think too many people are happy as hell to be sitting in the lower end job waiting and being passed up for things you know you can do and watch them put people in positions they have no idea how to do just that they've been with the company for years.

I DO have a job. I'm simply looking to better myself.

2/27/2007 2:51:36 PM

"better myself" = make more money?

2/27/2007 2:55:40 PM

^And not having a shitty job.

Quote :

"i'm graduating w/ my psych degree in may and i have no idea what i'm going to do. eek!"

Better start looking soon.

2/27/2007 3:05:45 PM

Quote :

"Is that in the triangle?"

Yeah, I work at one of our business division HQ's in North Raleigh, although I'm technically a corporate employee working remote.

2/27/2007 3:24:52 PM

Quote :

"graduate school graduate school graduate school"

2/27/2007 7:09:43 PM

sounds like you didnt really think this whole college->major->graduation->job thing through very far...

but im sure someone will give you a meaningful $50K job if you wait long enough

2/27/2007 7:21:02 PM

You people bashing him -- would you happily take a $25k job after getting a B.S.? I'd be pissed too, but I mean, he could've seen it coming w/ the degree he chose.

If I were you, and only making $25k, I'd hit up grad. school. Unless a miracle happens, it'd take forever & a day to work up to $40-50k w/ just your B.S. degree + starting at the bottom.

An internship with a decent company while in school would've been crucial -- it's 10x more hard if you skip the whole internship thing whilst in school.

2/27/2007 7:33:25 PM

Graduate school or law school if you did good enough, sounds like you didn't though if you couldn't transfer into business. If you don't have loans out the ass you could go back to school for another degree.

2/27/2007 7:58:45 PM

Quote :

"You people bashing him -- would you happily take a $25k job after getting a B.S.? I'd be pissed too, but I mean, he could've seen it coming w/ the degree he chose."

I'm currently doing that. but by the end of my time I will be making much more than that. It's all about paying your dues and getting your foot in the door.

2/27/2007 8:01:04 PM

take kainen's advice. my current company had a few psych ppl come in as tech support style jobs, hr, or implementation services. they obviously want some technical skills/interests/experiences, but you can get by with that type of degree.

2/27/2007 8:26:28 PM

I was a psychology major

let me know if you have any questions about grad school

2/27/2007 9:15:59 PM

^x9 plan is to go to the career center on thursday. i hope it will produce some sort of results. grad school is being put off for a few years right now.

2/27/2007 10:04:19 PM

Quote :

"I'd be pissed too, but I mean, he could've seen it coming w/ the degree he chose."

How can you be pissed if you can see it coming?

2/27/2007 10:17:47 PM

Quote :

"You people bashing him -- would you happily take a $25k job after getting a B.S.? I'd be pissed too, but I mean, he could've seen it coming w/ the degree he chose. If I were you, and only making $25k, I'd hit up grad. school. Unless a miracle happens, it'd take forever & a day to work up to $40-50k w/ just your B.S. degree + starting at the bottom. An internship with a decent company while in school would've been crucial -- it's 10x more hard if you skip the whole internship thing whilst in school. "

we were basically saying the same thing you are.
go to grad school or put in your dues.

2/28/2007 1:44:13 AM

Quote :

" I tried to transfer to Business but couldn't get in. "

That sounds like grad school is out. Honestly, dude work customer service if thats what your being offered or go back to school and get a different undergraudate degree (or save for a while then do this).

2/28/2007 2:19:11 AM

Tell me why it took you 5 years to finish a Psychology degree and you don't have any experience on top of that. For engineering majors to take five years to finish I understand, plus most of them get experience during that time. Have you not had any job in the past 5 years?

2/28/2007 3:12:47 PM

it did not take me 5 yrs to finish a psych degree. i started in education for a year, moved to psych because it was the closest. i finished a psych degree with a spanish minor and 1 class short of a criminology minor. i worked part-time.

2/28/2007 4:27:41 PM

stop bitching and welcome to life.

3/1/2007 1:45:48 AM

best buy

3/1/2007 8:25:07 AM

Look, You need experience. Take the 25K job and suck it up for one year. This is the real world, and the only people who are going to hire you because of your major are the ones who will pay you dirt cheap.

There are things called raises and the 2nd and 3rd Job that boost 25k to a higher income. You can't get any of those unless you grab up your 1st one.



I started at 19k at a 10$ an hour job with a 4.0 GPA in Industrial Design doing Shop Work at a Design Firm out of sheer desperation and a need for a job. I hated every second of it, but I grabbed the experience for 8 months.

A year later I make 47k at Video Game Company because I fought for it.



The world owes you nothing. Suck it up.

3/1/2007 10:47:48 AM

Sales. You can earn a fat paycheck depending on the pay structure. The degree doesnt matter that much... just gotta be a good salesman.

3/1/2007 11:49:24 AM

^ A very good option if you're into that.

3/1/2007 12:38:58 PM

why is anyone even helping this lazy, poor planning asshole?




if you can't even figure out how to get past the first $25k, what makes you think people are going to hold your hand to get to the next $25k?

There's a reason a $50k job pays what it does, or a 75k or whatever. It's because you generally have to be capable of earning that. your degree doesnt deserve it for you.

3/1/2007 2:00:41 PM

Fosheezie summed it up nicely (though harshly).

If you excel wherever life places you, you'll rapidly move upwards. This applies to fast food on up.

If you sit around waiting for someone to help you you'll stay exactly where you are. Grad school won't change this.

3/1/2007 3:36:29 PM

^hehe yeah, it just means he MIGHT start at a slightly higher starting pt

3/1/2007 3:46:08 PM

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that....

since starting on my grad school track, I've had jobs coming after me offering more $$ just because they've read publications that my name was on

and from knowing the the people that I work with

but meh, whatever. getting a graduate education not only lets you get an advanced degree, but it also let's you meet people that are 'big' in your field of study. you can also apply research experience to your Vita/Resume because when you're in a graduate school, you're not just 'going to class'. You're also working in labs researching, publishing literature, and gaining experience....

3/1/2007 3:53:29 PM

http://www.dice.com

3/1/2007 3:55:25 PM

Quote :

"why is anyone even helping this lazy, poor planning asshole?"

Wow, what's your problem? Life doesn't come with a crystal ball. Sometimes plans change or things don't go as expected. Most of us need help getting somewhere in life anyway.

3/1/2007 4:03:31 PM