Pre-entry level psychology related jobs

Postby Danton133 » Sun Jun 24, 2018 6:07 pm

I want to explore an interest in psychology with a part or full time job. With no previous experience what options could be available to me for paid work that is even slightly related?

2 options that have been suggested to me are:

1. Call centre for people needing help with their problems e.g. Samaritans
2. Paid some somewhere within the charity sector - although this seems a little difficult with no experience

I'm no really prepared to do any training yet so I'm open to any suggestions for jobs I can get into now.

Additional info: I'm 29, have a degree and some experience in engineering, a little sales experience, some volunteering experience teaching and I have just completed L3 award in education and training (PETTLS).
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#1

Postby Candid » Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:19 am

I suggest you find paid work in education -- ie. use one of the qualifications you already have -- and do helpline volunteering in your free time. You would have to take the organisation's training course. There's psychology in both sales and teaching, and a lay interest might be enough for you while you act on your desire to help people.

If you want to be a paid psychologist there's no substitute for a university degree and preferably a doctorate. Look at it this way: would you want to take your unmanageable feelings to an engineer with sales experience? However, I understand that getting the qualifications looks like a very long road to an under-30 who's already been trained for two careers that are poles apart. The good news is, there's such a thing as an educational psychologist.

You have decades in the workforce ahead of you, so you need to be clear on what you want to do.
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#2

Postby Danton133 » Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:52 am

Thanks you so much for your advice.

It's precisely because I'm not fully sure what I want to do that I would like to test the waters before commiting to a qualification. I have made that mistake before with engineering and have learnt from it.

I think it seems to be the case that anthing paid is not possible and voulenteering is the only route. I can accept that.
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#3

Postby bluesearth » Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:15 pm

Hi, I think firstly you need to decide which type of psychology you are most interested in, from you mentioning the Samaritans it sounds like mental health might be interesting? if so you have to kind of start from the bottom I've just graduated with a psych degree and a lot of people either work on psychiatric wards or in mental health support work roles - the wage might not be what you are wanting, also one job is called a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and you don't have to have a degree at all for that job just lots of work experience so definitely doing the volunteering on the side try and do as much as you can with different organisations in the field you're interested in and looking at support work roles then once you've got all that experience you could probably get a job working for a charity helping vulnerable people with MH issues/or children basically any charity that specialises in helping people. The schools is also a good shout you could get Behaviour mentor jobs in schools again quite low salary but a good way to get entry into helping people.. that's whats good about psychology because you can do bascially anything and get into that field it's just about people and human interaction.. hope this helped!



- Also I volunteered for a charity recently and they actually told me to go for the job but I was finishing my studies so it was to overwhelming but they said they didn't get many candidates but the people that did apply had no relevant work experience and they didn't mind that but just wanted them to say why they were interested in the change of field in their career/why passionate to help people so if you did that in your cover letter that may help too
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