• Question: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years in terms of your career as a psychologist and is psychology a career you would recommend other people to get into?

    Asked by anon-289992 on 24 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Alex Baxendale

      Alex Baxendale answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Hello!
      I’m hoping that in that amount of time I will have a job in Academia; working in a University teaching and doing research! I am currently doing my PhD where I do research, and I have a couple of part-time jobs teaching students as well, so hopefully I’m going in the right direction! I would definitely recommend Psychology is something people should try out and would recommend it to people as a career, but only if they are actually interested in Psychology. It’s important to give it a go and see if it lines up with your interests – it may not be what you are looking for, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to do something you don’t like as much as something else!
      So, I would say you should definitely give Psychology a go to see if you like it, and if you do then definitely consider it as a career, we get to do some really cool stuff and meet some amazing people. We’re all working together to find out how we all think, feel and behave!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Hi,
      So there is a bit of theory that people think who they are now is the ‘real me’, that everything leading up to who we are now is how we develop and change and adapt. But who we are, what we like and even our job desires and career prospects change as we get older and nothing is really set in stone as to ‘the real us’, be that now, previously or in the future.
      So to answer your question, I have no idea! But judging from past behaviour of me, I wil probably still be in psychology. The plan right now is to be a professor in a dingy room with lots of dusty books teaching undergraduates about psychology!
      As for recommendation – very much so! If you have a sense of curiosity about people and their brains, why they do what they do and think the things they think, then psychology is a fantastic career that can lead to many avenues even outside of psychology!

    • Photo: Harry Piper

      Harry Piper answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      In 5 years time I will have finished my PhD. Its difficult to say what to do after that! Part of me wants to stay in academia, running a lab of my own and teaching while doing my own research. On the other hand, I’ve done a lot of work with the police and could transfer to either work for them, or do research at the college of policing! There are lots of options!
      Would I recommend it? It depends on the person! If you find something you love and find interesting, whether its in psychology or another area, I would definitely recommend it! You’ll do great research, meet awesome people and find out really interesting stuff!

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Hello back430her. By that time, I would probably have finished my PhD. And then I will be doing exactly the same thing I’m doing right now – managing my online psychology magazine, creating YouTube videos, and organising psychology conferences in different countries.
      Psychology is a flexible and varied field which can offer you an array of career paths. So in that respect, I’d recommend it.

    • Photo: Amrita Bains

      Amrita Bains answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Oh this is a thinker, honestly I am not too sure! As I am doing a PhD and most of my career has been in academic doing research within a university it’s quite likely that I continue this! So possible I could move to a different university (benefit being it could potentially be anywhere in the world!) and become a lecturer. With this I can continue doing research, have my own lab group (so have other PhD students to join, undergraduate students and research assistants). I do like the idea of this but there are other avenues I think I would also want to explore for example going to the “industry” where you can work within in policy (review research which has been done and see how it can create changes to policy), data analyst in a company (although I think this might be fun but I personally might get bored or find it hard) and maybe even teaching! One great thing about psychology is that there are a lot ways you can build a career and I enjoy that aspect of it which is why I would recommend it!

    • Photo: Ellen Smith

      Ellen Smith answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Honestly I’m not really sure! I should finish my PhD later in the year and ideally I think I’d like to stay working within my research centre or one that’s similar. Unfortunately there’s not many of those jobs around and the ones that there are tend to be short term contracts – which I don’t really want for job security reasons. I’m considering leaving academia/university based research for a more stable job, I’m currently looking into medical writing, so that’s a possibility.

    • Photo: Lisa Orchard

      Lisa Orchard answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      I see myself still as a lecturer and researcher – but with a stronger research history and perhaps providing a stronger mentorship role for newer academics. 🙂

    • Photo: Anon

      Anon answered on 25 Mar 2021:

      It’s a good question – I’m not really sure! I’ve just finished a 7-year career plan to get where I am today, so I’m just enjoying living in the moment right now. I hope in 5 – 10 years time I will be doing the same job, only better with more experience and learning under my belt.

      I would definitely recommend Psychology as a career, because it is so varied! You could be a counselling psychologist, a forensic psychologist, a sports and exercise psychologist, an occupational psychologist… to name but a few! And then there’s lots of opportunities to become a researcher or teach psychology as well. Even if you don’t become a psychologist as a career, studying psychology will always be useful, especially if you work with people!

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