Odd

I am not even trying to go straight into a graduate program. That is not and never was the point of this conversation. What I am doing is thinking as broadly and completely through my future actions as possible. It's part of my process in making the best informed decision and creating a plan of action. I'm sorry if I'm not able to translate that clearly from brain to screen or if you feel like I shouldn't be brining this to you at this time because graduate school is still a few years off for me. I understand that there are miles still to go (starting with completing my BA) I just want to make sure I'm walking in the right direction.

It seems like there are a lot more job listings for phds at least locally but the more I look at them they seem to mean either joining the military or working on the local air force base. So in a way it looks like the decks are stacked in favor of more schooling but with further investigation that's a little misleading. I don't even want to think about if I would be willing to sign up for 3 years to have a job. I would be 38-40 by the time this little scenario was done playing out so I don't really think ageism is going to be a huge concern. There's less of a gap between a ripe old respectable age from there than from 27 like someone who stayed in school the whole way through. But hey everyone is either too young or too old so it's good to consider as a factor. I'm mostly trying to find a way to make the best decision now because I don't think I'm going to get many more chances to change my mind. You have all been very helpful in that. I'm still not sure about what I'm going to do quite yet but I feel like I've been placed in the right direction to find a road map. Thank you all very much for your opinions, guidance, and support.

No I don't have an undegrad in psych. My degree is an AA in accounting. A more optomistic version of myself thought that would be enough to get out of call center work. I've heard that a BA in psychology isn't very useful on it's own for the areas that I'm interested in so it would be a waste if I weren't willing to get a higher degree, and several things suggest that if I'm not willing to go to the PhD level that I should just choose a different program than psych right from the start because it will all just be an excercies in futility. I'm trying to get my head around how hard I'm going to have to work to get what I want, and to decide if it is at all worth the journey before I get my feet too far down the path. I don't think I'm saying this very well but it doesn't seem to want to come out any better.

There are so many voices out there that say "you're not going to be able to get a job all you're going to get is in debt" and for my last degree that was absoluitely the truth. I resented that fact so much it's taken me years to even want to go back. It may be grossly niaeve but I generally do well in an academic setting so I figured that even if the PhD program isn't what I wanted it to be I could still soldier on and finish and mold the outcome into something I would be happy with later. But I would not argue the idea that that is a knee jerk response to an overwhelming din of both uneducated and uninformed, and overeducated and underwhelmed voices talking about how impossibly unfair the job world is. LuckyCat both of those books look like they will be easy to get ahold of and sound, from their descriptions, like they should be very helpful in my decision making process. Thanks very much.

I think the biggest thing that dosen't sit well with me in going into a Master's program is that something that I read suggested that none of the work in a masters will apply to the time it takes to get a PhD so it feels like walking half way down the path and going home only to have to walk all that way again when I could have gone all the way there in the first place. I've probably ventured too far into overthinking what's going on. I just want a good future to come out of my efforts and it feels like there aren't many to go around anymore. Anyway thank you for your input. I'll look into your recomendations. The instructor for the one relivant college class I have taken was always talking about working in the women's shelter, and in group therapy at the prison and all of this stuff that sounded pretty interesting, She has since left teaching at the school I went to and I have no idea how to contact her to talk about it further. thanks

Hello I’m going to try to keep this as brief as possible. I’ve never really felt irresistibly motivated to do much of anything, but something that has held more than a passing interest for me is psychology. I don’t believe that I could handle dealing with anyone really mentally ill. I’ve had some experience with mental illness in the family and have only ever felt helpless. I would hope that getting a degree would solve the layman’s dilemma of what do you tell the person who believes everyone is reporting their every move to the doctor, who is going to have them killed, and they can smell the poison gas coming through the ducts now. However, I still find the idea of working with the true mental illness unsettling. In a perfect world I would picture myself working in marriage and couples counseling with special interest in intimacy issues and sexual trauma, but I admit that I don’t have enough exposure to all the potential options to know anything for sure at this time. I completed a 2 year degree in an unrelated field a few years ago and my intention is to return to school early next year. My dilemma is concerns where my long term focus should lie. I am terribly confused and conflicted by what I have read about psychology in general and what level of education is a good fit for what I want to do. I feel like I should be focused on getting a PhD in counseling (I like the idea of having the capacity to open my own practice), but a Master’s in counseling could be enough to get me into something interesting. The more I read about people who have experience in the education and employability aspects the more it seems that it is a hopeless cause. I’ve been left feeling like a Master’s is a debt bomb that won’t get me any closer to a satisfying job and that a PhD is probably impossible. Not to mention that it will leave me old, poor, and still unemployable. With all the bad word of mouth I feel like I should run away as fast as possible and insert myself unhappily into the nearest avaialble Mcjob. I don’t really know anyone who has been successful in much of anything that involves more than a high school diploma so I have to reach out to people who have actually accomplished something in the direction I want to go and in this case that means you. There are many more things that spring to mind to add to this but I think including them is only going to run the risk of rambling further and further off track. Thank you for your time.