SallyHam

If anyone applied to Arizona State, I believe they've already made their offers.

I would say it helped me a lot! Being a lab manager got me into grad school, and it helped me develop my interests. It's important to try out new methods and experience other research areas/topics. I'd say I applied to maybe 5 or 6 positions. The interviews are usually just skype interviews, and mostly have to do with what your skills and previous experiences are. Sometimes it involves first interviewing with a HR person or the current lab manager and then the professor you'd work for. My advice is just to be open to everything. Be open to moving, be open to new research and new departments! I ended up working a business school and I never thought that would happen to me, and it turned out wonderfully. Also, I wouldn't be afraid to just openly email and ask faculty you're interested in if they have positions. My current research associate position was obtained by cold-emailing a faculty that didn't have an opening at the time, but still hired me on the spot, and now I make a decent amount just doing research.

If it helps, my adviser at UVA told me that UChicago did not have a good psych PhD program (this is social psych), but their behavioral science program, housed in the business school is great (it's full of great social psychologists that pretty much just study psychology). Chicago's Booth School of Business has an even better reputation, and offers a joint psychology & behavioral science PhD, so you can get 2 for 1!

I think it's better to get a job/work in a lab that is prestigious, if not prestigious, then very productive or with exciting ideas, and try and do some really great work there! Or work in multiple labs. It's also possible to just randomly contact faculty in schools and just ask them for jobs. I think many people don't try out for the Lab Manager or try to ask for jobs at farther away institutions because they are afraid of moving and it being expensive, but I got one of those and it was manageable, so I'd try out for them. It might not be as bad as you think! Also I wrote this in the social psych thread, but try looking at different departments like at the med school of an institution, or political science, business schools--there are definitely people who have similar interests. I was surprised to find that there are social psych people everywhere! Even one of my old advisers, who was in the marketing department, actually studies evolutionary psych and doesn't look like he would study health decisions, still studies diseases and health interventions. You just have to look! (Again, easier if you are open to moving!) Also, I think many programs these days are looking for skills, so like software skills, complex methodologies (MRI, physiological data collection, Qualtrics, etc. etc.), stats skills (Excel, SPSS, R, etc.). Some of these are totally things you can even pick up on your own, like there are great coursera courses on R these days. I don't think it even matters if ultimately you won't be needing X skill, it still shows that you can learn novel things, and software/stats is inherently quantitative looking. So even working in a different psych lab, or in the business school or at a health lab just to acquire skills, still is not terrible looking for admissions committees. It doesn't matter if you get a masters and you're not productive while in the program. So my advice is to do things that look productive to admissions committees.--So this might involve getting a masters, but you have to make sure that it's a productive program and the faculty there are doing research and you can pick up actual skills to add to your CV. That's my two cents! I definitely was in the same boat two years ago.

Yeah there are pros and cons! Definitely would not be easy to teach psych if you got a management or marketing phd. It's possible if you get a joint PhD in business and psych though. At UVA, which is my undergrad institution, Ben Converse has his PhD in Behavioral Science from the business school at U of Chicago. He is housed in our Psych department. So it is possible, but probably not easy. It's also obviously possible to become a faculty at a business school w/ a psych phd (obviously I gave you some examples of this). For jobs, I also suggest just cold emailing professors asking them if they are looking for a paid RA, because you never know! And you have nothing to lose sometimes. It's definitely easier if you are flexible to moving for this.

I wasn't sure where to put this advice, b/c it really applies to all psych people. But I happen to be applying to social programs, so I figured I'd put it here. I applied two years ago and I got a couple of interviews but didn't get in anywhere. My suggestion for those who might have to apply again, is to look at the SPSP employment forum and get a job at a leading institution. Or, just straight up email professors at leading institutions and ask them if they are looking and/or would be willing to have a volunteer (only if you think you could volunteer). Another place is the COGDEVSOC list serve--they post jobs too. Also, I think a lot of people don't realize that social psychologists also have appointments at business schools, and business schools have a lot more funding. I got my current lab manager position by straight up cold emailing a faculty here in the Marketing department. I work with 2 researchers, one with a PhD in social psych and the other with a PhD in cognitive psych; my faculty adviser does have a marketing PhD, but still is extremely open to social psychology and knows all the big names and theories. But really, there are social psychologists in the Negotiations/Organizational Behavior and/or Management and Marketing departments at all of the big schools--Adam Galinsky at Columbia School of Business is a really big name in intergroup relations (he has a phd in social psych). My interest, which is in evolutionary psych, is still being met at Minnesota Carlson School of Business with Vladas Griskevicius (also a social psych person). Many business schools like Chicago and UPenn offer a joint PhD in Business and Psychology, so that is also cool. I'd recommend checking out these places when looking for gap year jobs and for applications. For jobs: They're likely to have more leadership-y Research Associate/Lab Manager jobs that are highly productive, professional, and that pay well. For applications: oftentimes Business PhD programs don't require you to go on-site for interviews (which make me really nervous), and there are much less people applying and the funding is insane ($48,000 a year for 5 years at Minnesota Carlson). The research is definitely more applied, but it's still theoretical. Much more likely to land a teaching position too after graduation. If you still like social psych and are hesitant about working in this environment and still applying to psych, don't worry, I have worked in business schools for the past 2 years, and still managed to get into one of the best social programs in the country. So they oftentimes don't care. They just care that you are learning skills and that you are doing research. More and more social psych is moving towards quantitative skills and practical knowledge (Javascript, HTML, Qualtrics, R, Inquisit, etc.), so anything you can do to learn these things (including self-study) only looks good to them. Also, it's possible that psych programs don't admit older people, like 26+ (not b/c they are mean, but b/c getting a social psych phd takes time and will likely lead to a post-doc which also takes time, and they don't want to take up your time), but business schools don't care about age as much, because you can often get placed as soon as you graduate. I know someone who applied to social psych and management phds and she was 28 or 29, and the psych programs rejected her b/c they didn't understand why a person at her age would want a psych PhD, but she got into the best management program in the country at Harvard Business School. And now she basically does the same research, just with a slight applied twist. Also, I think someone in this thread was interested in studying health decisions--there are tons of marketing people interested in this topic. I'm not trying to offend anyone (this is my first post ever on this site), so I hope I helped out! Also happy to chat!