Feeling lost after graduating as an undergrad

[Meen521]

Hey all,

 

I recently graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology. I gained amazing experience while at UCLA by working closely with faculty and graduate students in a research lab.  I have one publication, with another currently in review. I also have a really good GPA, and I'm planning on taking my GRE in September.

 

However, I'm feeling really lost, since I'm not entirely sure what I want to do as a career. I considered a PhD program in Cognitive Psychology for a while, but I don't think I would want to do a PhD program, since I am not a huge fan of teaching. I have also considered going into marketing, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, or even working with kids. But I don't know where to begin...

 

I was wondering if any of you have any advice on where I should go from here... I feel extremely lost and disconnected from other people, and I don't know where to begin to explore my options or find experience!
 

Thanks!

[FeelGoodDoGood]

Hi Meen521!

 

Let me just say I was in a very similar position when I graduated. Throughout my undergraduate, I prepared for a PhD program (and felt very pressured to achieve it right away). Long story short, I sat down to write my personal statements my senior year and I still had many questions about myself and what it was that I was even passionate about. I didn’t want to go to a PhD program that wasn’t a good fit for my career goals, so I decided to take a gap year. I should probably mention that this decision originally made me feel like a failure (which is a totally unhealthy way of looking at it, but that’s the mindset I was in). When I started getting questions from everyone about my plans post-graduation it wasn’t fun to have to grapple with my lack of plans! Not to mention not having the same support of friends while in college made things really hard.

 

During my gap year I kept doing research (which I figured would be helpful any direction I went) as well as another job to help ends meet. As for what you should start with career wise—it’s a tough market. Find something that seems halfway decent and seems plausible for your career goals…it doesn’t have to be crazy awesome. For example, I was doing higher education program evaluation research. This is definitely NOT my dream job, but it paid me and helped me develop quantitative skills. It’s counterintuitive, but sometimes you have to figure out want to do by figuring out what you DON’T want to do.  Even when I worked retail for a brief period this year, I gained valuable data and learned about myself. The trick is to take something from every job you have (even if the job is totally crappy!)

 

So throughout my gap year, I explored many different directions I was interested in (public health, education, English, psychology, counseling, social work). I read about these professions, talked to professionals, took career assessments, talked to graduate students, shadowed, got personal therapy—the works. I talked to a career professional in my school’s career office, and she told me that most people switch job/careers 5-6 times throughout their life…which seems like it would be even more for millennials. Even if you start to do one career, you’re not chained to it for life. For example, if you did do something with cognitive psychology, there’s probably a number of directions you could take it besides academia.

 

The point is, go crazy exploring things. Try things out. Volunteer. Talk to people whose careers seem cool. Remember what got you interested in psychology in the first place (this one was key for me). Don’t look at your lack of solid plans as a failure—look at it as an opportunity. ALSO—I don’t see my gap year as a smashing success—I made A LOT of mistakes…but it’s OK that I made mistakes. I also learned a lot about myself, and I’m entering a great program in the fall.

 

Feel free to PM if you want to talk more in depth.  

 

FGDG

[harris_t.r.]

I agree wholeheartedly with advice from FeelGoodDoGood.  I was in a similar situation myself ... knowing I wanted to do graduate school, but not sure on the Ph.D.  I took a year off and worked a job in management that helped me think through my future -- ended up attending grad school for M.A. 1 year later.  It's not always easy to explain yourself to others, but years from now who will care.  Do it for yourself and enjoy it.  Believe me ... I wish I had enjoyed this journey more than I did.  Doesn't need to be stressful ... it's a healthy exercise to help you figure it out.

 

If you don't know what you want to do professionally I think the trick is to try and do something that puts a foot forward in one way or the other.  Put your foot forward in one direction and see where it lands.

 

I'm in secondary education now.  From my perspective I would say if you aren't sure whether you want to work with kids or not then don't do it.  Is this a pipe dream or do you actually have reason for wanting to work with kids?  

 

You could always work 2 part time jobs negotiating two of these interests.  When you put your CV together emphasize one over the other.  

Edited June 23, 2014 by harris_t.r.

[kthorshov]

Due to a plethora of personal reasons after an admittedly long 6 year BA I decided that I needed a break. After years of promising myself I would never do such a thing, I didn't even feel bad about it. I was beyond exhausted. So the first year I felt more than entitled to, the second year kind of snuck up on me and my reasoning was that if I spent the whole year preparing for grad school thats not really a year off right? By the third year off I felt like crap and by the fourth I was almost numb. While I agree with dogoodfeelgood, there is a limit and people with the best intentions can get sidetracked before they know it. If you decide to take time off, have a timeframe, know WHY you are taking time off, and set concrete goals on what you want to accomplish in this timeframe. Really its all stuff we tell people do in therapy right ?

 

In terms of your specific situation a gap year (or maybe even two?) could be good for you. Luckily you have some solid ideas about where you might want to go and most of them aren't hard to explore. One of the easiest things to explore is your interest in children. No matter what you decide to do with them there is going to be a massive amount of socializing with them and just DEALING with them as kids. You can get this experience pretty easily through working in a day care (the certification usually isn't hard or long) or even in your church or other community center. If you can deal with them 40 horus a week and say "wow this is really awesome" then you're a good candidate, If its any less than that I would stay clear of the field. There are also ways you can explore the teaching aspect but it might be more insightful to teach a lower level student (for example at a tutoring school, or if you really want to go all out its pretty easy to get a teaching certification as well, It also helps put money in the bank for later). Teaching in say hs will probably be more reflective of the work you would do as a prof in terms of preparing lectures, planning projects, grading term papers, then a TA who spends most of their time just grading papers in the background.  I might also keep in mind that while it changes from school to school I remember reading somewhere that most professors only spend about 20% of their time teaching, so ultimately its a smaller part of your job and you may be able to file it under "parts of every job you don't love, but tolerate". I would just make sure that you explore how profs otherwise spend their time, their lifestyle and if thats something you would enjoy. As far as the I/O side, I don't know anything about that - sorry.

[BeingThere]

To the OP,

 

With a bachelor's in psychology you can pretty easily get a job in social services (with the Cabinet for Families and Children - or whatever they call it out in CA - if you are interested in working with kids.)  You may have a tougher time getting a job in HR with a bachelor's in psych versus a bachelor's in business.

 

As a graduate of UCLA, are you still able to use their career center?  That might be a good place to start looking for what jobs are out there.

 

I'm in I/O.  I started out thinking I wanted to do clinical, but after working for a company in social services, I learned two things:  1) I don't want to work with pathology or have a clinical practice, and 2) there are many things about how organizations work and how people work within organizations that I find fascinating.  So I was able to figure out both what I did want and what I did not want by working one job.

 

My caveat would be, if you do think you will eventually pursue a grad degree stay in touch with your professors and continue to read up on areas of research interest to you.  This will help you when you get ready to start applying a year or two from now.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Bren2014

[PsychGirl1]

I worked in two different jobs and did a master's before I ended up in my PhD program doing what I love. Pick whatever sounds the most interesting to you right now and go for it! A job is not a career commitment- and honestly, I use the skills from my non-psych jobs all the time. After you spend some time in the job, you can start to figure out what you like, don't like, and then keep getting a bit closer to figuring out what you want out of life. :-)

[Grad25]

Have you looked into counseling programs?  Just a thought. I originally applied for MFT/LPC but am currently pursuing school counseling.  It sounds like you might like a practical masters degree instead of a PhD.  Nothing wrong with taking some time off...I sort of wish I had.  I am just starting my Masters in School Counseling and feeling pretty uncertain about it currently.  Grad school isn't really the place to be uncertain about what direction you want to go.  It can make focusing and getting stuff done quite difficult!