Careers for Psychology Majors and Neuroscience Majors

If you are already confident that you want a career in psychology or neuroscience, then your choice of major is clear and you are ready to choose a degree, select courses, and get involved in activities that will prepare you for that career.

What if you are pretty confident that you want to major in psychology or neuroscience, but aren't sure of your career goal? You have thousands of career options and you will need to take time to actively explore those options. You can talk with academic advisors and professors, connect with career development resources on campus, select courses and participate in activities that will help you discover a career you will love and help you develop personal characteristics and skills desired by any employer.

Resources to help you get started thinking about a wide variety of career options. If you are interested in majoring in psychology and want to consider a wide variety of career possibilities, then one of the books described below might be a great start. The books are available for you to read at the Career Resource Library and in the Wells Library Career Reference Collection.

• Majoring in Psych?: Career Options for Psychology Undergraduates (4th Edition). This student-friendly guide looks at psychology as both a discipline and a liberal arts degree from a career perspective and shows students how they can take an early and active role in shaping their professional paths.
• Great Jobs for Psychology Majors (3rd edition). Explore the possibilities your major creates, narrow down your options and present a psychology major as a workplace asset during an interview. Read detailed profiles of careers in your field along with the basic skills necessary to begin a focused job search that will allow you to use your major in the real world.
• A search of the Career Resource Library Catalog using the keyword "psychology" turned up more books that describe a variety of careers for psychology majors including: The Psychology Major: Career Options and Strategies for Success and The Helping Professions: A Careers Sourcebook. Search the IU Library Catalog (IUCAT) for more career development resources in the Wells Library Career Reference Collection.

Resources for students considering a career in a field of psychology or neuroscience:

• Real People. Real Jobs. Real Rewards, What Can You Do with a Major in Psychology? Advice on college and curriculum choices--courses, internships.... Profiles of real graduates, their jobs, and how they got them. Inside, real-life information from an art therapist, a sports psychologist, a forensic psychologist, a school psychologist, a corporate psychologist, and a community psychologist. Overviews of typical salary levels, hours, and work environments.
• Download Psychology: Scientific Problem Solvers: Careers for the 21st Century from the American Psychological Association website if you are interested in a career as a psychologist!
• Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You is a comprehensive anthology in which authors selected for their distinction in their chosen careers offer their professional -- and personal -- perspectives on 19 different graduate-level careers in psychology, including (to name only a few) academia, clinical psychology, health and school psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and government service. Each chapter discusses the nature of the career, its advantages and disadvantages, how to prepare for it, typical activities, ranges of financial compensation, opportunities for employment, and the personal attributes needed for success in the career. "Day in the life" discussions give readers a glimpse into the prosaic realities, challenges, and rewards of each career that the lab or lecture hall rarely provides.
• A search of the Career Resource Library Catalog using the keyword "psychology" turned up: Careers in Psychology - Opportunities in a Changing World; Your Career in Psychology: Clinical and Counseling Psychology; The Helping Professions: A Careers Sourcebook; and Opportunities in Social Science Careers.
• Search the IU Library Catalog (IUCAT) for more psychology or neuroscience career development resources from the Wells Library Career Reference Collection.