Careers in Psychology
There are many career opportunities for international students who have an interest in psychology, and for those who study psychology in the U.S. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
"Job prospects should be the best for people who have a doctoral degree from a leading university in...[a] field such as clinical, counseling, or health, and those with a specialist or doctoral degree in school psychology.... Employment will grow because of increased demand for psychological services in schools, hospitals, social service agencies, mental health centers, substance abuse treatment clinics, consulting firms, and private companies."
The fact is that there is a demand for people with training in psychology in a wide variety of careers, particularly for those with advanced degrees. Let's take a look at just some of the careers in psychology available to the expert in psychology.
Researcher/Instructor
If you are particularly passionate about questions of psychology for their own sake, then you might be interested in becoming a full-fledged researcher or university instructor in psychology. Virtually all careers in psychology doing active research require many years of education and advanced degrees in psychology. Researchers develop psychology experiments and theories and often publish their work in leading scholarly journals. University instructors are expected to produce high quality research and also provide high quality education to university students. Researchers often work at universities as professors or instructors, though there are private firms which hire psychology researchers, as well.
Counseling or Therapy
Many people who study psychology in the U.S. are interested in helping people improve their psychological well-being. Psychological health problems can arise for many reasons, including biological injury or malfunction, stress, marital troubles, the death of a loved one, or experiencing traumatic events. Those interested in helping people cope with these issues, develop mechanisms to remain psychologically healthy, and help provide stable marriage and family relationships might be particularly interested in studying counseling or therapy. Some of the careers in psychology in this area include marriage counselor, child or school counselor, or personal therapist.
Organizational/Industrial Psychologist
International students might be interested in applying principles of psychology to the workplace. Many institutions and organizations can be made more productive, efficient, and the people within them made happier using the tools one learns in psychology. Industrial psychologists study aspects of psychology that relate to keeping workers happy and hard-working, along with applying principles of psychology to help managers more effectively facilitate workers' needs. If you are interested in working with businesses organizations to run better and more smoothly, then you might be interested in organizational or industrial psychology.
Educational Psychologist
Beyond giving advice to individual students, international students who are interested in the psychology of development and learning in order to maximize students' potential in the classroom. Those who have an interest in helping to develop effective teaching strategies for students of all ages might be particularly interested in a career in educational psychology. Educational psychologists apply their knowledge of how memory works, effective methods of teaching students to read and learn mathematics, how to design lesson plans, and many other aspects of teaching to ensure teachers provide students with the best educational experience possible. If you would like to maximize the potential of students, educational psychology might be right for you.
Because of the variety of careers available to those who study psychology in the U.S., it is not possible to give specific details regarding salaries one can expect. However, many of them pay quite well even at starting positions. International students who have an interest in a career in psychology have many exciting options.