by Jasmin Stevenson
The current climate might have you nervous about the world of work, or you might be wondering where to start in your search for a role related to your degree. The following tips will make you a more efficient and informed job seeker both now and into the future.
- Getting to know the lingo
Oftentimes as students or graduates we end up searching for jobs solely based on those we’ve heard of. As a psychology graduate, that’s likely to be ‘research assistant’, ‘healthcare worker’, ‘assistant psychologist’. This limits your job search as well as your thinking around what jobs actually exist in the world.
You need to start getting a feel for other terms that are used for similar jobs, or terms that expand your job seeking horizons. For example, when I was looking for research assistant roles, I never searched for the term ‘research officer’ – which was the job I actually ended up in! You might be thinking “that’s all well and good, but how do I actually find these other terms?” Here’s a few places to start…
- NTU Employability Team: An invaluable resource is your employability team here at NTU. Talking to someone who understands your anxieties AND can help you with job searching? Winner.
- The Prospects website (www.prospects.ac.uk) is amazing for providing overviews of different jobs (such as “a day in the life of…” and a career journey for those roles). You can also take surveys which take into account your interests and skill set and shows you types of jobs that might suit you. Their website is a great way to learn about options that exist beyond those buzzwords you’ve heard during your degree, and gives an insight of how to work towards different careers.
- Visit some organisations and websites that you know of and have a look at the types of roles they offer, as well as the terms that they use to define these roles. For example, if you’re looking for a research role, look at various universities, consultancy companies, research roles in industry. Begin to keep a word document with jobs roles, their associated titles and their job descriptions / skills they want (which you could incorporate into your CV/ application – if you have them of course)!
2. Scanning the (potential) employment horizon
Whilst a lot of job searching is reactive (i.e. you apply for a job already posted somewhere) you can make a more conscious effort to find these jobs as and when they arise. Hours spent on job search websites such as Indeed and LinkedIn can be made more efficient by signing up to job alerts (once you input your criteria) and uploading your CV to these websites.
Another key tip is to research and find companies and organisations you are interested in. These might be local or national charities you’ve heard of, or larger graduate schemes such as the Civil Service Fast Stream, the Probation service or NHS jobs. Some will take a little more research on your part (but if your degree in Psychology has prepared you for anything…)
A good place to start is Twitter. You can quickly identify and begin to follow people who work in a whole host of places and Twitter then shows you who they are followed by / similar people and you can quickly build up a network of individuals and organisations. There are several reasons this is useful:
- It exposes you to organisations you likely haven’t heard of;
- You gain updates on what those in the field are taking about – what key policy has just come out and how that might affect the field; new research they’ve conducted, new legislation and guidance relevant to fields you want to work in;
- It enables you to keep an eye on any job openings and advertisements people post (whether at their organisation or a retweet about an opportunity at another company).
Once you’ve identified some organisations (whether through Twitter, or a good old-fashioned internet search) I would recommend signing up to newsletters / updates from them as well as keeping an eye on their vacancy pages. Getting their updates and alerts straight into your inbox means that you’re seeing specific roles at specific organisations without the need to search endlessly on job websites. Again, this is also showing you the kind of jobs available, what their title is and how they are described (all of which informs your job search bank). You could also email someone there for any prospective jobs.
3. Thinking outside of the job-site search box
- Join groups and networks – such as your associated organisation e.g. British Psychological Society (BPS, or other discipline specific organisation), something I also touched on in a previous article. Some of the BPS divisions and research groups also have Closed Facebook groups where you can request to be a member. It was through joining one of these groups that I saw a job advertised, using a title I never would have searched for, for a company I had never heard of… where I subsequently worked for 3 years!
- Don’t restrict yourself to the ‘big’ names and large companies: search for and apply for jobs in smaller companies. After all, organisations with fewer than 50 staff are responsible for almost 50% of UK employment, so they are a hugely important source of jobs and opportunities.
- Think about how society and organisations work and consider this in your job search. For example, there are public as well as private hospitals and prisons (you would apply differently for both), you could work for a local council or Clinical Commissioning Group for the NHS. Consider the administrative side of patient care rather than front facing, think about occupational therapy roles rather than a healthcare assistant, or graduate schemes for social work or other disciplines where your skills as a psychologist would be valuable. Think about youth work, roles with the elderly or those with disabilities, and working indirectly with a population you are interested in (e.g. a resettlement Officer in a prison rather than the competitive interventions facilitator role).
- Talk to others on your course (students and lecturers). I came across work and voluntary opportunities by taking to my peers – both of which I spent several years in.
These are just a few ways I found various opportunities. I hope they are helpful and good luck in your search!
About Jasmin Stevenson:
Jasmin is an NTU alumni, having completed both her undergraduate degree in Psychology with Sociology and MSc Forensic Psychology here. Jasmin is also a long-standing volunteer for The Safer Living Foundation (a joint charity between NTU and HMP Whatton) which focuses on the prevention of sexual offences. Since graduating, Jasmin has gone on to work as a Senior Research Officer for consultancy company, Associate Development Solutions, specialising in child and adolescent mental health, before embarking on a PhD at NTU in 2020. You can read Jasmin’s excellent advice for getting most from your degree here.
Psychology at Nottingham Trent University 