It might seem, at first glance, that studying psychology has one goal: to become a psychologist. And that’s a great ambition to have. However, it’s not for everyone. The good news is that if you’re interested in understanding what makes humans tick, there are lots of psychology-related careers that you can pursue.

Client-facing services

Across communities in Australia, there are people in need of help, support and understanding. As a psychology graduate you could work in any number of client-facing social service roles, as Gene outlines.

“There’s a significant amount of people out there who have psychology degrees who never become psychologists. There’s lots of client-facing jobs that psychology graduates do. You could work with clients one on one. You could do group work. And also help clients navigate support systems and services. Some of the professions you could go into include counselling, youth work, working in juvenile justice, working in probation and parole, child protection, working with NGOs or refugee groups, working in domestic violence, or in drug and alcohol. For example, I’ve done a lot of work in rural areas, and a lot of drug and alcohol counsellors in those areas would have either a psychology degree or a social work degree.”

Public service

How about effecting change at the governmental level? Crafting policies and implementing initiatives aimed at fostering positive change for individuals and communities – sound good? Well, as Gene knows, psych grads are in demand in public service.

“Because psychology is very much about human behaviour and critical thinking, there are certainly a lot of people with psychology degrees who go into public service and influence policy. The public service tends to like psychology grads because they know how to do research. They know how to critically analyse things. And they know about what motivates people.”

Human factors

Human what now? Here’s Gene to explain.

“Human factors psychologists are involved in the design of things. They give their expertise on things like human sight, perception, and cognitive function to inform the effectiveness of products. A really good example of this, which was given to me at when I was doing my training, is working in air-force technology. A human factors psychologist would, for instance, feed into the design of the digital displays that pilots have inside their helmets. There’s a lot of psychology that goes into those. It’s about visual perception, recognition of pattern, cognitive load and decision-making. Such psychology grads could work on everything from how car dashboards have to be organised, to the way we should be designing roundabouts and road rules.”

Human resources

Working in HR means blending your understanding of human behaviour with the intricacies of organisational dynamics. That could mean getting involved in anything from recruitment and team dynamics, to conflict resolution. And you could work across almost any kind of organisation. Here’s Gene:

“Human resources is another option for psychology grads. A human resource degree has a lot of psychology in it anyway. Obviously, studying psychology wouldn’t qualify you in the same way as completing a dedicated HRM course, but there is a lot of overlap – as, again, human resources is concerned with human behaviour. So with skills in psychology, you can certainly pursue a career in that area – you might just be called a consultant rather that an HRM manager!”

Policing

In policing, understanding the human psyche is as critical as enforcing the law. So, as Gene points out, a background in psychology can be very useful.

“Lots of police officers now have a degree before they join the force. And psychology can be a relevant qualification because psychology and policing are both primarily about understanding people. You wouldn’t necessarily study psychology specifically to become a police officer. But if you studied it because you weren’t quite sure which direction you wanted to take but were interested in human behaviour, policing could well be an option.”

The first step into psychology-related careers

Wherever you’d like to take your career in psychology – and even if you’re not sure yet, but are fascinated by the human mind – our Bachelor of Psychology¹ is the ideal first port of call. That’s because it gives you the ultimate foundation in the field. You’ll cover everything from biopsychology to social psychology. Testing to ethics. Research to cognition. First Nations psychology to psychopathology. So when you’re ready to take the first step on your career path – in whichever direction – you’ll be ready to make a difference.

¹CRICOS: 025518G