Where Have I Been & Tips For Psychology Graduates

Its been a loong time since my last blog post but there is a very good reason I promise. After completing my undergraduate degree in Psychology I was a little bit lost to be perfectly honest with you and I know I'm in good company there. So if you or anyone you know finished a degree and felt a little lost this post might give you a little hope.

A few months before I graduated started looking at assistant psychology type posts and IAPT and was beyond surprised to find that I was having absolutely no luck, like zero, nada, zilch. Afer graduated i was pretty much on the NHS jobs website every morning looking high and low for the ever elusive assistant psychologist post. At this point my no.1 tip would be:

1. Don't be afraid to apply for jobs that aren't 'exactly' what you want

It can be so easy to just look at the job you think you want and ignore all the others in the list but really read the other job descriptions, and I mean really read because you never know. That is exactly what I did (more out of unemployment frustration than wisdom) an I ended up in an amazing job. I worked for 2 years as a support worker with adolescents with mental health problems, which leads to my 2nd tip for psychology graduates:

2. Consider support worker roles

Whether you're looking for a permanent role or more flexible bank/agency work support work is an incredible way of getting hands on experience with mental health and gives you an insight into how different professionals work with patients and with each other. For me this insight was invaluable as it actually made me realise that I didn't want to be a psychologist. *shock* *horror* *gasp*. I know right, a psychology graduate who doesn't want to be a psychologist, I realised I really enjoyed working directly with patients and didn't feel like I would have a great deal of patient contact as a psychologist. This understandably left me feeling a little lost with no idea what to do next, which leads me to my 3rd tip:

3. Keep an open mind

 One day an email came through advertising 'secondments to nursing training' which basically means the trust pays you a reduced salary to complete your mental health nurse training and come back to work for the trust once qualified. Before this point I had never even considered being a mental health nurse but since I had no real idea what I wanted to do I thought I should at least explore it. So I spoke with some of the amazing nurses I worked with and a few managers and decided that it would be a good next step for me. 

So that's what I've been doing since my last blog post, finding a new career and struggling to transition back into the uni-life. It's definitely been a steep learning curve balancing studying with placements and something resembling a social life, but I think I've got the hang of it now. 

Thank you for reading, drop me a comment below and let me know if you found this helpful or if there is anything else you would like to know

xoxo