<p>I have a BA in psychology and am pursuing an MPA degree. I honestly don't know what I want to be anymore, but I understand how hard it is to use a psych degree unless you want to go into social work. I am not interested in social work. I would like a corporate job or to work in nonprofit. I heard nonprofit has low paying jobs. I've been accepted to an MPA program with a concentration in nonprofit. Would it be wise to switch to a leadership/public management concentration and is having an MPA even worth it?</p>
<p>If you don’t know what you want to be, going to a graduate program is an unwise choice. You’re not even sure you will use that degree. You may shell out hundreds of thousands to pay for that MPA and decide a few years later that what you really want to do is be a lawyer, or a nurse.</p>
<p>People often make the mistake of believing that psychology is all about counseling people and psychotherapy, when in reality that’s only a small part of psychology and only psychologists in three subfields are licensed to do that (and school psychologists are doing less and less therapy and more administrative work). Most psychologists either do research or use their knowledge in applied settings. Psychology is the basis for much that we know about management, organization, and marketing. You will use your psychology degree in business, just not in the way that you think. The truth is that most jobs out there don’t specify a single major that they want, and they won’t discriminate against psychology majors. Especially if all you want is a “corporate job,” which could be literally anything.</p>
<p>Really, what you need to do is find a job and work for a few years to figure out what you want to do. Market research firms like psychology majors because marketing is psychology applied to business. You can do that with a BA. Advertising execs, pharmaceutical representatives, the corporate part of retail management (I mean like working in Target or Walmart’s corporate offices), nonprofit work, you can do any of that with a BA in psychology at least to start out. When you want to climb the ladder a little more, you may need a master’s degree then (and an MPA may be useful to you depending on what sector you plan to enter), but it’s best to work first and find out.</p>
<p>Some nonprofits have low-paying jobs and some don’t. It also depends on your definition of low-paying, and what the job is.</p>