<p>What is decent? Social workers average $44,000 - and that includes experienced social workers with an MSW. Public health is a big field with a lot of different kinds of jobs, and they average from around social worker levels of salary to the $70K range and potentially higher, depending on what you do. It’s similar with public policy. Psychologists average $69,000 per year; but there are different kinds of psychologists. The kind that does clinical counseling/therapy work averages about $67,000 a year. Other kinds make more than that ($80-90K on average).</p>
<p>The question is not “What is the difference between these programs”? That’s irrelevant. The real question is, what do you want to do? You select a career first, and then a graduate program based upon what degree you need to do that career. That way, you don’t waste thousands of dollars and a couple years pursuing something it turns out you didn’t want or need.</p>
<p>Since you are already working, the best way for you to decide what to do is to make a lateral move (or even downward) to another field/position that’s related to what you do now but also related to one of your other fields. For example, if you’re currently working in HR - all kinds of jobs need HR folks. Try to get a job at a social welfare organization or a community health clinic or a think tank. If you manage a budget, you could get a job in the development arm of some big social welfare non-profit or doing the finance/budget for a hospital or clinic. After you have 1-3 years of experience doing something else, you may be in a better position to decide what you want to do.</p>
<p>Some suggestions/thoughts:</p>
<p>Psychology is one of my fields. Since you are in business, an easy transition within psychology would be industrial-organizational psychology. I/O psychologists basically use psychology to help employers manage the work place. These days a big chunk of what they do is design hiring and workplace assessments. They may also work on training programs, affinity groups, organizational management issues, personnel disputes, etc. They work with people, but usually on the business-facing side rather than the client-facing/services side. I/O psychologists average $83,000 a year. You can do this with an MS, although some places may prefer a PhD. The core of what I/O psychologists do is research, though, although it is a very applied form of research that might not feel like research to you.</p>
<p>Generally, you shouldn’t study psychology on the graduate level unless you want to provide clinical services or teach psychology at a college or university. MAs in psych (with the exception of school and I/O) are all but useless, and PhDs in psych are designed for those two above jobs.</p>
<p>Social workers do more than provide clinical services. Some social workers act as administrators of social welfare programs, non-profits, and charities, although that is usually after they have some experience. Many social workers work for family services organizations. Although people most often see them through CPS, there are other private family services organizations that social workers can work at - one of my friends works at a Jewish family services place that works directly with Jewish families, so it’s not the same as having a stressful public ACS-type job. Social workers can also work in hospitals, helping families who may be going through long-term care or stressful illnesses. Social workers also work in schools with children; sometimes they provide direct clinical services and sometimes they do more administrative/structural-level work.</p>
<p>Public health (which is my other field) is a vast field with lots of jobs. You could work as a health educator/promoter, helping to design and deploy health education interventions in a particular area (adolescent sexual health, dental care, obesity prevention). You could work as an epidemiologist, tracking the natural path of outbreaks within communities to try to prevent further spread of disease. You could work as a biostatistician, performing statistical analyses of public health data collected at university medical centers or in large national organizations. You could administer large community clinics or hospitals. You could work as an environmental health specialist. There’s a good book called 101 Careers in Public Health that outlines many careers in the field. The entry-level degree in public health is an MPH. Epidemiologists and biostatisticians are compensated quite well ($65K and $75K respectively, on average). The other fields are much more variable because your job title can be very different depending on where you work and what your tasks are.</p>
<p>Public policy is more of an interest field than a job. There are social workers, public health practitioners and psychologists all working in public policy in various ways. There are also people who study public policy and take it into all kinds of fields - bioethics, law, intellectual property, whatever.</p>