<p>Tayto: Cogs is actually really good at UCSD- great opportunities to be a 199 lab/research assistant- take advantage of that! All my COGS friends got great full-time jobs straight out of UCSD- but they did do lab/research while in school like I said, very important. San Diego has a lot of career opportunities in the COGS field, at least right now. </p>
<p>COGS and PSYC are sort of related so I understand the job market for it. For these majors UCSD is a great school for theoretical knowledge and getting into grad school. But offers no hands on experience and real world applications- whereas sdsu for example sends their psyc majors out to hospitals, non-profits etc for some real world experience. </p>
<p>I’ve been aiming for a career in Social Work, Counseling, Mental Health, but most of these require a Master’s degree for a fulltime career- UCSD did not prepare me for this field at all. Right now i’m working at a homeless shelter where I’m getting hands on experience in mental health, possibly applying to grad school next year. </p>
<p>UCSD does not offer much in the way of extra-curriculars/community service/career advice in the fields of COGS/PSYC. I had to scour SD on my own to get experience for my resume. Here are the BEST things I found that have looked good on my job apps; 1. “UCSD’s <em>A</em> Program, a Multidisciplinary Approach to…” go to the student legal affairs office for info. 2. UCSD Extension Courses- expensive courses but they offer free vouchers to the first like 50 ucsd students who run to their office the first week of school- they have amazing professional certificates (I took courses in Play Therapy) I wish I had taken more of these courses. 3. “Regional Taskforce on the Homeless, Point in time count” they send volunteers out to survey thousands of homeless people then they need volunteers to enter all the info into their computer database- I just went in on a few saturdays, got to read thru the funny surveys and now I can say on my job apps that I have experience with comp databases and data entry. (For various reasons SD the past few years has verrrry limited opportunities for volunteering/interning, ex) there was a waiting list to volunteer at the Red Cross last time I checked.) 4. UCSD Rec Classes- reasonably priced for students- best course I took was self defense training for Women- I put this on a resume for applying to a Domestic Violence Shelter. 5. San Diego City College courses- I took classes in drug and alcohol counseling, social work, child development— these classes are more applicable to the real world, cost about $75, are small only 30 students. Class met just 1 night/week- I did not need to study for anything. My Social Work instructor was actually one of the head Social Workers of SD County Services- he had connections to lots of orgs and has written me awesome recommendations. 6. City College/SDSU partnership agreement, while enrolled in a course at sdccd you can take 1 course at sdsu for free!- good opportunity to explore different fields- I did not find out about this til too late, they keep it kind of a secret. 7. Guest speaker presentations at ucsd career services center- aimed at seniors exploring career fields, but anyone can go- you have to look up the schedule- I went to one with people who work in county services- real legal, prison, medical etc. You can ask them for advice on how they got into their jobs, what they majored in etc. 8. NAMI/DBSA guest speakers, trainings, special presentations— San Diego is known for having some of the top researchers in brain/neuro stuff- (COGS/PSYCH) professionals from all over the country go to conferences at ucsd med center to learn about new discoveries in brain stuff---- some of these presentations are open to the public— great way to get a feel for what it’s like to work in COGS. These are harder to track down- you have to do your online research to find them. 9. Don’t bother with those undergrad honor societies big waste of time and you don’t learn anything from them. 10. There are no clubs on campus related to anything COGS or PSYC so you really have to look elsewhere like I said. </p>
<p>Alot of the activities I listed above won’t be interesting to you until you get into more advanced stuff junior/senior year. Just copy some of this down and then look at it again in a few years. The ucsd Extension courses are something you can/should def start as a frosh/soph.</p>
<p>UCSD career services is not helpful- only the presentations were good. the advisors gave me incorrect information all the time and just want to get you out of their office as quick as possible.</p>