<p>I graduated last Spring with a B.S. in Psychology and I realize I made a huge mistake. After doing poorly as an Engineering major, I changed my major to Psychology at the end of my junior year in college. I have been unable to find any full time employment whatsoever and my looming amount of debt from undergrad is haunting me. I cannot make ends meet on my tiny salary from a serving job. </p>
<p>In efforts to make my way to graduate school, I decided to enroll as a non-degree graduate student to test the waters. I thought I wanted to go to graduate school, but I wanted to pay my loans down first. I am doing well in my classes, but otherwise my stats for graduate school do not look good. I graduated with a 3.0 overall and a 3.4 in the major. I have no honors or publications and about 2 years of research experience. I am not competitive by any means in the graduate applicant pool. I thought taking these classes would help out my application. I am volunteering in a lab on campus but I dread the thought of applying to graduate school. I know my chances of being accepted are extremely low, even for a master's program. </p>
<p>I am contemplating going back to get a second bachelor's; however, I know funding for that is nearly impossible to get. I have tried to secure a full time job for going on a year now. I have been extremely unsuccessful. I have had my resume and cover letter critiqued at the career center and by a career counselor, I have done practice interviews, I apply to at least 3 jobs everyday. I have applied to over 85 positions (this semester alone) at the career center, online and even in person. And I still find these emails in my inbox: "On behalf of _____, we thank you for taking the time to partake in our application process. However, we will not be offering you a position/interview." Discouraged doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm defeated at this point. </p>
<p>I don't know what I should do. I moved back in with my parents, but their house is being foreclosed and I will have to move back out in 3-4 months. I have no savings at this point since I have been paying down credit card debt and paying tuition for graduate classes. I literally cannot stand the thought of being a server for forever. I also can't afford to continue the non-degree program because its really not helping me in any way right now. Any advice on what to do? I'm not opposed to changing my career path. While psychology interests me its not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. Everyone continues to tell me to continue job searching, the problem is I can't even get an interview for a cashier position at Target.</p>
<p>Have you considered applying to take civil service exams? Many positions start out at a low rate but there is usually great benefits and overtime available. Also, opportunities for advances and raises are strong.</p>
<p>Yes civil service is a great idea. VAMC’s hire clerksvthat frequently have a BS degree. I think the pay is decent and you can advance. Also I thought about getting a job like the night turn at a group home for mentally disabled, then you would have housing, too. The idea of masters in clinical social work might be a good stepping stone to a job and independence.</p>
<p>I’m really not interested in teaching English and I feel as though traveling right now is particularly dangerous. Given the political climate right now.</p>
<p>Curious Jane, I am particularly interested in I/O psychology. Because there are no bachelor level positions I would be forced to get at least a master’s degree. The programs are so competitive. I don’t stand a chance. I really don’t like the clinical side of things and have no desire to pursue a graduate degree in clinical psychology.</p>
<p>Look into nursing - either a bachelors completion to MS or a straight MS to NP program. You can find schools that will essentially pay you to attend, our forgive your tuition after graduation. You can become a psychiatric nurse practitioner, which is a nurse with prescriptive authority. This may also help you to greet some undergrad loans forgiven, if you work in specific locations.</p>
<p>How about Human Resources, office management or learn to be a recruiter. These are positions to use your psych degree in the workplace. </p>
<p>Alternatively, find work with companies that helps medical offices become computerized with electronic charting. Do training or seminars to employees. </p>
<p>I don’t think you can compete with those with Psych masters degrees so don’t try. Look for positions that having a psych degree will be a benefit to a regular job position and sell that to the employer.</p>
<p>If you like children and want to work in a school eventually, look into school psychology at the graduate level and you can become a School Psychologist. It can be completed in 2 years full time or 3 or 4 years part-time. Check out the National Association of School Psychologists to get more information on what School Psychologists do.</p>
<p>Take a look at the book What Color is Your Parachute by Bolles if you haven’t. Library should have it. Work through the exercises and it should help you pinpoint what you want to do and learn how to make that happen.</p>
<p>Is there a state wide work force development center where you can do some research? I think you need to find out what kind of jobs are available in your area and then try to find one that meshes well with your interests. I’d encourage you to try to narrow in on an attainable and employable career at this point. You can get through this.</p>
<p>Find out local school district requirements for substitute teaching. In some states, a bachelor’s degree and a quick certification allows you to get into substitute teacher pool. I know you said you weren’t interested in teaching, but it might be a temporary option.</p>
<p>Did you take some beginning engineering classes already? Could you get a CAD certification? Does the school where you are taking non-degree classes offer any kind of certificate programs? Is there a local community college? Around here the community college has an active career center. Job placement seems to be a higher priority at the CC.</p>
<p>I would also look into one year training programs such as occupation therapy assistant, dental assistant, X-ray tech, etc. Many viable career choices are over looked for a variety of reasons. </p>
<p>I do not think a 3.0 shuts you out from all graduate programs. If look into programs in school counseling or public health. Go to the library and get a GRE prep book. Maybe a high GRE score would help with admissions.</p>
<p>You could look into Americorps volunteer program. They provide a small stipend, but it might be enough for a transitional period.</p>
<p>If you have a 3.0 and you are doing volunteer work in a psych lab, you might be able to get probationary admission to the master’s program at that school IF the professor under whom you are working can make a case for you. I would ask him if he thinks you could get in to that school, if you want to do that masters. But think hard about whether it is funded or not and what you will do once you finish that degree, you really don’t want more loans!</p>
<p>Sakacar, Thank you for the suggestion. I was also pre-med at one point too, so I am drawn to the healthcare field. I think I could be good at nursing and I didn’t realize psychiatric nurse practitioners could prescribe meds. Although I am not particularly interested in clinical psych that may be a good avenue to try.</p>
<p>Turbo93, its funny you say that because that’s what I’m trying to do right now. I’m in a cog sci certificate program but there are VERY few cog sci programs in general and most are PhD programs at top universities (i.e. Berk, Harvard, Michigan State, Johns Hopkins etc.). Because of this I have extremely low chances of admission into a program. I would be a laughing stock if I applied. I am currently volunteering in a Human Factors lab, but funding is extremely limited for master’s programs. There are a few HF positions at the master’s level but you really need a PhD. The school I am attending now has a PhD program with great funding but I talked to the director of the program and he said only 4 people (two presidential fellowship students) were accepted for Fall 2013. The acceptance rate is less than 10% for top students.</p>
<p>Lakemom, I have tried to get into Human Resources and I never get to the interview stage because they typically prefer business or HR degrees. I am trying for basic office positions such as admin assistant, HR assistant, recruiting assistant etc. and I can’t even secure an interview for those :(</p>
<p>carly135, I have definitely looked into that, but that too is a largely competitive field. I will do some more research though and figure out if that’s something I could look into.</p>
<p>Trilliums, thanks for all the suggestions. I have tried the substitute teacher route. It is just a certification but the problem is there is only 1-2 classes offered every few months with only 60 slots available. Priority is given to education majors so I am just out of luck on that one. I’m not opposed to teaching in general, I just don’t really want to go to a war torn-politically charged country right now to teach children English. Its not that I don’t want to teach them, its just not exactly safe.</p>
<p>I unfortunately don’t have enough classes to get a CAD certification. I tried enrolling in a paralegal program at a local community college but I couldn’t get financial aid and it was close to 1200 a semester for 3 classes (w/ books). I couldn’t afford it out of pocket. The non-degree program I am in is a cognitive science certificate; however, it really doesn’t make me more employable. I originally wanted to enroll in this certificate because you can take graduate level courses in psychology, but I talked to an admissions counselor and they said its not really going to be that helpful. Maybe taking the GRE and getting a high score will help. I just don’t want to invest tons of money into taking it, only to be rejected and lose money to admission fees to grad school and GRE registration fees.</p>
<p>One of the biggest places for teaching English abroad is Japan. I’m not sure that would qualify as “war-torn politically charged”. I’m also pretty sure that Japan is safe by most people’s standards.</p>
<p>You are not alone at all. I know so many young people in your situation. Some of them are at home web surfing and hiding their heads under their blankets (the ostrich solution), some are working part time min wage or so type jobs, maybe even full time and trying to make ends meet some are home with parents, some are scraping by on their own, some are defaulting on their loans. Some are back in school to hold back the loan tide with no real goal in mind. </p>
<p>There were some articles, one most notably in the NYT about the world of the post grad student. There are quite a few highly educated people out there working for a pittance, a true pittance as a post grad as they focused in a field where getting a job is highly competitive and that’s really what they want to do. So they work in labs if they were science, social science research majors and get paid very little. The chances of them getting a living wage job is small because of how few jobs there are out there in such fields and how many are seeking them with a new crop of young grads spilling out each year.</p>
<p>So what to do? Well, take a lesson from the old fashioned bank robbers. Why do they rob banks? Because that is where the money is!! For you to continue taking classes in fields where the pickings are slim, is putting you in a situation where your chances are slim in finding a job that pays a living wage. I think you have already experienced this reality enough.</p>
<p>Do some research in your area and find out where the jobs are. Just as the bank robbers case the banks, so you have to do with the jobs out there. Do they need technicians that can operate a CAT scan? Is medical transcription in demand? How about technical writers familiar with engineering jargon? Book keepers? Look where they are searching for trained skilled workers, the jobs you just skim past because you don’t have the credentials. Then look for some cheap community college or maybe just community programs to focus on getting the certification for landing one of those jobs. Maybe you don’t like the idea of being a tech along with those holding AAs with all of your education, but it gets your foot in the door. You get some experience and find a good place that has other job opportunities that also has that tech job and you sniff around there to land a position that your other higher education credentials will qualify you for. You will have hands on knowledge of the technical aspects as well as the education and degrees for the upper management jobs. That’s how you do it. I’ve told several ivy league kids to do this, and many are now in jobs that pay a decent wage. They will work their way to jobs that they prefer, but as they are doing so, at least they are more self sufficent that working retail part time for minimum wage, and getting something on the resume that qualifies them for some higher paying positions. </p>
<p>You might not be able to get there from HERE, with HERE being where you are now, but take it at a diagonal, think outside the box, and it may be possible.</p>
<p>Curious Jane, I never said EVERY possible program/internship involving teaching english is located in a politically charged country. I know several people who have taught english in Korea. Right now its not safe to travel there. I am under the impression in some programs you do not get to choose which country you teach in. While I’m sure its a great experience, I feel like the last thing I need in all this instability is to move to another country and try to start from scratch. Plus I really don’t see how this will help me be more competitive to employers. Its an interesting conversation piece but I doubt it will make me significantly more competitive in the job field. All I’m saying is right now, for me personally, it is not the time for me to do that. </p>
<p>Thanks Bob, I tried applying there and never got a call back for an interview. I’ll try to put in an application again.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, thanks for the suggestions. The only problem is I have no idea what to look for. Going by job boards, software engineers, web developers, nurses, paralegals and MAs seem to have the most job openings. Where I live being bilingual is preferred, sometimes required for most jobs. I don’t speak another language (I took 4 years of French in HS but that doesn’t really count). So I am at a disadvantage because most medical/tech//paralegal and MA jobs require bilingual applicants. I thought about taking classes in the language preferred in my area, but I can really only afford a semester or two. And there is no way I will be fluent by then. </p>
<p>I have googled projected employment opportunities in my area and looked around but I just don’t know how reliable the stats are. They say construction areas have the most projected growth which I find hard to believe in this economy. Nursing is also on there and post secondary/grad school teachers are the only positions really seeing any growth.</p>
<p>I am in no way saying I am above people with an AA. I even considered becoming a paralegal straight out of college, but I couldn’t afford the program out of pocket. I am not eligible for funding in that program.</p>
<p>Check out the two schools that should not be too difficult to get in and have respected cog psych / human factors grad programs. I have worked with grads from both. University of Dayton and Wright State both in the area north of Cincinnati.</p>
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