From finding yourself a mentor you can trust to embracing alternative and unexpected career paths – a range of psychology professionals offer their best advice for those about to start a career in psychology.
Taking your first steps into a career in psychology can be exciting. After years of hard work and study, you're eager to put your university learnings to the test and prepare yourself for a fulfilling professional career.
But, as with every profession, there are a few things that are worth keeping in mind in the early days of your career.
Ahead of the APS Career Expo – which will run across Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth from mid-August – APS asked some of the panellists to share advice to help emerging and early career psychologists set themselves up for a successful career in psychology.
1. Build your professional community early
By Charlotte Bowyer MAPS, clinical psychologist and clinical neuropsychologist
My advice to new graduates is to cultivate a strong network by attending conferences, joining professional organisations and connecting with mentors. Early in my career, these strategies were invaluable.
After completing my Masters in Clinical Psychology, I worked in the UK as a clinical psychologist in both the NHS and private sector. I collaborated with multidisciplinary teams and had a supervisor who was the Chair of Neuropsychology for the British Psychological Society. This sparked my interest in neuropsychology.
I gained a wealth of knowledge and attended conferences in London and connected with mentors in psychology, psychiatry and neurology.
Upon returning to Perth, I continued my professional development by joining organisations, volunteering on committees and completing a Master’s in Clinical Neuropsychology at UWA.
Embrace interdisciplinary collaboration to broaden your perspective. Working as part of a multidisciplinary team is a great way to be collaborative and gain an understanding of other disciplines.
My diverse experience in inpatient and outpatient settings with the Health Department provided a solid foundation for clinical practice. Now, in private practice for 17 years, I continue to attend conferences and professional development events to stay updated, connect with colleagues, and travel.
Being endorsed as both a clinical psychologist and clinical neuropsychologist, I strive to keep up with the latest research and have joined numerous professional organisations and connected with other professionals. I'm always aiming to learn more!
Charlotte Bowyer will be speaking at the pathways towards endorsement panel at the Perth career expo on 29 August.
2. Find good mentors
Timothy Lowry MAPS, clinical and forensic psychologist
I'd encourage all early career psychologists and students to identify an experienced, senior psychologist who can act as a mentor or advisor to help them navigate the, at times, complex pathways in psychology.
A career in psychology effectively starts at university, so it's important to seek out staff who can provide information and clarity regarding postgraduate training, as well as other career and employment options. I'd also suggest talking to the fourth-year students, course coordinators, psychology clinical managers, postgraduate students.
I cannot emphasise enough the importance of having a mentor (or two) who can provide guidance around career progression and development – and who can help you with the ‘long view’. You may seek someone who has a particular focus on an area you're interested in, while another psychologist may have had a broader range of experiences – both are equally important to help you tackle career steps and to act as a sounding board to help you understand and think through the systems you may be working in.
Mentors can also identify developmental experiences to help you achieve your goals and assist you to find your niche and place in the profession.
This is different to ‘supervision’ which is more focused on your clinical work and job-specific elements; a mentor can help you see the bigger picture and develop a map for the journey ahead.
I had a mentor early in my career who helped me not only understand the broader profession, but also helped me pinpoint interests and develop a trajectory and plan for my career. What are my interests? Where do I want to go? And how do I get there? These are questions a mentor can assist with.
Timothy Lowry will be speaking on the pathways to endorsement panel at the Brisbane career expo on 13 August.
3. Build a diverse skill set
By Anna Badcock MAPS, early career clinical psychologist
A trap we often fall into in psychology is forgetting how diverse the psychology profession is. It can range from client-focused work, research and academia, and organisational, government and policy work.
One of the key things you learn in psychology is how to think about things differently, which is a critical skill you can take with you wherever you go in your career.
My advice to other early career psychologists is to avoid narrowing your focus too quickly based on assumptions about what you think an area will be like to work in. I've benefited from taking this open approach to areas of interest which have led to furthering my own clinical and research opportunities. For example, I completed my final post-grad placement in an adult mental health inpatient unit and, as a result, gained employment there.
Through a colleague at that service, I was encouraged to apply for a position in a dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) program, despite feeling sceptical about my ability to work in this space. I worked with the DBT program for 18 months and discovered I loved the work.
Likewise, at the end of my postgraduate training, I felt the need to choose between clinical work and research work. However, by keeping an open mind, I've found ways to stay involved in research despite being primarily employed in clinical roles. This flexibility has given me the opportunity to participate in published research, training and resource development, and quality improvement projects.
Remain open to possibilities, look for ways your skills and interests fit within an area and be prepared to keep learning. Finally, changing plans is ok. It doesn’t mean you’ve wasted time! In most cases, you would have gained valuable, transferable skills.
Anna Badcock will be speaking on the pathways towards endorsement panel at the Hobart career expo on 22 August.
By Sally Kenney MAPS, educational and developmental psychologist
During the early years of your career as a psychologist, collect as many diverse experiences within the field as you can. Placements provided me with exposure to a range of settings and I was able to expand this in my first few years of practice before settling into where I am now.
There are so many ways for psychologists to benefit the community, so it's important to test different pathways until you find the right fit. You can always choose to change direction later in your career.
It's also important to connect with and learn from those outside of psychology as well, as we often do our best work in teams. These teams may be within your workplace or might come from collaboration with other experts including occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychiatrists, GPs and paediatricians.
Working in schools allows me to work closely with school leaders, teachers, nurses and coaches, as well as administration staff such as enrolments officers, human resources and marketing. This keeps the role diverse and dynamic, and allows me to be a part of system-level change that improves the lives of my clients.
Sally Kenney will be speaking at the pathways towards endorsement panel at the Melbourne career expo on 26 August.
4. Question everything and be a stickler for detail
By Emeritus Professor David Badcock MAPS, psychologist and member of the APS Division of Research, Education and Training
Psychology is an evidence-based discipline because that's the most effective way to improve what we do and ensure we do no harm. My advice is to do everything you can to know and understand the evidence base. Question everything and make the evidence, wherever it comes from, convince you of the correct interpretation.
Summaries of a field usually hide the details of a study, but to know if the interpretation is correct, it's necessary to know the quality of the study methods. That means it's best to see the original study. This can seem effortful, but it's the only way to know whether the logic of the study supports the conclusions and whether it is free from biases. That determines how influential the study should be in determining the best course of action.
Look for opportunities to add to the evidence base when you see gaps in our knowledge.
For example, I was a reading tutor for Centacare during my undergraduate years and was interested in dyslexia. An important question was whether children could see adequately for an unusual visual task.
We showed that, even without needing glasses, it seems likely that some people have neurological variations that make reading difficult. This led to ongoing investigation of how to identify the critical sensory system changes. Later we worked on migraines, which often causes unusual perceptual experiences. We showed there were changes in visual function between migraine events and that these changes can act as a predictor of an oncoming migraine. Using this information, people can now plan for the disruption to their life.
Building the breadth of the evidence base helps us to ensure Australians receive appropriate and well-targeted care from our nation’s psychologists.
David Badcock will be speaking on the pathways outside endorsement panel at the Hobart career expo on 22 August.
5. Remain open to different career pathways
By Colin Longworth MAPS, psychologist with a focus on domestic violence and drug and alcohol groups.
Be prepared to consider positions that may be outside your comfort zone. My work in both Domestic Violence (DV) and Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) fields were 'new' areas for me. This meant applying both psychology training and skills with my previous experience in non-psychologist, public-facing roles in the public service.
In both the AOD and DV cases, the job advertisements weren’t for a 'psychologist', but looking at the criteria and duties, I recognised they could (and did) assist on the longer-term journey to full registration.
When I think back on those roles, I needed to develop a therapeutic alliance with some unwilling clients. (i.e. I needed to practise and hone my interpersonal skills.)
Ultimately, though it's not the 'prettiest' work, these roles meant performing work that was to the benefit of society and, in the DV setting, it meant I was 'doing my bit' to seek to reduce the incidence of domestic violence in the broader community.
Colin Longworth will be speaking on the pathways outside endorsement panel at the Perth career expo on 29 August.
6. Be prepared for the journey
By Ceara Rickard MAPS, psychologist and Board-approved supervisor
When we first embark on the journey to becoming a psychologist, it can be easy to think it will be challenging yet straightforward. But once we start studying, we learn it's anything but straightforward. At times, it can seem impossible and overwhelming. There are no prizes given out for being the first person in your undergraduate cohort to become registered, so it's okay to take your time or even take a break if/when you need to.
It's also important to take time for self-care. We are trained to support other people to have boundaries and make room for self-care, but sometimes during our training it can be easy to let our own self-care slip. Don't. You only live once and you never know what the future might hold – so look after yourself first and foremost.
Finally, embrace the unexpected. If you stay open to opportunities, you can have a career you love, no matter what point you are in your journey towards becoming a psychologist. If you stray from the straightforward path of undergraduate, honours, masters and internship or the registrar program, you may find that you learn things that will ultimately make you a better psychologist.
Ceara Rickard is speaking on the pathways outside endorsement panel at the Adelaide career expo on 28 August.
If you're an emerging psychologist looking for practical advice from your experienced psychology peers, sign up to this year's APS Career Expo which is coming to six cities across Australia this August. Click here to find your city's session.