Please help me:graduate jobs?

filigree_2

You could try www.jobs.ac.uk which has lots of vacancies in higher education. These include admin posts that do not demand a degree. They might not be exactly what you want, but at least they are white collar jobs. You might even find something vaguely related to psychology.

I spotted this post - http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobfiles/PW968.html , is that the sort of thing you are looking for?

Skimming through the vacancies it seems that a starting salary of £20K is overly optimistic unless you live in London, where the living costs are higher. Public sector careers simply don't pay well, especially in the early years where you are expected to study alongside your work. There was something on TV last night about advertising, they said a lot of psychology graduates go into advertising where the salaries are higher (I've seen quotes of £30K or more). I bet the competition for those jobs is incredibly fierce though.

Many careers now demand a postgrad qualification. Off the top of my head this applies to librarians, teachers, social workers and speech therapists and I bet there are many more. Most of these will have a professional body, you should be able to find them by Googling ie "social work training recruitment" should point you at the right agency to advise you on a career in social work.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/ has advice for anyone hoping to work in the NHS, including the different kinds of psychologist, entry requirements and funding etc. A brief glance suggests that you will need postgraduate training because a first degree is not enough on its own.

http://www.bps.org.uk/careers/areas/forensic.cfm offers advice on careers in forensic psychology, again it would appear that you need a postgrad qualification.

http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit.aspx has advice on training as a teacher, and the funding available. A PGCE takes a year, and you get approximately £6,000 while you are training - all the PGCE students I knew either lived at home with parents, or were supported by their spouse. Goodness knows how a single adult would afford the PGCE year.

The Medical Research Council offer funding for postgraduate training and research details here: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/index/funding/funding-personal_awards.htm but there is enormous competition. The other Research Councils offer awards too but I don't know much about them. I couldn't find any info about actual job vacancies, you could email them if you need to know more.

You might have to seriously consider further training. I know people who have worked fulltime and taken their MSc part-time, it means 2-3 years of gruelling hard work unless you have generous parents/a spouse who can pay for you to study full time. From there you can look into getting a PhD studentship, again you have to work hard AND study hard and you'd be lucky to get £18K even in London. If you seriously want a lifelong career in public sector health sciences, you can expect to spend at least another five years combining work and study for miserable wages. I'm afraid your degree was only the first hurdle.

Finally did your college have a careers guidance counsellor? I know you've already graduated but they might still be able to help you. I'm surprised you didn't get more guidance beforehand, surely your tutors would know what is required to follow a psychology career and at least offer some advice!

Good luck with the new job, even if it's not what you really want at least it pays the bills while you sort out your long term plans.

Loopylou_4

Hi everyone,

thanks so much for all your support & suggestions, you've all really helped me.

I think the problem I have is that I'm so overwhelmed with it all that it's hard to know just where to start! At least I have a job now so I can worry less about the money side of things so that is a first step, & next I can be a little more picky about the jobs I look for & try for something a little more specific towards the area I'd like to eventually work in.

I know the route that I'd like to go down but it's extremely competitive, especially living in the area I do which seems to have very little vacancies compared with say, London or Manchester.
I did look in to doing an Msc in Mental Health & I have all the details & application form here. It's something I still might consider for next year. It would be also helpful for getting on to a Phd course in clinical psychology which eventually, I would like to do I think. I have explored that route in depth, (even before I started my actual degree) & it's just so competitive & they require you to have at least 12 months hands on clinical experience, preferably as an assistant psychologist/research assistant. Reading about it, they value that more than they do degree classification. But again, to get a job as a research assistant or assistant psychologist is just so damn hard I read a forum dedicated to the topic & people were saying they had filled in around 30 application forms & they'd maybe heard back from 5 for interviews & sometimes it takes that many interviews to land your first job! The questions they ask are extremely hard & demanding & as much as I'd like to do it, I'm so scared.
I'm a member of the BPS so I get their appointment memorandum with all the relevant jobs in & I'm also aware of the various job sites out there so that I'm not just looking in mainstream places. In fact, I highly doubt a research assistant job would even be advertised in the local paper!
Carla! You are spot on & I can't believe my lack of confidence shows through even in my writing! I honestly don't believe I am good at anything & I feel like I'm lying in interviews when I'm asked "so what qualities do you have that you can give to the company?" because I'm thinking, I really have none
I've always had low confidence & it just seems to be getting worse & worse so I don't suppose that does me any favours. Thank you so much for the details of the graduate scheme. I had looked in HR because I'd heard they seem to like psychology graduates because of the fact we've been taught how to do personality scales & stuff like that that a lot of employers seem to use these days. The course you are on sounds really interesting & I will definitely have a look at the website you mentioned. Thank you

Tompparker, thanks for that book recommendation, it sounds like just what I need! Will definitely be on the lookout

Trace - thanks for sharing your success story! Doing something like that definitely makes you stand out & makes you look like you really are interested in the job. If I came across something I think I would love, I think I might have to do that to try & better my chances! As I mentioned just above in this reply, I do subscribe to the British Psychological Society so I'm always kept up to date with what's happening in psychology & with jobs too. If I do want a job in that area I know that I need to keep on top of it all as it's constantly changing & it could be quite easy to get out of the loop of things. Thanks again.

Thanks so much for your helpful reply. I do look at all of those websites on a regular basis but have yet to see anything advertised in my area.
The careers guidance at uni can still help us up to three years after we've left they say, so I may go in for a visit. I just feel like I get all flustered & just don't know the best route to go down. As I mentioned, with all the competition, I just feel like I don't stand a chance. Probably the best way for me now that I have a job, is to try & do a little voluntary work. At least it looks good on my CV & maybe I can get my foot in the door that way if a permanent paid position were to come up ?

Anyway, thank you all so much again.