Department of Psychology
Career Services for Psychology Students
The Macquarie Career Service staff are happy to assist you with:
- One-to-one career consultations by appointment
- Drop-in sessions in the faculty
- Faculty-specific and cross-faculty career workshops, expos and events (register on CareerHub)
- Career planning assistance
- Interview practice
- Resume reviews
- Jobs on and off campus (register on CareerHub)
Contact us at level 2, C8A (Lincoln Building)
Phone: (02) 9850 7372
Email: careers@mq.edu.au
Web: www.careers.mq.edu.au
http://www.facebook.com/macquarieuniversitycareerservice
Requirements to Enter Professional Careers in Psychology
The basic requirement for becoming registered as a psychologist in NSW is a four-year university degree in psychology plus two years supervised experience or a two-year postgraduate degree.
For admission to membership of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), which amounts to recognition of full professional status, six years of academic training (a four-year university degree plus a two-year postgraduate degree) is required.
The undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered at Macquarie provide the academic training for qualification as a professional psychologist.
Career Opportunities for Psychology Students
People with qualifications in psychology work in a variety of careers, ranging from positions as professional psychologists to careers in psychology-related areas and general employment. Career opportunities are largely determined by the level of academic training (i.e., pass, honours, and higher degrees), areas of specialisation within psychology, and employment experience.
Professional employment in psychology includes work in areas broadly classified as clinical, neuropsychology, counselling, educational, organisational, and academic psychology. Professional psychologists are employed in the public sector in hospitals and other health service organisations, in government departments and agencies, or in educational institutions. Increasingly psychologists are also working in business or as private practitioners. The work of professional psychologists is varied and includes such responsibilities as:
- assessment and treatment of people suffering mild to severe mental illnesses
- treatment of people with sexual problems, marital difficulties, or drug dependence
- diagnosis of brain disorders and the development of rehabilitation programs
- assessment and program development for people with developmental disabilities and for children with learning, behavioural, or emotional problems
- employee selection, career counselling and enhancement of productivity, creativity, satisfaction, and health of employees in the work place
- designing training programs
- lecturing, curriculum development, and supervision of students
- scientific research
Those who complete a pass degree in psychology do not work professionally as psychologists. Instead, they find positions in a variety of areas (e.g., personnel, training, marketing) where skills such as statistics, research methods and design, computing and report writing, obtained in the study of psychology, are useful. Other areas of employment include family and community services, hospitals and community health, the police forces and education.
Some people find employment in areas where the study of psychology is not directly relevant. For these people the general undergraduate training in collecting, analysing, and synthesizing information, communicating, and meeting deadlines and objectives is of interest to employers.