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Thinking Critically About Careers in Psychology
and security. In the skills section, students must determine what they do well, such as
writing, speaking, listening, using computers, data coding, conflict resolution, and organiza-
tion. This section requires them to identify their strengths and identify their areas of weak-
ness that could cause difficulties. They must discuss five strengths and three weaknesses in
their personality and their skills and four values that are important to the job they want
and two that are not. Because this activity occurs early in the process, students only briefly
discuss how these characteristics relate to their job choice—both their strengths and their
weaknesses. Students must address not only how their strengths are necessary for the job,
but also how their weaknesses might impact their ability to do that job and how they can
correct those weaknesses. The assignment stresses honesty in self-evaluation. To increase
the quality of the self-evaluation, the assignment instructions encourage students to talk
to their family and friends about these characteristics.
Throughout the semester, students assess their knowledge. In general, they evaluate how
their experiences in the psychology program helped (or did not help) them develop the knowl-
edge, skills, and abilities needed to be successful in their career choice. To help them complete
this analysis, students receive a list of objectives that they should have met by the time they
graduate. The department has 14 objectives, and students also use the 10 goals developed by
the American Psychological Association Task Force on Psychology Major Competencies
(2006). Students rated themselves on a scale from 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Excellent) to describe
how well they feel they met each objective. They also discuss the activities and classes that
helped them meet that objective. When completing their self-rating, students should think of
the contributions of all courses taken at Valdosta State University, not just the classes within
the psychology major. To remind them of which courses they have taken, students print their
transcript and complete a course/advisor check sheet, which includes information about the
courses they have taken, when they took them, and the grade they obtained.
A representative from the university Career Center comes to class and gives a presentation
on how to write a good resume. Students create a resume, which individuals in the Career
Center critique. Students should include skills they developed from past work or volunteer
experience and education that could be transferable to the job they are interested in. Too
often, students do not realize how portable such skills as communication, leadership, abil-
ity to use computers, and information gathering actually are in the job market.
Students include information from all of the previously mentioned self-assessments and
class assignments in a job paper. In this paper, students include information on training
and job description. In the training section, students who plan to attend graduate school
must discuss degrees or schooling available (they must look into at least two programs),
degree options (e.g., Master’s vs. PhD, PhD vs. PsyD), and possible accreditation issues.
They must discuss admission standards, including the required GPA (grade point aver-
age), minimum GRE (Graduate Record Exam) scores, and other prerequisites such as
required courses and research experience that the program may want in successful appli-
cants. They describe the specific coursework that they will complete and describe how the
program will suit their needs, because many programs have a particular “slant” to them,
such as clinical or industrial/organizational psychology. All students (those who do and do
not plan to attend graduate school) must discuss how they can get a particular job
( including tests such as the social/civil service exam they may need to take, on-the-job
training they will get, etc.).