Psychology v Social Work (1 Viewer)

[Michelle Lin]

Hi peeps,

First of all, the length of study is not a concern of mine. I'm fine with doing a bachelor of psychology and then a masters however I am concerned with how popular studying psychology (especially clinical psychology) is in the recent years. I'm wondering if it'll be difficult to find a job after graduating and not worth the effort due to this.

I've heard social work is different in the sense that it changes the external environment as opposed to the internal (as it is with psychology) but I heard that jobs to do with social work has a immensely lower salary and as shallow as that sounds that does affect how I consider it. However I've done searches for job opportunities at the moment and it seems like social work allows for a huge variety and range of career directions.

Ideally I could do both in a double degree but the closest I've found is B Social Work/B Arts which I don't know if it allows for a honours or fourth year study in psychology so I could complete a Masters and be registered. Basically I don't know what to do...

Could I have advice please?

 

[K33GAN]

goddammit...i really wanted someone to have replied to this thread, i'm in a very similar situation

 

[alyciee]

Hey,

I'm planning on doing Psychology once I complete my HSC this year..my personal view is that you should go into psychology if it is something you are passionate about - most people go into psychology (hence the high rate of students), but then drop out. Having the degree is one thing, but if you're purely textbook or going into it for the money, it probably isn't the right thing for you. I don't want to come across as harsh, its just that you seem like its not something you're very interested in and at the end of the day, you need to be studying and then doing a job that you love.

On another note, if you do Bachelor of Arts, you are able to do a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (equivalent to honours) and then apply for your masters. There are quite a few students that go onto their masters through Bachelor of Arts. Hope that helps

 

[Blue Suede]

Hi peeps,

First of all, the length of study is not a concern of mine. I'm fine with doing a bachelor of psychology and then a masters however I am concerned with how popular studying psychology (especially clinical psychology) is in the recent years. I'm wondering if it'll be difficult to find a job after graduating and not worth the effort due to this.

I've heard social work is different in the sense that it changes the external environment as opposed to the internal (as it is with psychology) but I heard that jobs to do with social work has a immensely lower salary and as shallow as that sounds that does affect how I consider it. However I've done searches for job opportunities at the moment and it seems like social work allows for a huge variety and range of career directions.

Ideally I could do both in a double degree but the closest I've found is B Social Work/B Arts which I don't know if it allows for a honours or fourth year study in psychology so I could complete a Masters and be registered. Basically I don't know what to do...

Could I have advice please?

Psych is NOT what people think it is. You don't sit around asking people how you feel all the time. Also, not very many people do clinical psychology as you can only do it through masters (you must first have completed an accredited psych degree then honours, then masters and it's highly competitive so you need often a distinction average). There is a HUGE demand for clinical psychologists but not many people pursue that route because it's very difficult. The 8 or so years of study also mean that you can earn $2-300/hr for your services once you're qualified as a clinical psych.

Many people do their undergrad with a major in psych and then go and do things like marketing/human resources/etc work. This site is useful in helping you decide about careers. http://www.psychology.org.au/studentHQ/?utm_source=FixedNav&utm_medium=Click&utm_campaign=Student+HQ

 

[Michelle Lin]

I'm well aware of how long and how much effort goes into obtaining a clinical psychology accreditation. My issue with it is how competitive the job market is in the Sydney area. I'm afraid that I'll have to move to Newcastle or Queensland, etc to obtain enough experience to find a job in Sydney. I've gone through online job listings and talked to a few friends of friends with psychology degrees/jobs. The general consensus was that it was hard to get a job a relevant job. One decided to get qualified as an It consultant instead. But these are people mostly in the Sutherland Shire area and St George area. I was wondering if things were different elsewhere in the Sydney area?

I also thought about doing it through a B Arts and such but it'll be 10 as opposed to the 6/7 years it'll take to do a straight B Psych.

 

[AsyLum]

Most people I've talked to have found Psych to be lacking in actually helping people until they reach the latter portion of their journey. As such a lot of them divert into social work or counselling which they find to be more hands on.

Basically, ask yourself whether you want to be paid well or help people sooner.

 

[-may-cat-]

I also thought about doing it through a B Arts and such but it'll be 10 as opposed to the 6/7 years it'll take to do a straight B Psych.

What makes you think that?

 

[Michelle Lin]

A lot of job sites recruit psychology graduates for social work jobs anyway so that's also an issue.

 

[Michelle Lin]

Sorry, arts with a major in psychology would need another year (honours or grad diploma) and then another 2 years of supervised practise (which I've heard is hard to find and many pay the supervisors to take them on) so it's only one more year. I was thinking about a double degree I was looking at with Arts.
My school counsellor who did psych through arts at UOW talked about using arts as a back up but also said 20 others in his cohort did the same thing and another school counsellor who's a bit younger said there's a lot of psych graduates out there without jobs because of the huge number of them. I think just the forum and just talking to people of the 2013 hsc year a lot of people want to do psychology as well.
I've actually thought a lot about it from the initial post/start of the thread and I've decided NOT to pursue psychology.

Note to others considering social work: The NSW government (at least) is in the process of transferring family/etc cases to third party organisations. You'll still find work easily but if you wanted to work for the government and be a social worker you'll have to aim for a different specialisation.