Welcome to the Careers in Psychology Course!

 

This course is designed to help you successfully navigate through the major and be prepared for the many career possibilities after graduation. This course is focused on DOING more than on receiving information (though don't worry, you will receive a ton of information!). By the end of the course you will have completed for yourself: a resume, vita, found 10 possible job prospects, selected 10 possible graduate programs, interviewed a professional, taken a practice GRE, a cover letter for a job, a personal statement for graduate school applications, secured 1 faculty reference, and have ideas for two more, and a timeline to get everything you need to get done before graduation!

 

This course is largely online, but we will have 3 in-person meetings (see the calendar tab for dates). I will be responding to you as a group and individually with feedback on your work and am available to answer your questions, over email and on the blog.

 

On the calendar tab you will notice "To Dos" and "Turn Ins"....To Dos refer to browsing assignments where you will respond on the blog. Turn ins refer to assignments that you will email me directly. Please have these to me sometime on the date that they are listed on the calendar.

 

For this first week, I'd like you to browse the class website, familiarizing yourself with the layout, any blog posts, the resources tab, and the calendar tab.

 

On the resources tab you will notice a link to a facebook group. If you are already a facebook member, please browse this group. You may join it if you like. If you are not a facebook member, you are not required to do this, though you may join facebook if you wish.

 

You will receive an email from me inviting you to join LinkedIn a professional networking site. Please create an account via this email, and start adding contacts as appropriate. Notice the very different style and function compared to facebook.

 

Next, please complete the questionnaire that I will email you and return by email.

 

Next, register for the website (link is on the resources page).

 

Lastly, once you have received the confirmation email that you have been added to the website, log in and as a comment to this post, introduce yourself to the group. Your name (first only is fine), year in school, what you think you want to do when you 'grow up', and something interesting about yourself.

 

 

Thanks!

Got a question? Ask it here as a comment to this post and I or others will respond with answers!

Please browse the department website. This is a resource that a lot of people forget about! There is course information, information about what research faculty members do, links to Psychology Club and other resources, as well as graduate program information for our department. http://www.uni.edu/psych/

Please read Chapter 1 in the K&M book or Ch1 in the H&G book, and skim the rest of your book. As a class we will be reading the content chapters that apply to the tasks we are doing at that time. I will do my best to indicate which chapter you should refer to depending on which book you have. The rest of both books is sort of a handbook on the various subdisciplines in psychology. You should refer to those on your own as we go through the course.

I would like you to find out who your advisor is (if you don't know) and meet with him or her. You can talk about summer and fall scheduling, scheduling to make a particular graduation date, research or teaching assistant opportunities, or whatever you feel comfortable with. The point is to make this contact for a reason *other than* just getting a signature for something. Your advisor can be an important source of information for you, and ultimately, can be a possibility for a letter of reference. But not if they don't know who you are :)

For this week, as a comment to this blog post, please write about your experiences/opinions with/about the above three tasks.

Please think about the following questions and write me up a page or two with your thoughts. Please EMAIL me this essay (do not post it here).

"What Kind of Life?'

What kind of life do you want to have? How do you see the balance between employment and personal time? What pace of work do you like (fast, slow, etc)? Do you want a regular work day (8-5)? How much supervision do you need/like? How much autonomy? How much flexibility with work schedule? What kind of interactions do you like (people, computers, paperwork, colleagues, etc)? What kind of work environment (office, out and about, etc)? What about the rest of your non-work life? How much time do you want to have for family? Travel? Hobbies? Friends? If you have some specific ideas of the type of job you want, go ahead and write about that too, but this really is about thinking about the pace of your life.

For this week, you are to read chapter 13 (K&M)/Ch7 (H&G). I would like you to post your reflection about that chapter as a comment to this blog post.

You will also need to start searching for graduate programs. I know from your questionnaires, that not all of you are planning on graduate school, but this is an important activity for all. Searching for graduate programs can be intimidating...google is probably not your friend for this one, because it is very difficult to evaluate quality of the program when something just pops up on google. First, you can review the facebook group. Last class asked the alums there opinions about how to find programs, and you'll see some of their responses there. You will also want to review several of the links on our course's resource tab. They will direct you to various programs or ways to find programs. Another way, is ask your advisor or research professor what programs they recommend. You can also find out what school a favorite professor (or any author of any journal article you like) went to; the school that they graduated from in the case of faculty profiles on department pages where they list the year they got their PhD--or the university name that is under their name on a journal article--are good places to start. You can go to that university's webpage and navigate to the psych dept. You can then start to browse what graduate programs they have. As you do this, you will start to get a sense of the different types of grad programs (and skimming through your textbook for this class is going to be helpful too) and what is interesting to you, and importantly, what is NOT interesting to you. You may also want to browse and consider non-psych grad programs like Masters in Social Work. Under the course resources tab there are some links to some sources to search for gratuate programs.

 

For your assignment, you are to turn in to me (email) 10 programs you are interested in applying to for graduate school, or considering applying to. You should provide the program name, type of degree, and school name.

Your other assignment to turn in (email) to me this week is a draft of a vita. A vita is an academic resume that documents your academic achievements. It is different from a resume. There are links on the resources page that you should review that will provide you content and formating ideas. Please email me a draft of your vita. Do not worry if it is sparse, or your are unsure of what to put where. The first step to figuring out what gaps you have in your academic achievement is to document what your achievements are. I will provide you individualized feedback on your vita. But please do some preparation for the assignment on your own by reviewing the resources and put together the best vita you can (including good formating).

As usual, please get these assignments to me by sometime during Week 3.

For this week, please read Ch 14(K&M)/Ch 6 (H&G), on getting in to graduate school. Please comment to this post your reflection on that chapter.

For this week, please meet with one more faculty member (not your adviser). Talk about anything you want, grad school, jobs, vitas, RAing and TAing opportunities, anything. This is about getting comfortable about having these important professional interactions. Blog about your experience as a comment to this post.

Privately to me (over email), please send the names and titles/positions of 3 people you think will be your references (for jobs or graduate school). One of those people should be confirmed (i.e., you' have asked them, and they have agreed). The other ones can be planned references. References can be advisors, surrogate advisors, professors who know you well, professors you have TAd or RAd for, supervisors in work settings (these should be academic work settings if the reference is to be used for graduate school).

Private to me (over email), you should send me a draft of your personal statement. This is the statement/cover letter you are often required to write to apply for graduate school. Even if you are not planning on going on to graduate school, this is still good practice, and you are required to do it. We will get to the more job-oriented cover letters later in the course. Personal statements are notoriously difficult, and uncomfortable to write. You may find it helpful to look up a school you are interested in (from your list last week), go to their webpages and find out what the requirements are for writing the personal statement. Some schools have specific questions to address. Others do not. The personal statement communicates your interest in the program, your skills, abilities, and unique qualities, and some indication of who you want to work with in that program.
Some tips:
DO NOT waste time telling them how great their program is--they already think so.  It comes across as brown-nosy, and worse, wastes valuable space where you can and should be talking about YOU.
Talking about personal experiences helpfully illustrate a point, or make you memorable. But remember, you want to be memorable-good, not memorable-weird.
DO NOT highlight or overly emphasize weaknesses, unless you really think you have some 'splainin' to do. You partied too hard freshman and sophomore year and that's why your gpa isn't great? Don't include it. You were in a major car accident and had to withdraw from courses, prioritize, grow up and work hard? Include that.
DO NOT sell yourself short by using weak adjectives or being self-deprecating. Remember our first assignment? What do those adjectives say about you? How can you use them to highlight your skills and abilities?
You may find this link helpful: http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/gradapp/stmtpurpose.htm  it's not about psychology personal statements, but much of it applies.

For this week, read Chapter 2 (K&M)/ Ch 5 (H&G) and blog your thoughts as a comment to this post. In each book there are other chapters about specific careers that you are free to browse.

Also, browse the Career Services website http://www.uni.edu/careerservices/ and blog about your impressions and experiences as a comment to this post (can be the same comment as above, or a separate one). Please come prepared to class to ask our guest speaker questions.

Next, take a practice GRE.

here is a link to the new gre format
http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare

here is a link to a study prep guide, and one practice test (paper form), including how to score it when you are done:
http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/practice_book_GRE_pb_revised_general_test.pdf

here is a link to study prep and a practice test, computer form
http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2

Make sure to simulate real test taking circumstances (the instructions give you info on how long to give yourself, etc). Then, write up your experience doing this, AND provide me your score. EMAIL me this information.

Browse and find 10 job prospects that you could reasonably apply for (ASSUME you have your BA; or that you are applying the semester that you graduate). Here are some places to look for jobs, though you can look anywhere you can think of:
http://das.iowa.gov/hre/state_jobs.html
www.monster.com
http://www.vpaf.uni.edu/hrs/employ/ps/index.asp

Turn those 10 job prospects in to me (email), with a brief description of why you qualify.

Next, create and turn in (email) a resume. See the course resource link on the blog for resume information, as well as the career services site.

For this week I want you to conduct a professional interview. The career services website has some information on this. This is a situation where YOU interview someone who is in a profession that you think you are interested in. You can interview a family member, or friend who has that career, you can interview a relevant faculty member (if you want to be a professor in that area), you can arrange a phone interview with connections on LinkedIn or on the facebook alumni page, or you can google around and email someone to arrange an interview. You should discuss with them what got them interested in their careers, what schooling they completed and what their day to day life is like. Blog about your experience as a comment to this post.

Next, choose ONE of the jobs you selected for last week's assignment and turn in to me (email) a cover letter as if you were applying for that job.

Next, create and turn in (email) a timeline for the tasks you want to complete from now until graduation. If you are graduating this year, your timeline may be weekly or monthly. If you are 'younger' your timeline might be monthly or semester-ly.

This reflection paper is due to me by email sometime before Thursday 3/1 5pm.

This reflection paper should probably be about 3-5  pages long and reflect your experience in the course. It's not really a course evaluation (though I suspect that by virtue of reflecting on your experience, you may also be evaluating the course)..but I really want you to focus on what you came in knowing (or not knowing), what you expected, what you got out of it, what you understand about what you need to do between now and graduation, some sort of expression of what you understand your career goals to be now that you've gone through this experience....sort of separate from that formal reflection, I would appreciate a brief blurb (separate or at the bottom of your reflection) where you give me any ideas for improvement of the course. Please do tell me what content needs more or less attention, any content that was completely missed that you think should be included, or any other ideas you have...