Psychology, especially social psych

Now that I'm in grad school, just having a little existential crisis on whether I picked the right major. So, is my maj-fu a shit?

Only question is can you get a job with it and is it a job where work is easy to find? If both is yes then what your worry?

But where to extensively research that answer is nowhere for me to find. Because career books I don't really trust. And I can't ask 70 year old prof how to get a job as a associate prof in 2018.

If this is what you want to do then you need to start making connections and putting yourself out there. Can't help you with it myself, but if you are not aggressive in the job market and research your opportunities you'll end up without work. I know I heavily researched my field and job options even before I was accepted in my major, also did countless mock interviews, applied myself to a lot of internships, workshops, career fairs, talked with anyone I could in my industry and bullshited my way (while still being honest) until I got a job. So if you want this bad enough study hard and start giving it your all now because the job market is rough for anyone after college. Also look at backup plans if you find this may not work out for you. I had two minors just incase I had to switch to another major since the fail rate for mine was so high when I was in college.

Right major as in you can easily get a job with it? Then absolutely not.

I think being research oriented limits my options of putting myself out there. You're dependent on your chief professor to guide and fund your line of research and your opportunities to network. And being a PhD students leave me wondering what would benefit my future? Concentrating on my research portfolio or connecting with my possible employers. It's challenging when most of he information you need is personal and confidential in terms of practice.

So what kind of job are you looking for after college?

Hoping to be involved in the academia community (professor, researcher) preferably for a good university. But I think when you're young it's good to go out to experience the jungle that is the commercial job market and work for a an independent lab doing research a little bit (better pay, but harder to find and get in). I'm just wondering what the hell am I contributing to society here. The prospect of getting a career is important, but the meaning to all of it is just never existentially quantified. What's the worth of trading millions of stocks a day compared to reading a bunch of papers and randomizing data, am I worth less then?


Sorry, reading Frankl and some other authors in existential therapy at the moment, reason why I didn't put it in SD is because it's just a on-off thing.

Well I doubt you can even become a professor right out of college. Do you need to take classes in teaching?

Try to get real world experience with your field first before trying to become a professor. What kind of jobs is your major linked to?

I don't remember clearly but I think I did have at least 2 profs who made this sort of transition. But if this is what you want, OP, you can probably just talk to the department about it and see what your chances are.

Oh I have a class to teach already (still a grad student TA though), it's just now that I've gone far enough into the field, everything just seems exclusive to me (I.e. I can't talk about it outside of work, I can't seem to show my parents the worth of my researches). So I guess I slip in this state of "maybe my research matters fuck all", and "I should have chosen finance as an undergrad" so I can have the immediate gratification of a job after college instead of staying in the same dorm for five more years.

Thank you, Uncle Freak. That made me so much happier.

*Hits a cig in a smoke-free dorm*

Personally I think psychology and social psychology is interesting as fuck (wish I would read more books about it) but it's not something I'd ever bank my future on unless it was what I really, really wanted. So, OP, do you?

Last time I checked Psychologist make okay money, usually, but it seems like you're not aiming for that.
Good luck in grad school, and hope you there's cool research going on or your life will be boring and hard.

Psychology typically has a stand still of being only useful as an academia type of job.

Though Social Psychology could net you a job at a Marketing Research Firm if you wanted to go that route. But that would probably depend on how much research experience you could actually show to them to show experience.

But no, Social Sciences tend to be crappy by themselves in terms of the actual job market.