10 Psychology Career Trends to Follow

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1. Genetics Counselor

Average Salary: $69,458

Description about the Career

As a Genetics Counselor, you would be working to inform people about genetic disorders. This profession typically requires candidates to hold graduate degrees in counseling and genetics. Many Genetics Counselors hold degrees in other related areas such as biology, public health, nursing, or psychology.

This work requires close collaboration with doctors, nurses, and geneticists to provide a holistic solution in a situation where an individual might have a genetic disorder or where a family is at risk of passing down a disorder to their offspring.

2. Sports Psychologist

Average Salary: $45,966

Description about the Career

With a focus on athletics and sports, Sports Psychologists deal with the aspects of performance, motivation, and injuries experienced by sportspeople.

Sports psychology tackles two major issues, i.e. improving mental and physical health; and improving athletic performance.

This field involves work in various work settings such as hospitals, universities, research facilities, athletics centers, and private consulting practices.

3. Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

Average Salary: $115,867

Description about the Career

This field of psychology focuses on dealing with workplace behaviors and utilizing psychology principles to improve workplace productivity. Industrial-Organizational Psychologists also assist in selecting appropriate and most efficient employees for the job.

The field has various angles to it. Some psychologists work on training and assessing employees while others work on evaluating candidates.

While a master’s degree level can secure job opportunities, a doctoral-level degree brings more job opportunities with more lucrative salaries.

4. School Psychologist

Average Salary: $66,166

Description about the Career

This job entails working in education to assist children in dealing with social, academic, and emotional problems. The increased awareness about mental issues faced by children have led to the burgeoning growth in the field of school psychology.

Currently, the jobs are exceeding the number of school psychologists available, which means that there is no dearth of job opportunities.

As a School Psychologist, you will work with students to help them figure their way out with academic and behavioral difficulties as well as working around with disabilities. Other tasks may entail working with parents and teachers in creating awareness about and managing substance abuse problems.

5. Counselor

Average Salary: $52,345

Description about the Career

Counselors help people with various issues such as dealing with emotional, marriage, and substance issue problems. As many as half of the counselors work in the fields of social welfare and health care.

According to statistics, 11% of the counselors work for local and state governments. Professional requirements vary but nearly all states require candidates to obtain at least a master’s degree for becoming a licensed counselor.

As a counselor, you might be placed in colleges, universities, mental health clinics, private practice offices, or schools.

6. Forensic Psychologist

Average Salary: $61,183

Description about the Career

Exciting and adventurous, this profession entails the specialists to apply psychology to the fields of law and crime investigation. With numerous mentions in crime novels, books, movies and TV shoes, this field has been gaining immense traction and exploding interest from people, in recent times.

While all that glitters is not gold, this profession is still far from drab and has quite a lot of growth potential. Demanding high involvement in solving child custody cases and various other psychological cases, this field is an exciting choice.

7. Engineering Psychologist

Average Salary: $101, 500

Description about the Career

As the name suggests, this field studies the interaction between people and machines. Understanding of the human brain and behaviors is a key to designing and improving technological projects. It also helps in improving consumer products and work settings.

An engineering psychologist may work as part of a team which may redesign a product to make it more efficient. As compared to academic settings, the private sector jobs for this profession offer a more lucrative pay.

8. Vocational Counselor

Average salary: $47,459

Description about the Career

The job market is changing much more rapidly than the current expectations, thus, reshaping the preferences of people. A lot of people are now seeking new jobs in the field of psychology or some are even opting to change their career.

Career counselors assist individuals in making career decisions. They use tools such as interest inventories, personality assessments, and other evaluation measures to help them decipher the interests and passion of person and where their talents can best be utilized.

A Career or Vocational Counselor would start by looking at the interests, education, skills, and job history of a client to match them with suitable careers. Their job also entails assisting clients in practicing interview, building skills, and brushing up their resumes. They also deal with clients who face employment-related stress or have had to face job loss.

9. Teacher in Special Education

Average Salary: $48,857

Description about the Career

While this may be a bit of an outlier when it comes to Psychology, it offers a great opportunity for those who wish to help children.

As a Special Education Teacher, you will work with disabled students. In order to work, you need to hold at least a bachelor’s degree. You are also required to complete a teacher’s training program in special education.

Special education programs have seen a recent increase, and with a lack of qualified teachers, there is a growing number of jobs in this profession.

10. Clinical Psychologist

Average Salary: $68,900

Description about the Career

Clinical psychologists carry out a diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the clients who suffer from psychological disorders. Typical work settings from this profession include mental health, hospital settings, and private practices.

This field offers the greatest number of jobs within psychology. To pursue your career in Clinical Psychology, you must secure a degree of a doctoral-level in the same field. As per the requirements of most of the states, you may also need to have at least a one-year internship experience.

The Bottom Line

With this not-so-exhaustive list of jobs in the psychology field, which one will be your choice? No matter which one you opt for, this list is ever growing, indicating the many domains, aspects, and angles of psychology.