Department of Psychology

Finding A Job: Guidance for Students and Alumni

• Many of the most common professions for psychology students are growing faster than average. Find out more...
• SIUE's Career Development Center provides extensive help to SIUE students and alumni, including the sponsorship of career fairs and on-campus interviews.

Online Job-searching Resources

There are many excellent web sites that will help you find a job that's right for you. Most of these allow you to restrict your search to particular regions (e.g., zip code or state) and categories (e.g., "human resources" or "human services").

• www.careerbuilder.com -- this extremely popular site updates every day
• www.monster.com -- when you find a job that is close to what you are looking for, click "see all" to peruse all jobs offered by that organization
• www.stltoday.com/hotjobs -- this site lists the job ads included in the classifieds section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• stlouis.jobing.com -- although the other sites allow you to restrict to certain regions, this web site only lists jobs in the St. Louis area
• www.mhagstl.org/info.htm -- this page on the site of Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri lists the phone numbers of numerous St. Louis-area mental health agencies
• chronicle.com/jobs -- this page lists college and university jobs (not just professorial positions) that are available all over the world, including your preferred region
• psyccareers.apa.org -- the American Psychological Association's job-finding site primary lists available doctoral-level positions, but may include positions at other levels as well
• www.usajobs.gov -- lists all jobs available with the federal government; if you are interested in working for a particular agency (e.g., FBI, Department of Veterans Affairs), you may want to check the specific agency's web site as well
• Consider calling hospitals in the area you prefer to work (or visit their web sites) to find out about available positions for graduates with a background in psychology

Interviewing Tips

Some years ago an alumnus of one of our graduate programs composed an interview checklist for students preparing for internships or practicums. This checklist contains useful advice for students interviewing for any kind of job.

Developing Your Professional Skills

To help you be sucessful in the workforce, we recommend the following readings:

• Creating a Positive Professional Image by Mallory Stark and Laura Morgan Roberts
• Your Image is You: Communication and Appearance in Networking by Susan Heathfield
• Email Etiquette: Be Concise and Be Professional by Dawn Rosenberg McKay
• Job Skills that Every College Student Needs: Writing, Speaking, Professionalism and Other Important Knowledge by Naomi Rockler Gladen

Further Guidance

If you need ideas about what kind of job to look for or how to look, some of the following web pages may be helpful to you.

• www.bls.gov/OCO -- the Occupational Outlook Handbook describes almost all professions in exceptional detail, including educational background required, salary information and other specifics
• www.psychwww.com/careers/entry.htm -- lists entry level positions psychology majors often get
• www.payscale.com/best-colleges/jobs-for-psychology-majors.asp -- lists the most popular jobs for psychology majors, with salary information
• www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_80.aspx -- this article describes what employers are looking for when they interview psychology graduates
• www.psichi.org/pubs/search.aspx?category1=12 -- this is a list of all Eye on Psi Chi articles related to career preparation
• www.siue.edu/education/psychology/undergrad/careers.shtml -- on this page we list a variety of information on pursuing a career and graduate study