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Old 04-27-2008, 10:59 AM   #15 (permalink)
ChrisJericho
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Location: Seattle
I was in your shoes jondotg.

During my first 3 years in college I was a psychology major. I really enjoyed evolutionary psychology and animal behavior. However during my 3rd/4th year in college I realized that unless I got a graduate degree in psych, there truly are very little psychology specific jobs out there (plus my GPA was horrible so the chances of getting into grad school were slim). So I panicked and decided to stay in school another 2 years and get a BS in Biology, mostly focusing on genetics since there's tons of biotech jobs in Seattle. So after SIX years in college I graduated with a BS in Biology and a BA in psychology.

My plan worked, after graduating I easily got biotech jobs (first as a temp in one company, then hired as a permanent employee at another). However during the course of working for about 2 years I became interested in the stock market and options trading. During my breaks I would be checking market news and seeing how my stocks were behaving. When I went to parties or weddings I would ask people if they played stocks or how their business was doing. Well it turns out a friend of one of my roomate's was creating a stock trading start-up business (which I didn't know about at the time) and after we talked for a few weeks about stocks he offered me a job that payed a good deal more than my biotech job. Plus it was doing something I enjoyed all day!

So here are the lessons I learned.

1. It didn't really matter what degree I earned. the extra 2 years I spent getting my biology degree was a waste. Get your BA as quickly as possible, make contacts, and get out of college. (But of course have some fun too )

2. Like others have said, Networking is of the utmost priority both in school and the job market. Networking increases your 'luck factor.' I completely got randomly lucky with this stock job, however it would not have been possible if I had not gone to some parties and talked about what I enjoyed most with anyone who would listen.

Wow that was quite a digression! As for your original question about possible psych related jobs, one area you may want to look into is human resources. Every major company has a HR department and if you go to your local craigslist HR job category there are typically tons of ads for HR jobs. Psych majors are well suited for this because we typically have high emotional intelligence and empathy (plus we are slightly manipulative muahaha). If you are interested in this field it would be a good idea to do an internship before you leave college.

Well that's all the info I have, I hope it helps !
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