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Asked by anon-296654 on 16 Jul 2021.
Question: Would you recommend any work experience for psychology ?
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Jennifer Deane answered on 1 Jul 2021:
Yes, but I also know how tricky that is at the moment. Work experience will give you an idea if the job is what you expect it to be, and if you still think you like it. There are lots of things you can do. Contact people in your local area explaining that you want to study psychology and would they be able to offer you any work experience or even just chat with you. Places like the NHS can’t always offer you work experience because of confidentiality but they may be able to help you with other types of experience. Helping out at a charity is good, if there is a befriending scheme, or helplines. I used to volunteer on Saneline which was a mental health phone support. lots of these offer really good training – Samaritans, Childline etc. Although you may need to be 18. Good luck and come back to me if you have any more questions
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Lisa Newson answered on 1 Jul 2021:
Yes, but i would say any work experience is good experience.
What I mean by this is that to make a good psychologist you need foundation skills and good general skills.Honestly having just completed job interviews for a high grade professional job this week its surprising how many people cant put together a good presentation, or aren’t confident in speaking and discussing their ideas, or who waffle and don’t answer the actual question. Use your time at school to hone these skills!!!!! ask your teacher if you can do class presentations or mock interviews! score each other and look at your mean score. Your not looking to have a perfect score, but something which you can take away and learn from!
When I was younger after school, I used to answer the phone in my mums hairdressers, this gave me communication skills and confidence. I would mop and clean around – this was about commitment and understanding that all jobs are important.
I had a paper round, again dedication.
I worked in a residential home (whilst this wasn’t my preferred job)- it helped with a range of skill building.In terms of work experience in a topic area, ask to help out. Read around the topic and see if you can offer support to someone.
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Naomi Heffer answered on 1 Jul 2021:
My motto for this sort of thing is, you never know if you don’t ask! All the work experience I’ve had has just come from me contacting people who seem interesting and asking them if they can have a chat with me, or if I can help them with anything. Pre-university it might be hard to get work experience with psychology researchers, but most will be happy to at least have a chat with you and tell you more about what the job is like if you reach out to them. I would also echo what the others have said and say that any work experience working with people (which is most work experience!) is useful for psychology. Doing work experience in a school, helping out with charity groups and even working in a shop all expose you to contact with different types of people, and that is all useful to psychology!
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Samantha Harrison answered on 1 Jul 2021:
If you can access it (obviously the pandemic makes everything extra difficult), yes. It doesn’t need to be specifically psychology-based though, it just needs to help you build your skills! The example I like the most is retail/service work – a big skill this builds is customer service. Customer service is basically talking to people, which is a big skill needed in all areas of psychology!
If you want it to be more psychology-oriented, you could look at charities, helplines, schools or reach out to freelance psychologists. However lots of these roles have age restrictions or hours that don’t work around school/college, so it might be tricky to access this experience currently.
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