Jobs and Internships
Looking for an Internship?
You will find that all sorts of internship opportunities exist already, with a listing maintained in Career Services. Or you can roll your own. All that it takes to create your own internship is effort. First, you need to identify a person who would be willing to have you as an intern. You would need to work out a plan for how you would spend your time with that person over the coming semester (or summer). Next, you need to find a faculty supervisor who would be willing to oversee the academic side of the internship experience. Once you've got everything lined up, you would need to complete a form (no surprise there, right?) available in the Registrar's Office. (Skidmore students only!)
If you are looking for internships (including summer research internships), here are some places to check:
- National Science Foundation, REU program
- National Institutes of Health
- Psi Chi Awards and Grants (some for summer research)
If you have clinical interests, be sure to check out the highly selective internships at the Devereux Institute. These internships are intended for people with undergraduate degrees, so you would apply during your senior year.
Looking for a Job?
The first place to stop in your search for a job is the Career Services Office. Deborah Loffredo and her staff maintain a very useful web page (including links specific to psychology). However, I would encourage you to visit that office early and often, so don't rely solely on their web pages. You'll find the staff to be uniformly informative and helpful. Don't wait until the spring semester of your senior year and stroll into their office expecting them to find you a job! If you are going to make the best use of their services, you need to allow them to do their jobs properly. That involves making their acquaintance much earlier. I encourage students who contemplate looking for employment after graduation to stop in and visit the Career Services Office early in their senior year. (And it probably wouldn't hurt to stop in during your junior year.) (Skidmore students only!)
A good website developed by Scott Plous (Wesleyan) has a page devoted to careers in psychology. You might also check out Sally Kuhlenschmidt's (Western Kentucky) Career Decision Tree.
Here are some sites that provide general information about job searches or job possibilities:
- Preparing to use Your Bachelor's Degree in Psychology (American Psychological Association)
- Careers in Psychology (American Psychological Association)
- Online Psychology Career Center (Social Psychology Network, Wesleyan University)
- Psychology Career Center
- Wesleyan's Career Services (check out the Career Tool Kit!)
- Harvard's Career Services
- America's Job Bank
- CareerBuilder
- The Monster Board
- ZipRecruiter
