A
STUDENT’S GUIDE TO CAREERS IN THE HELPING PROFESSIONS
Melissa J.
Himelein,
This document describes 15 helping
professions both within and outside psychology. For each of the helping
professions, information is provided on typical job duties, job outlook,
potential earnings, required professional degrees, finding graduate programs,
and graduate entrance requirements, and sources of additional information. The
different professions are presented in alphabetical order (see Table of
Contents below).
Introduction....................................................................................
1.
Clinical/Counseling Psychologist
(Ph.D./Psy.D.)...........................
2.
Clinical/Counseling Psychology:
Psychological Associate (M.A)
3.
College Student Development
Professional..................................
4.
Counselor (Community)....................................................................
5. Counselor (School)............................................................................
6. Creative Arts Therapist (Art, Dance,
Drama, & Music Therapists)
7.
Health
Education/Promotion Specialist..........................................
8. Human Resource Development
Specialist.....................................
9. Occupational Therapist.....................................................................
10.
Rehabilitation Counselor/Psychologist.........................................
11.
School Psychologist........................................................................
12. Speech Pathologist.........................................................................
13.
Social Worker..................................................................................
14. Special Education Teacher............................................................
15. Therapeutic Recreation Specialist/Recreational Therapist........
Copyright © 1999 Melissa J. Himelein. Distributed via OTRP
Online by permission of the copyright owner. Please observe the following
copyright policy regarding this work:
A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO
CAREERS IN THE HELPING PROFESSIONS
This
manual describes 15 helping professions that undergraduate psychology majors
interested in a service career might wish to consider. Each of these careers involves some amount of
graduate training beyond the bachelor’s degree, usually a master’s degree. Please do not interpret this to mean
that in order to pursue a service career, graduate school is necessary. There are many bachelor’s-level
helping-oriented jobs, and most university career centers can provide
interested students with information about and help in locating these. I am focusing here only on helping careers
requiring postgraduate education because such information is harder to find.
GUIDE
TO THE CAREER PROFILES
All of the 15 different career
profiles in this manual are organized around the same 3 key issues (job
description, training, and additional informational resources). Please take a minute to familiarize yourself
with the specific categories of information and their source(s).
JOB DESCRIPTION
Overview and Typical Job Duties
This
information is based on many sources: the Occupational Outlook Handbook;
FOCUS and SIGI (both computerized career counseling and search programs);
publications of the career’s national organization(s); graduate school
literature; and assorted books and journal articles.
Job Outlook
In
order to be consistent across professions, I generally ignored the potentially biased
information on job outlook presented by a profession’s accrediting body or
organization. Instead, I consulted three
national data bases:
1.
Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH, 1994-1995 edition): Job outlook
summaries for each profession. I adopted
the OOH rating system, with jobs rated as growing “much faster than average”
(increase of 41% or more); “faster than average” (increase of 27-40%); and
“about as fast as average” (increase of 14 to 26%). None of the jobs included in this manual are
expected to grow more slowly than average or decline in growth.
2.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998): Report on the 30 occupations with the
fastest projected rate of growth, 1996-2006.
I noted if a profession was on this list (BLS).
3.
Michigan State University Collegiate Employment Research Institute (1997): Estimated
supply and demand for college graduates of 1997-1998. I followed MSU’s five- category rating
system, classifying jobs as high demand/limited supply (the ideal category from
a student’s perspective); good demand/possible shortage; near balance/supply
equals demand; adequate supply/some oversupply; and surplus/substantial
oversupply (the worst category from a student’s perspective).
Potential Earnings
I
first consulted the OOH for information and then checked FOCUS and individual
professional organizations for supporting data.
I included national averages for both starting and median salaries. Keep in mind the difference between these
figures. Starting salaries are the
earnings one can reasonably expect in one’s first job in the field, usually
obtained soon after graduation. Median
salaries represent the midpoint earnings level of all workers in a field, i.e.,
employees at all levels of experience.
TRAINING
Professional Degree Required
This
section contains a description of the specific graduate training necessary to
pursue each field at the entry level and an estimate of the time the degree
takes to complete.
How to Find Programs
I
included specific directions for obtaining a complete list of graduate programs
in the field. Note that many
professional organizations now include such a list on their Internet homepages. Developing Internet search skills is
invaluable in seeking out career and graduate school information.
Entrance Requirements/Admissions
This
section provides a list of courses prerequired for admission as well as other
expectations for applicants. I also
included information about the competitiveness of graduate programs, based on
an examination of graduate school brochures as well as published information
about the median GPA/GREs of entering classes.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
At
the end of each career profile, I have listed helpful resources and addresses
of relevant professional organizations (Print Materials/Organizations) as well
as useful Internet addresses (Internet Resources). I also recommend the following references for
general information about graduate school application and admission as well as
helping careers:
Print Resources
American
Psychological Association. (latest edition). Graduate study in psychology.
Buskist,
W., & Sherburne, T. R. (1996). Preparing for graduate study in psychology:
101 questions and answers.
Collison,
B. B., & Garfield, N. J. (1990). Careers in counseling and human
development. Alexandria, VA: American Association for Counseling and
Development
Keith-Spiegel,
P. (1991). The complete guide to graduate school admission: Psychology and
related fields. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
U.
S. Department of Labor. (latest edition). Occupational outlook handbook.
Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office. (Published annually;
available in the Career Library.)
Internet Resources
For general graduate school advice
on the Internet:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~danhorn/graduate.html
http://web.indstate.edu/psych/ch5.html
Peterson’ guide to graduate schools,
on the Internet: http://www.petersons.com/graduate/
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Melissa J. Himelein, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology #1960
UNC-Asheville, Asheville, NC
28804-8508
mhimelein@unca.edu
March, 1999
Notes: Please send me (e-mail
or snail mail) your comments and ideas about this manual! I hope to update this project continually and
would greatly value your suggestions.
Especially useful would be any errors or omissions you find, updates I
should include (e.g., changes in organization addresses, telephone numbers, or
internet addresses), resources you find helpful, or additional helping careers
you think should be added.
Please
do not reprint the information contained here without appropriate crediting of the
author and supporting institution. I
wish you the best of luck with your helping career search!