Career In Psychology

One career I am deeply interested in is psychology. I chose to interview Julie Cloonan, from the Psychology field. Julie is a guidance counselor at three elementary schools in my hometown. I am interested in the field of psychology because I enjoy helping and working with others. I feel like a career in psychology would be rewarding too. After interviewing Mrs. Cloonan I am still interested in the field of psychology, but still not positive it is the major I want to peruse. While talking to Mrs. Cloonan I was provided with lots of helpful information. To start, I learned that I would be able to stick to my plan of earning a bachelor degree. Although, it would be more beneficial to attend school an extra two years and graduate with a master’s

I am someone who can juggle multiple projects and priorities. As an elementary school counselor, I would be around children a lot. I would love to work with children and help them in any way possible. Mrs. Cloonan said that most of her time is spent playing with kids. If I wanted a desk job, a school psychologist spends way more time crunching numbers and writing reports. Therefore, I think a school counselor would be better fit for me. The strengths required for this career are tenacity, intelligence, sense of humor, ability to unify and mediate, ability to suspend judgment, and consider all perspectives. Just like many other careers, school counseling comes with its perks and disadvantages. One very big disadvantage of this work is that one has little control of what the parents, guardians, and the community decide to do, or not do for the children. Although, I would be doing the best I can to make a positive impact on these children’s lives. I would be keeping the best interest of children above all. As for the nature of work, there is no typical day in this career. Most days’ classroom lessons need to be taught, working with small groups, and meeting with individuals often happens. Common reasons to meet with children in this career are working out playground disagreements and counseling for bigger issues. For example, these bigger issues may involve divorce, or death.

I do have an interest in helping others with their personal problems and learning about human behavior. This interview gave me an insight on what it is like to be in the psychology field and I believe I may need to work on a few things if I decide to peruse this career. First, I would have to learn how to control my emotions. Second, I would have to learn how to cope with stress, since this field comes with a lot stressful situations. I believe if I work hard enough, I would be able to overcome these two factors. Also, I think I have certain skills it takes to be a school counselor. I believe I have good communication skills, I’m good with kids, and with solving problems. Within the next few months I will be doing more research in this field to decide if I fully want to major in