Podcast: Help Students Overcome the Myths About Psychology Degrees

According to former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, psychology majors are doomed to a career in fast food. How is it that the psychology degree gets such a bad rap?

Dr. Ellen E. Pastorino thinks it's because psychology majors don't know how to articulate to employers the many valuable skills that their studies have taught them. In this week's podcasts, Dr. Pastorino pointed out that the skills psychology students develop during their studies: collaboration, communication, intrapersonal, quantitative analysis, and critical thinking, are those skills most valued by employers.

Faculty can help students to transition from the classroom into the workplace with several strategies that include:

• Pointing out the skills that are being developed when issuing an assignment
• Helping students to discover their skills, interests and passion
• Putting more effort in finding internships and job shadowing opportunities where students can try out a career path

According to Dr. Pastorino, 'Faculty need to take more responsibility in pushing students toward what they want to do with their degree and they need to do that early on rather than in their senior year.'

Download the podcasts here: