Psychologist and Human Resources Manager Careers - Essay Example

Career Choice By Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 Psychologist career……………………………………………………………………………………………5 Human resources manager career…………………………………………………………………….3 Psychologists career options………………………………………………………………………………4 Psychologist personality traits……………………………………………………………………………6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 References………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9 Introduction People engage in permanent work for numerous reasons: for financial purposes, in order to receive honors, and to contribute to their families or communities. Adults spend larger part of their conscious time working. That is why career choice is one of the most crucial and influential decisions which has lifelong consequences. It is important to approach to this decision with maximum attention and seriousness. According to Brown, the choice of career has to be stipulated by three major factors (2002). Firstly, clear understanding of self, personal strengths and weaknesses, long-term goals, and possibilities of development is inevitable for adequate career choice. Secondly, all the information regarding requirements, characteristics for successful promotion, pluses and minuses of future work must be collected and analyzed thoroughly. Thirdly, reasonable comparison of the first two factors and making logical conclusions is the step toward future career (Brown, 2002). It is proved that when people make conscious choice of their profession rather than catch the first option they are much more satisfied with their lives later. Getting all possible information about perspective occupation thus is especially important step. Among numerous possible professions I dwelled on the careers of psychologist and human resources manager as perspective, interesting, and potentially profitable occupations. Both professions presuppose close interaction with people and constant communication. Receiving basic education in one of the spheres is also a compulsory condition of starting a career. Studying psychology professionally presupposes wide range of professions according to a degree received. This science specializes in human behavior and brain work connection research. It also aims to distinguish correlation between social environment and human behavior (APA Guide, 1995). It is important that this sphere is abundant with employment opportunities. In the most recent research regarding growth probability for different occupations the occupation of psychologist was on the 6th place in the rating. This is a clear evidence of favorable conditions of career development. It was estimated that around 93% of all graduates in psychology were employed or accepted to graduate programs. This occupation usually has options in clinical /counseling psychology, concentration on scientific studies, and applied psychology. Those professionals, who choose scientific direction conduct experiments, do teaching in colleges or consult patients. Clinical and counseling specialists deal with mental disorders, emotional problems of patients. Applied psychological direction presupposes employment in business sphere, where these specialists improve working conditions of the staff. Therefore, the training program during course of psychology defines the variant of position. It is worth noticing that there is wide diapason in the wages for psychologists depending on the sphere, direction, and experience. In this regard every additional training usually means additional supplement to the salary (Psychology Career, 2004). The researchers suggest that there expected strong growth in psychologists demand on the employment market in the next decade. With high speed of global processes more and more companies will increase their operational capacities and will require specialists to manage their increasing staff. Moreover, progressing urbanization and Internet spread result in more people living in stressful conditions and thus needing professional help. Career of human resources manager is developed at certain enterprise where he/ she plans and organizes administrative work and serves as an intermediary between top management and employees. Among the most required responsibilities is searching for possible suitable employees, interviewing, and recruiting the most prominent. Human resources management sphere also presupposes effective team work organizing for groups. It also means that human resources manager has to be able to assess critically each employer performance and define which strengths and weaknesses he/she has. Human recourse manager is a marketable and demanded occupation as there is necessity in such specialists in every sphere (Occupational Outlook, 2010). This position presupposes understanding of the theory of HR management, knowledge of basic human psychology, and internal processes within enterprises. Moreover, getting a degree in human resources will allow choosing among the range of adjacent professions such as social worker or journalist (Career Center, 2011). HR manager is a real founder and the main observer of corporate culture at any company. In fact, it is he/she who creates efficient team (group and personal relationships, social and psychological climate, unity of methods and abilities in achievement of an ultimate goal, personal and collective interest in the end results of work). Human resources specialist will organize professional and social psychological adaptation of new experts, assessing staff potential will form a personnel reserve. He also has to be effective in personnel certification and regulation of organizational relationship, in developing and applying modern methods of control over the personnel; operating and directing personal and business conflicts and stresses. Basing on the data received career in psychology seems optimal for the prominent career. This occupation demands certain type of personality with distinctive traits of character. Professional and personal spheres of psychologist are often closely connected with each other. It is difficult to be one kind of person at home, and be absolutely different at work. Therefore, personal qualities create an important base for professional success of the psychologist. Those professionals who make the most successful career usually merge profession and life. In the regard there exists certain inclusiveness of internal experiences and intense spiritual search in a context of professional activity and, on the contrary, an inclusiveness of professional activity in the general context of all life. There is also a possibility to choose among numerous directions in psychology and dwell on one of the occupations. For instance, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, educational psychology, sport psychologies are the most popular spheres on the employment market. Clinical psychologists have a number of tasks to complete. Consulting literature, revealing patients` diagnosis, and elaborating treatment plans are the primary and the most evident. This sphere is the most desirable and nevertheless, time consuming as it presupposes long educational preparation and substantial amount of knowledge in medicine. Professionals have to able to deal with emotional, behavioral, and mental disorders. The disorders may vary from depressions to autism, however some specialist choose one main direction. Consulting psychologists are also able to choose special types of clients (APA Diagnostics, 1995). Cognitive psychologists aim to understand mind work and the principles of physiological mechanisms leading to certain behavioral patterns. For instance, they strive to understand principles of cognition which lead patients to mental disorders. This specialty presupposes close collaboration with neurologists and general physicians. Educational psychologist is the employee of educational institution observing children behavior, their psychological development, and social adaptation. Educational psychologist leads discussions, tests, psychological games with children. It helps children to live through difficult living circumstances, to choose career path more adequately, and to learn more about the character (APA Diagnostics, 1995). Sports psychologist mostly deals with motivation of the sportsmen. He aims to set direct goals, control the level of motivation and work with the fear of failure. Rehabilitation psychologists work with patients having serious disorders or impairments. People with autism, cerebral palsy are the common clients in rehabilitation centers, and the work with psychologist is compulsory for such disorders. Engineering psychologists study the principles and the effects of collaboration between machines and human beings. For instance, they help to make the work of computers less harmful for users. It is difficult to find personal qualities, equally important for such different fields of activity of the psychologist as scientific psychology, consulting psychology, and applied teaching. Each of them requires certain efforts and talent from the person. Among the most significant it is possible to distinguish enthusiasm in relation to work and its tasks, diligence, discipline, ability to express criticism and perceive criticism, impartiality, and ability to get on with people. Such qualities as goodwill, respect for people, keenness, responsiveness, altruism, humanity, intelligence are considered as important moral qualities of the psychologist as well (Kuther, 2005). Undoubtedly, communicative skills are crucially needed for this occupation: ability to understand other people and delicately correct and influence them requires a lot of tolerance, politeness, and tactfulness. Psychologist has to be able to work with people, to understand types of personality, to possess not only psychological knowledge, but also psychological intuition. As psychotherapy is a creative and in most cases spontaneous process such qualities as creativity, flexibility of behavior, ability to a reflection of the experiences is required. For psychologist such emotional manifestations of the personality as ease, naturalness, and sincerity in communication, resistance to a stress, emotional stability, and ability to empathy are equally important. Moreover, empathy is also one of the most important skills of psychologists, it allows understand mental and emotional problems of each client (Kuther, 2005). Therefore, psychologist`s career choice is beneficial from numerous points of view. First of all, it is optimal decision for those who have good communicative skills, can be tolerant and empathic. The person who aims to know how brain work and environment may influence human behavior will doubtlessly find himself as a psychologist. Secondly, there are plenty of options after receiving degree in psychology: it is possible to become a clinical or consulting psychologist, do scientific research or be a psychologist in a company. This profession presupposes gradual wages increase with experience accumulation. References APA Guide for psychologists. Careers for Psychologists (1995).Washington. Brown, D. (2002). Career choice and development. San Francisco: JOSSEY-BASS. Career Center. What can I do with my degree in HR Management? (2010).York University. Retrieved from: http://www.yorku.ca/careers/mydegree/human-resources-management Occupational Outlook (2010). United States Department of Labor. Retrieved from: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/human-resources-managers.htm Kuther,T. (2005). Your career in psychology: Industrial, Organizational Psychology. Read More