Career Guidance
SPSP has collected tools and resources that aim to support psychologists pursuing careers in academia, industry, and every field in between.
Career Guidance
Tools and Resources
For those who seek to enter the academic job market after earning their PhD in personality or social psychology, the process can seem shrouded in mystery. Often, knowledge about how to best navigate this process is passed down informally through advisors and lab mates. SPSP members share the wisdom they’ve gleaned by being on both sides of the process.
- Faculty Recruiting Processes in Social Psychology - Results from a survey of departments about their recruitment process, including what materials they requested from candidates and how influential those materials were.
- Academic Job Market Applicant Survey - Results from a survey of recent graduates regarding their experiences on the academic job market.
- Demystifying the job market: From PhD to Professor
- Collective Attendee Job Market Workshop
- Cover Letter, Research Statement, Teaching Statement Templates
Our graduates follow a wide variety of career paths. While some follow a more traditional trajectory from graduate school straight into a tenure track research and/or teaching job at a university or college, others get more training through postdocs or find jobs in industry, government, and non-profits.
Read about what some of our members are doing, both inside and outside academia: Member Spotlights
More Resources
#SPSPchat Q&A: Advice from our members
A doctoral degree in personality and social psychology can lead to a variety of opportunities, including working in government, non-profits, and industry. Thinking about one of these pathways? SPSP has a variety of resources to help members explore and navigate the non-academic job market.
SPSP Learning Online
- Beyond Academia: Alternative Careers Using your Social Psychology PhD
- Non-academic Careers: Is a Non-academic Life for Me?
#SPSPChat
Non-Academic Job Market Survey
- Recognizing the growing interest in non-academic jobs and the lack of information regarding the non-academic job market for social and personality psychology graduates, the 2020-2021 SPSP Student Committee gathered quantifiable information on recent graduates’ experiences on the non-academic job market including features of the applicant profile (e.g., number and types of internships, skills, publications), job search strategies, and employment outcomes.
March 2021 SPSPotlight: Non-Academic Job Market Survey
Nonacademic Job Resources
- USAJOBS (U.S. government jobs)
- Centers for Disease Control
- National Science Foundation
- National Institute of Health
- Gallup Organization Career Opportunities
- Indeed (large searchable job database)
- Idealist (non-profit jobs)
- Coalition on Human Needs
- The Chronicle of Philanthropy
- AAAS Fellowships
- American Evaluation Association
- Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Fellowships
- SPSSI Non-Profits
- SPSSI Goverment
- SPSSI Private Sector
- SPSSI Consulting
- Mathematica
- American Institutes for Research
- Westat
- Research at Facebook
- Google Careers
- Microsoft Careers
- Intel Careers
Internships
Completing an internship outside of academia can provide exposure and experience that will help in the decision about what career path to pursue.
To find a non-academic internship, check out:
- Websites for specific companies and organizations of interest
- Job/internships search engines: USAjobs, Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Google, your university career center
- Your network
- Social media: Twitter, Facebook groups
Perceptions of Non-Academic Internships
In 2016, a task force was charged with surveying SPSP membership on their opinions on non-academic internships for personality and social psychology students and found interest and support from all segments of our membership.
The path from graduate student to tenured professor is replete with opportunities and challenges. In this preconference, eminent scholars share their tips for effectively navigating this path.
This convention preconference covered a variety of academic and non-academic career paths available to social-personality psychologists.
- Chronicle of Higher Education Career Network
- National Academies of Science Career Opportunities
- PsycCareers (APA web site)
- Psychology Career Center (Social Psych. Network)
- Career News and Advice (Chronicle of Higher Educ.)