The Early Career Professional Advantage

Abstract

A majority of psychologists have their primary career in academia, research, clinical, or administrative settings. Through the years, psychologists have the opportunity to improve their curriculum vitae in their primary career area. Although competence in this primary career area is important, as we have previously established, all areas of psychology are interconnected. For example, research can inform assessment which, in turn, informs recommended clinical interventions based on the assessment. However, grant funding may be necessary to be able to complete research; program design is required to be able to provide assessment and psychotherapy in a program. When considering these different sequences, some expertise in areas is required. Therefore, maintaining consistency with our “simple exposure” theme in this publication, being well-rounded in psychology is imperative to competent practice. Furthermore, it is important to continue to be an active learner as the field of psychology is ever-changing. The goal of this chapter is to provide insight into other areas of psychology that can complement the aforementioned primary career areas. In this chapter, we will review these common primary career areas and provide feedback on how to expand beyond those areas, outline different educational opportunities to complement the primary career, and provide and outline some secondary career areas.