Psychology and Mental Health

A degree in psychology is attractive to employers because it gives you transferable skills that can be used in lots of different job roles. The combination of science (analytical thinking, objectivity, research skills) and humanities (understanding human behaviour, relationship building) gives you a broad choice of where you can go on to work.

Explore Job Roles

Many psychology graduates go on to work in related fields such as health, education and in the community or go on to postgraduate study.

Other pages in this section:

Continue on this page to explore different roles within psychology and mental health.

Use the Job Profiles below to find out about skills, entry routes and experience.

Building Skills and Experience

If you want to qualify as a psychologist or mental health professional then building up experience in a clinical, community or educational setting is crucial for many jobs, post-graduate study or training programmes. It will enable you to discover your strengths, passions and interests, as well as gain broad experience for your CV to discuss with potential employers.

Use our transferable skills pages to explore ways to gain the top skills employers are looking for

Try to get as much relevant experience as you can! Volunteer with a variety of client groups to explore what it might be like working in different settings.

  • Look for roles where you can support individuals or groups of people; consider searching for 'support worker' vacancies to build skills working with a range of young people and adults from a variety of backgrounds and support needs.
  • To further your research skills, consider approaching your academic advisors and lecturers to ask about volunteering or looking into supporting a postgraduate student's research.
  • Work shadowing (or a short meeting with an aspirational professional) will help you gain insight into a specific job role.
  • Contact companies and organisations to ask for work experience. They might be able to accommodate you for a placement or at least offer some advice.
  • Start building your network and meet relevant contacts. Consider investigating organisations such as the British Psychological Society who offer student membership and organise several events and conferences for their community of psychology professionals. Reach out to recent University Of Manchester Psychology alumni via the LinkedIn Psychology Graduate Network Group, and ask for advice.
  • All experience is useful. If you want to build up your transferable skills, then working part-time, volunteering or taking part in UoM schemes such as STELLIFY, will help to make you employable and attractive to future employers.

Finding and applying for jobs

You can find jobs in the mental health and psychology fields in several places. Psychologists work in a range of settings and some websites cover different sectors:

  • Jobs in Psychology The official jobs board for the British Psychology Society
  • NHS Jobs Search and apply for roles within the NHS
  • Creative Support Care agency with a range of Support Worker vacancies
  • Turning Point National Charity providing a range of mental health and wellbeing services
  • Civil Service Range of roles available and offers Fast Stream graduate programme
  • Charity Job Find jobs with a vast range of charities in the UK and internationally
  • Jobs.ac.uk Main website for finding vacancies within Universities and Higher Education providers

These graduate schemes may be of particular interest to psychology graduates, including:

Further Resources

Next Steps

When planning your next steps, you may start to think about postgraduate study or training routes into some of the roles we've covered on this page.

Look at the above job profiles for specific information on further qualifications/experience you may need. If you are thinking about continuing your studies in Psychology at The University of Manchester, then see information on the Taught Masters or PhD Research on the website.

For additional information and support please see the links below: