Psychology graduate skills: selling yourself

Upon graduation from our BSc course you will have acquired a number of excellent skills that you should make clear on job applications. You need to be able to write in an application and then convince someone at interview that you have these skills: it is also useful to think of specific examples where you have been able to apply these skills learned during your degree outside the academic setting (work, volunteering, clubs, sports).

Skills your degree has given you

Depending on the job or position you are applying for, the content of your degree (eg psychological knowledge about a certain area) may be highly relevant: you will need to judge this for each individual application. Below are some of the common ‘generic’ skills you should have acquired through your degree, that are commonly required by employers. This will not be an exhaustive list, but it’s a starting point – you need to tailor this to your experience and think of specific examples that you can communicate concisely and coherently.

Literacy (communicating in written format)

In your coursework (essays, practical reports, lit survey, project) you have shown the ability to make clear, structured arguments and support them with evidence, write with clarity and precision and to write concisely. You have the ability to write both succinct reports that adhere to a pre-set format and more creative, in-depth essays.

The ability to produce a concise report is often cited by managers as a skill they would like their management trainees to have.

Numeracy

In your project, miniprojects and stats/research design modules you have shown you can compile, organise and analyse complex data sets. You have a good theoretical and practical grounding in handling and interpreting statistical information. You should be able to draw the implications out of data summaries and probability statements.

Computer literacy

You should be proficient in the use of MS word, MS excel, MS powerpoint, SPSS and Endnote – think of examples of coursework where you have had to use each of these.

Communication skills

Your ability to communicate in written formats is clear from your coursework (essays, lit review, practical reports, project) – see literacy for more info.

Your degree has also developed your oral communication skills, in terms of communicating with peers to negotiate, plan and deliver group projects and to discuss issues in tutorial groups, and also in terms of oral presentation skills. You have had experience of giving oral presentations, supported by powerpoint slides, to a variety of audiences, including groups of over 100. You have also had experience of giving more intimate presentations of research results to individuals or small groups in poster sessions. Most of you will have given presentations as part of your advanced modules and you all gave group presentations in 1st Year to large audiences, where you then reflected on your presentation skills.

Group work/leadership

You have had to work in groups to complete various assignments throughout your degree (miniprojects, advanced module presentations, projects), often with people you don’t know. You have therefore had experience of negotiating and working with unfamiliar people to achieve a specific goal. You may have contributed to the group in different ways: facilitating discussion between group members, resolving conflicts or demonstrating leadership (motivating group members, leading by example, making decisions).

Independence

Most of your degree is comprised of individual pieces of work: you have to show good time-management skills, self motivation and resourcefulness to complete these pieces of work. Your lit survey in particular is a very independent piece of work where you set your own topic area, title and goals.

Critical thinking/critical evaluation

You have had training (in 1st Year) on how to think critically about research problems and existing literature. You will have demonstrated your ability to think critically in your essays/lit survey (critical evaluation of the literature/evidence for a point and considering the issue from different points of view), your practical reports/project (critical evaluation of previous work and your own work – identifying strengths and weaknesses of your study and how the weaknesses could be tackled). You have also reflected critically on your oral presentation skills (watching the video of you presenting in 1st Year) and identified areas for improvement. Part of critical thinking is looking at issues from several different points of view and you have lots of experience in doing this.

Problem-solving skills

Think of examples where you have had to problem solve during your degree: tackling a difficult essay title, modifying an experimental design if things did not go to plan, solving interpersonal disputes during group work. You should have the ability to identify different strategies and approaches to solving problems. This may be on a macro-level, in applying totally different perspectives or levels of analysis to the problem, or at a more basic level in terms of choosing appropriate methods to deal with it.

It is a valuable skill in the organisational world, and one which psychology graduates are strikingly good at.

Information-finding skills

You know how to research a topic area and have a lot of experience in doing this (essays, project and lit survey). You know how to go about looking for information on a particular topic or general area.

This type of resourcefulness is potentially valuable in many types of job.

Research skills

Through your miniprojects and final year project you have knowledge and practical experience of considering the ethical issues surrounding research, designing a study that is suitable to answer a research question, collecting data in a professional and rigorous manner, and analysing and interpreting the results. You have knowledge of observational, experimental and case study designs. You understand the importance of psychological measures being valid and reliable and you’ve had some experience in designing and/or using questionnaires and psychometric measures (practical classes, possibly miniprojects/projects).

Interpersonal awareness

Through the social psychology modules you should have gained knowledge of the mechanisms of social communication and the potential sources of interpersonal conflict. This may make a difference in understanding and dealing with interpersonal problems when they arise in the workplace and makes you better placed to deal with them effectively. You might be able to think of examples when you’ve used this knowledge to solve conflicts during group work (miniprojects, projects).

Pragmatism

By conducing psychological research (practicals, miniprojects, project) you will have learnt to make the best of often non-ideal situations and developed the ability to work within preset constraints. Such pragmatism is a very useful skill in many jobs.