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• Complete Careers in Psychology (PSY 210), required of all psychology majors.

• Begin to identify your career interests and preferences. Analyze your skills and values as they relate to potential career choices. Read the latest edition of What Color Is Your Parachute? to clarify your interests and skills and to familiarize yourself with job-hunting strategies.
• Familiarize yourself with the information on the Careers in Psychology site.
• Visit the Career Services Office and investigate their resources.
• Begin gathering information about your occupational options. Read relevant articles in sections 1-4 of Is Psychology the Major for You?. Read about various careers in the Occupational Outlook Handbook). Develop a list of personal and professional contacts that will enable you to gather information about specific career areas. Conduct informational interviews with these contacts to learn about the nature of the work they do.
• Work with your faculty advisor to select major, minor, and/or elective courses in areas that are relevant to your career interests. (See the page titled, "Suggested Courses to Develop Skills that Prospective Employers Want.") Make tentative plans about when you will take these courses.
• Investigate opportunities for summer jobs or volunteer work that will give you job-relevant experience. Prospective employers value such experience.

• Work on clarifying, further, your career interests and preferences.
• Continue to conduct informational interviews and begin to make preliminary decisions about career options.

September:

• Review/revise/reaffirm your appraisal of your skills, needs, interests, and values as these relate to your career choices.
• Visit the Career Services Office to see what kinds of resources they have for you.
• Continue to gather information about potential career areas.
• Consider doing volunteer work that will allow you to develop job-relevant skills.
• Consider enrolling in a Practicum or Field Experience course. (This course helps you gain practical experience through volunteer field work in applied settings. You and your supervising faculty member select the site.)
• Review information from the Career Services Office on writing cover letters and résumés and on job interviewing.
• Develop a draft résumé. Show it to your advisor and get his/her feedback. Revise your résumé accordingly.

• Request letters of recommendation from appropriate contacts (faculty, past employers, Field Experience supervisor, etc.). Ask them to keep a computer file of your letter so they can print out a copy when you need one.
• Develop an off-campus job search strategy. Focus on several career options and establish a list of job leads derived from a variety of sources: personal and professional contacts, employer directories, want ads, job listing services, etc.
• Register for on-campus interviews at the Career Services Office. Research company literature to prepare for interviews for which you have been pre-selected.

• Continue to develop job leads.
• Send out cover letters and résumés. Follow up within 10 days with a phone call. Attempt to schedule job interviews during Christmas break for off-campus contacts.
• Go to interviews as appropriate. Write thank you notes and send within one week after visit.

• Consider doing volunteer or field experience work that will allow you to develop job-relevant skills if you have not already done so.
• Continue your job-searching. Remember: assertiveness and perseverance will pay off. Good luck!

Lloyd, M.  A. (1997, August 12). Job-Search Strategies and Time-Line. [Online]. Available:
http://www.psywww.com/careers/time-job.htm.

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