6 Tips To Improve Your Work Profile As A Psychologist
Becoming a psychologist is not a simple matter of completing a university degree and being up to date with the latest scientific research papers to stay updated. It is also important to develop the corresponding practical knowledge and, furthermore, have an interesting professional profile for our potential patients or clients, since otherwise, We will know many things but no one will notice because they will not hire our services
Whether we want to be hired or open our own company dedicated to psychological assistance and/or psychotherapy services, there are several principles that every psychology professional should have as a reference to reinforce the viability of their project and that go beyond direct treatment. with potential clients or employers; They have to do with having an overview of our own professional profile.
Therefore, in this article we will explain a summary of the keys to take into account to improve your work profile as a psychologist and enhance your employability and the viability of your projects
How to improve your employability and professional profile in the world of Psychology
Follow these guidelines so that your professional initiatives work and are viable if you want to dedicate yourself to Psychology.
1. Make sure you have an online presence
Currently, It is essential that psychologists can be easily located and contacted through the Internet What’s more: it is also essential that everyone with access to the network can quickly know who we are and what services we offer in a matter of seconds.
This does not necessarily mean having an account on all social networks, but rather having powerful branding that is fully integrated into the digital world: professional presence on Social Networks such as Linkedin, that our website is complete, well designed and does not take long to load, and that our name or the name of our brand is very well positioned in the search engines (for example, that the person who searches on Google for psychologists in the city where you serve can find you without having to look very low in the list of results , or by making at most a couple of clicks on the first results).
2. Develop social skills to establish a good therapeutic alliance
One of the experiences that psychologists encounter the most when taking their first steps caring for patients and clients is that, although what made them most nervous was the idea of lacking sufficient technical knowledge to handle many cases, The most complex thing ends up being creating a good rapport in therapy and generating a correct therapeutic alliance
Knowing how to establish this link, a balance between close treatment and professionalism, between empathy and a role clearly different from that of a friend, is essential for clients and patients to express their problems and difficulties and their way of interpreting what they are experiencing. occurs. This way you won’t find that people become disenchanted from the first session and don’t come back because everything is so uncomfortable. Fortunately, this ends up being learned through practice, especially if you can count on the assistance and supervision of psychology experts.
3. Always remember to adapt your professional role depending on the circumstances
One of the characteristics of psychologists is that they can intervene in very different tasks, given that their training in the behavioral sciences opens the door to a wide variety of jobs For example, the psychologist who knows how to position himself well at work frequently receives offers to participate in projects that go beyond his usual tasks.
Thus, psychologists who specialize in offering therapy can work by producing expert reports, educational psychologists can advise NGOs or be invited to scientific dissemination events, social psychology professionals can be hired by companies as consultants for a marketing campaign, etc.
Being clear about this is important so as not to limit our horizon of professional development, but we must know how to do it with the left hand and adapting to these circumstances the image given For example, if a company is considering the possibility of hiring a psychologist to study consumer behavior, it does not make sense to focus our candidacy on our experience caring for patients, but rather on our knowledge of research methodologies and, for example, in communication and Consumer Psychology.
4. Adopt the principle “less is more” as your communication strategy
In Western societies, strongly influenced by the digital world and by the constant bombardment of stimuli, Almost no one will stop to read a very long text or watch an entire video for several minutes if it does not capture their attention from the first seconds Therefore, when communicating your brand and your services, it is advisable to opt for minimalism: a clean and organized resume, an elegant and simple website without many buttons, communicate what we do in the first lines of our description and not at the end of several paragraphs, etc.
5. Take care of your image
Image matters, a lot, when it comes to positioning ourselves well on the Internet. This does not mean that we should have a photo in which we appear very elegant: means that the photo must be of very good quality, preferably taken by a professional, and the image we give must be consistent with the rest of the visual and stylistic elements associated with our professional profile or brand.
You may be interested: “10 tips to make a good first impression”
6. Train yourself constantly, and only in what really interests you
Nowadays, in the professional field of psychology, the need for constant training is a reality Luckily, it is also a fact that in recent years new ways to stay updated have emerged thanks to online training. Because of this, it is relatively easy to start learning specifically about what we want to specialize in regardless of where we are, instead of having to settle for the training offer of our city or region of residence. Furthermore, the development of new technologies has allowed many of these online training options to be of equal or higher quality than those based on face-to-face classes.
Related article: “The 13 types of learning: what are they?”
Do you want to improve your employability as a psychology professional?
If you are considering training to improve your professional profile in the field of psychology, you may be interested in master’s degrees, postgraduate degrees and courses. Mediterranean School of Psychology, a training center for psychologists that adapts its methodology to a 100% online format and gives the possibility of working through its job board. In this school you can professionalize in such interesting areas as Child Psychology, Sports Psychology, Human Resources Management, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, and more.
These training programs are designed based on the Mediterranean Method, which is based on holding periodic live masterclasses, the possibility of training online with 24/7 accessibility, access to a job board, close treatment and personalized for each student, and the flexibility so that everyone can combine studies with other activities. Furthermore, the approach of the Mediterranean School of Psychology’s master’s and postgraduate courses is aimed at improving the employability of those who are specializing and learning and takes into account both the strategies to improve productivity and the knowledge necessary to develop a good resume and give the first steps in the professional world.
