This is the perfect Curriculum Vitae of a psychologist
Unemployment figures affect the whole world, but to the careers that give year after year a large number of graduates, even more. This is the case of the world of psychology , although it has many professional opportunities that are increasingly more varied, it is not particularly easy to generate the jobs needed to absorb the graduates.
In addition, and although it sounds ironic, as much as psychology deals with the actions and the ways of perceiving the world of human beings, the people trained in this field they do not always know how to make their candidacy attractive to the eyes of the selectors of personal.
How to make a resume if you are a psychologist
Fortunately, there are always ways to maximize our options to make our candidacy stand out in the form of CVs on paper or in digital format.
Some of these rules on how to make a curriculum vitae are practically universal and serve for any profession, while others are more specific. In fact, the most general ones you can know in this other article: "The 10 tips to improve your Curriculum Vitae".
As for the tips for making a curriculum vitae in the field of psychology , these are the keys to consider:
1. A clear and coherent structure
A resume can not be simply accumulated self-information, even if that information is well filtered and is totally relevant to the purpose we have set.
That is why its structure must be clear, showing the data of each type together and in its own section , and creating hierarchies within each category, placing the most relevant information at the beginning.
Thus, the contact data should be all together and very close to the name, since those are the elements that allow us to identify and contact us, while the academic and work experience should be separated and go in reverse chronological order, from the more recent times to the most distant in time.
2. Includes the courses
Psychology is a very young discipline, and between that and the fact that there is a lot of research done annually in this field, constant training is very necessary so as not to become outdated .
When it comes to making a resume to apply for a position in psychology or related fields, that means that you do not have to have any qualms when adding courses and workshops that we have done. They not only inform about our skills and knowledge, but also indicate the philosophy of constant training we have. And yes, free courses are also welcome: many of them are of very good quality.
However, Do we have to include all these complementary courses to the CV? It depends, if they are few (less than 3, for example), we can put them without problems. But if they are more, it is better that we filter and put only those that we think have more relation to the job that is chosen, because a long list of workshops and workshops can give the impression that you only want to inflate the curriculum without plus.
3. Choose what to prioritize: training or work experience
If the parties closest to the top of the CV do not convince the Human Resources staff or the personnel selection technicians, it is very likely that they will not continue reading. That is why it is important to put what we most emphasize at the beginning.
This, applied to the structure of the curriculum of a psychologist, means that when establishing the order in which work and academic experience appear always we must first put that section in which we look more .
In the case of a student seeking a place of practice, for example, first put the university education and the courses that have been made is a good option, since probably their working life in the field of work that is chosen is very short or directly null.
4. Indicate what we focus on as soon as possible
Psychology has many branches, and among some of them there is little relationship. Therefore, it is good to "sharpen" the profile we want to give to the maximum by eliminating ambiguities and making it clear from the beginning what we dedicate ourselves to or want to dedicate ourselves to.
For this, in the first place we must indicate if we are dedicated to research or intervention about individuals or groups. That means that if in recent times we have collaborated with an investigation despite the fact that we are mainly dedicated to psychotherapy, it is worth including that collaboration in a separate section located below our experience in the intervention.
Once this is done, we do the same with the field that we have chosen, writing in a very visible place the specialization that we have made and placing the mentions to punctual and unrepresentative collaborations of our trajectory in a more discreet place than the rest of the functions performed, below them.
- Related article: "Types of psychological therapies"
5. Include publications and mentions
Almost all psychologists are clear that it is good (and sometimes essential) to include the name of the publications in which they have participated, whether they are journal articles or books. However, it is not so frequent to take into account the mentions.
This last point is important, because those people who have a small website or personal blog can be surprised that they have mentioned them in some digital media and on paper , using information that we have published.
In fact, these situations are not uncommon: there are many journalists who seek to substantiate the issues addressed in their texts with the views of professionals in that field, and sometimes, instead of agreeing interviews, they simply quote without warning.
6. Include a specific place for certain technical capabilities
There are certain technical skills that, although they are named in the description of the workshops and occupied jobs, deserve to appear also in a place where they are highlighted. That's good for create a differentiated module or section of work or professional experience and include them there.
For research posts, this text, in a list format, should emphasize the methods of collecting data that are mastered, both qualitative and quantitative: structured, semi-structured or in-depth interviews, psychological tests, etc.
We must also mention skills related to data analysis: experience with statistical programs such as SPSS, domain programming languages or programs such as R or ATLAS.ti, etc.
For positions related to the intervention, you must also indicate the data collection methods with which you have experience, as well as the types of treatment or individual or group intervention with which you have worked.
