Plan Your Mental Health Career: Key Considerations Before Graduation
Once you successfully complete your college courses in social work or psychology, you’re excited to start your career. But that excitement can turn to disappointment quickly if you didn’t begin planning before graduation.
We’ll review some steps you can take prior to graduation, as well as provide ideas to help you navigate to your preferred career once you have a diploma in hand.
There are many avenues you may travel toward your career. You’ll need to think about where you want to end up. Do you want to be in private practice? Or, would you prefer to be hired by an agency or organization?
Are you interested in counseling for:
Addictions
Behavior Disorders
Careers
Cognitive, emotional or physical disabilities
Do you prefer to work with kids? Families? Adults? Seniors?
Perhaps you are asking: should I become a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC), a licensed clinical social worker(LCSW), a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) or a licensed [professional counselor (LPC)? An art therapist? A music therapist? A play therapist?
Answering the questions above will provide focus to your efforts both before and after graduation.
Connecting
It may seem counterintuitive, but our first recommendation is to establish your presence on LinkedIn as soon as possible. Usually thought of as a network for career development, you don’t have to wait until you are on the hunt for a job in order to use LinkedIn effectively.
Developing relationships on LinkedIn takes time. The sooner you have a complete profile there, the sooner you can begin:
Interacting with established therapists
Following industry experts
Engaging in professional groups
Posting content that is valuable to your network
Your LinkedIn connections can lead to opportunities down the road.
Writing a profile before you graduate, allows you to spread out your efforts. Adding to it over time as you gain new experience keeps it fresh.Every time you edit your profile, your contacts are notified. This helps keep you top-of-mind.
While on LinkedIn, you can look for internships, summer jobs, and volunteer opportunities that add career-specific experience. This leads to our next recommendation.
Building Experience
The best job candidates won’t just have good grades. They’ll have relevant experience from outside the classroom. Internships and summer jobs are both good avenues to build this type of experience.
If you know which career path you will follow, an internship or summer job is a way to get the appropriate experience. Or, if you are still trying to decide about your path, internships and jobs let you try different segments of the field to see which is right for you.
Perhaps you want to be a medical social worker. Then, you could seek internships or jobs at a hospital or clinic. If child welfare is your goal, look for opportunities in foster care or adoption.
Don’t accept any opportunity until you have talked with the people at your potential placement to ensure the fit is right. You want to make sure you’ll garner the right skills and experience to further your goals.
After successfully completing your internship or summer job, ask for a letter of recommendation. Add this to your LinkedIn profile.
Finding an internship or summer job may not always be possible, so volunteering is another path to consider. The obvious benefit is the good you are doing for a worthwhile cause. But there are benefits to you, as well.
Volunteering often offers a lower threshold to entry into a large organization where you might not be able to get an interview. It’s much easier for a company to on-board a volunteer than an employee. .
A volunteer opportunity with an organization in your field helps you build career-related skills. It also.provides an opportunity to gain soft skills like patience, time management, creativity and team-building.
Request a recommendation after fulfilling your volunteer service. Add this to your LinkedIn profile.
Gathering Intel
Prior to starting your job search, you want to be as well prepared as possible. So, it is time for intelligence gathering.
First, set up informational interviews with people at companies or agencies you want to learn more about before applying for a job. This is not a job interview. It is a chance to learn more about a career field, industry or company from an insider.
An informational interview is less stressful than a job interview. It gives you a low key way to gain valuable career information from someone in your field. These interviews are the perfect time to ask about things - like working conditions, pay and benefits - that may not be appropriate topics during a job interview.
Another benefit is that you are expanding your network of contacts with each interview completed.
LinkedIn is a good intelligence gathering tool. Many organizations have pages on LinkedIn that can provide you with information about the people who work there, the number of employees, and the company’s locations. Comments posted by the organization and its employees can give you some idea of company culture.
Landing The Job
Now that you are connected, experienced, and graduated, it’s time to focus on your job search.
First, spend some money to get a professional resume. Update your LinkedIn profile with the contents of the resume.
Most jobs in the field will require a license. Some states offer a temporary license. You’ll want to check to determine requirements in your area.
Colleges typically have employment offices to assist graduates, and often have career fairs on campus. They may have support services for veterans on campus.
Next, start networking. Go to professional organization meetings, and join online professional groups like LinkedIn’s The Therapist Network, Addictions Counselor Career Development, and Mental Health Networking Group.
Finally, review job postings on job sites, LinkedIn and your target organizations' websites.
If you’ve done the upfront work, you’ll be steps ahead and on your way to a fulfilling career.
