Does psychology have a payoff?

[hotpie]

i know that it is a rewarding career if thats what you really want to do, but is it a worthy goal for someone to strive for if they are also looking for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak?

[winneythepooh7]

If you are looking to make a lot of $$$$ Psychology (and any related fields) is not the way to go. You will do better $$$$-wise with an advanced degree but that takes a lot of time. One of my friends is a psychology major and is getting her PHD. She is going to be in debt for awhile paying off school loans. I am a Social Worker. I will eventually be able to make more $$$$ if I become a Director or open up my own private practice but again, that takes time. It just doesn't happen overnight. And in terms of a private practice, you have to think about finding clients that can afford to pay the fees. I am sure psychiatrists probably do a bit better but again, I always factor in the amount of debt I am paying off into what I am actually bringing home...............Also, I don't recommend going into a field like this if you don't truly have the passion to help people. I interact with psychiatrists and psychologists on an almost daily basis and very rarely do I come across one who has the actual people skills to do what they do. I understand the burearcracies involved, especially in working in a hospital setting, or a not-for-profit clinic where you may be the only doctor dealing with hundreds of patients, but all too often I run across psychiatrists who are all about meeting with a client for 15 minutes or less solely to give out a prescription for some medication, and then not taking the time to even sit with the client to discuss their concerns, side effects of the meds, etc. This may be more then you were asking but your post was kinda unclear too.

[Kevin]

The psychiatrists that my office works with charge $300/hr for anything related to court cases. Their payments are due as soon as the services are rendered. That usually means they get payed most of what they're owed.

One of them that we deal with fairly frequently has his normal appointments booked through January. So imagine about 5 hrs per day at $300/hr. If you think that's decent $, then yeah, I guess some psychiatrists do alright

[msn4med1975]

I guess it depends on what you plan on doing and how much you plan on charging for your time. I plan on doing what most of my professors do: teach at XYZ university for one flat salary with benefits, do research (depending on where you get your funding there's almost always a stipend for you included in that), and either work as part of a practice or in a community agency on the days I'm not teaching. Sounds like a lot but they are typically able to fit that into a typical work week schedule (meaning about 40 hours a week still or less in most of their cases) and between the three spots they are making very good money. In addition, most of them write book chapters for which they get paid and do consulting and training work for agencies and businesses which depending on what you are doing is upwards of 2,000 for your appearance for about two hours of your time. And I know some psychologists that won't book their time for less than the whole day for which they charge much more than 2K depending on how many people they are having to work with. And there are still court appearances, state evaluations and custody things they do as time permits or cases demand.

[James]

If you are good at reading people and knowing what makes people tick, you can write your own ticket in life.

Originally posted by hotpie
i know that it is a rewarding career if thats what you really want to do, but is it a worthy goal for someone to strive for if they are also looking for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak?