Last Fall (2018), my career goals underwent drastic changes. I started off in August feeling incredibly secure in my desire to become a veterinarian, and I wanted to focus on healing animals both physically and emotionally, with the help of an undergraduate degree in psychology. This made me a bit of an oddity in the class; where others were looking for internships and research experience in fields like clinical psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, trauma, and others, I was looking for experience in animal medicine and behavior. When other students were taking notes on applying to PhD and Master’s programs, I was focusing on applying the principles being taught to a vet school application. However, I started to question the fit of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree to my passions and strengths. This shift was primarily fueled by the results of my Strong Interest Inventory Report (SIIR). 

My report reflected a few clear themes; I’d be best suited to a career in biology, I’m incredibly investigative, and most of my top career fits involved research in some way or another. While the interest in biology didn’t surprise me, nor did the “Investigative” theme, as those were in-line with a career in veterinary medicine, what did surprise me was the tendency for research to pop up multiple times in my results in various forms. I had never thought of myself as someone who could go into research. While I had participated in research in the past, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I doubted that I could make a career out of it. However, as my work in Dr. Hughes’ Positive Psychology Laboratory went on over the semester, and I worked more and more on learning how research is conducted and reported, along with learning about the numerous, fascinating studies conducted on animal behavior during my animal behavior class, I became enamoured with the prospect, especially after realizing that I could go into both research and academia, which had been a long-time goal of mine. My good fit in academia was further highlighted by my SIIR by my “Social” theme, which emphasizes “take a helping or altruistic approach involving teaching, developing, or caring for others” (SIIR, 11). Specifically, hearing the phrasing of the theme is what strengthened in me a desire to go into academia and teach others, to cultivate within them a passion for learning that I’ve found since being in college.

Directly after receiving this report, I started to reassess my career goals. While I was incredibly drawn to a career in veterinary medicine, I realized that what drew me to the field was my passion for animals and animal behavior, as well as helping animals through medicine, enrichment, and conservation. However, I realized that as a DVM, I would be focusing on animals on a case to case basis, almost all on the individual level. The issue for me was that I wanted to make an impact on the world of animal behavior, and I wanted to discover things that could help whole species, whole ecosystems, as opposed to a single patient. While I may never make a big splash in the animal behavior field, I knew that I had a much better chance of doing so with a PhD in Animal Behavior or a related field. 

So, after this deliberation, I decided that I wanted to pursue this degree, and eventually move into academia in a position where I could also do research. After making that decision, I was able to more directly apply the things presented in my class to my career path. Specifically, there were five themes that I took to heart during class; deciding a career path, importance of research, applying to graduate programs, interview skills, and writing a personal statement.

Deciding a Career Path

According to Appleby (2006), there are at least 124 possible career paths for a psychology major, including things like child psychologist, developmental psychologist, and college/university professor. The latter is what interested me in particular, so I decided to investigate this field further. In Wegenek (2012)’s article, I found that many of the suggested characteristics and possible benefits of working in academia lined up with me personally, especially “enjoying an intellectually stimulating environment, having colleagues who share your enthusiasm for your area of study, [and] being able to share your love for psychology with students” (7). While Terre & Stoddart (2000) did not mention animal behavior in their list of “cutting-edge” specialties for graduate study in psychology, this did not deter me from still wanting to go into the field. 

Importance of Research

Shah, Savage, Ortiz, & Lai (2018) wrote about the man valuable skills undergraduate students can gain from doing research, and I have found a lot of the claims made in the article to be true. Undergraduate research experiences can provide you with research experience, opportunities for recommendations from your supervisors, and the chance to expand your interests. Lai, Margol, and Landoll (2010) also bring up many tips for getting the most out of a research experience, including knowing what questions to ask during an interview, clearly laying out your role in the lab, and learning about what opportunities are available to you.

However, Grover (2006) emphasizes research as a necessary part of graduate school applications, and urges readers to get involved, as research experience can mean the difference between acceptance to and rejection from grad programs. After learning about the importance of research experience both in class and from this article, I made sure to include enough time to be involved in at least one research lab per semester, and to make it my goal to get as much experience as possible before I started grad school applications. Currently, I’m a part of Dr. Hughes’ Positive Psychology Laboratory, I’ve joined Dr. Perdue’s Cognitive Neuroscience and Animal Behavior (CNAB) Lab for my capstone in the Spring, and I’m considering applying to more research labs should I not get an internship with Zoo Atlanta. I also want to participate in a Summer REU if possible, something I wasn’t going to do before in favor of getting some classes out of the way during the summer.

Applying to Graduate Programs

Once I realized I no longer wanted to pursue a DVM, I was tasked with learning all about applying to graduate schools. According to Norcross (2011), acceptance rates for graduate schools have been up from 2008. Escoto (2011) also provides a few graduate school admissions tips, including getting a jumpstart on planning, taking required classes early, and diversifying the schools I plan on applying to (public vs. private, east coast vs. west coast, etc.). Judson and Orchowski (2010) laid out some specific tips for the next generation of young psychologists, and many of them were the same. However, one particular item they highlighted was the fact that it is ok to take a break between finishing your undergraduate degree and applying for grad school. While I don’t personally plan on taking a break, it is nice to know that the option is there should I need it.

Interview Skills

I was able to learn a lot about internship skills and how to improve my impression on interviewers this semester thanks to both the mock interviews held by the Office of Internship and Career Development, but also the handouts they provided to our class. “A Student Guide to Informational Interviews – 2018-2019”, “A Student Guide to Acing the Interview – 2018-2019”, and Longnecker (2016) all brought up very similar points that I took to heart when preparing for both the mock interviews and other interviews I completed during my application to various capstone placements. These points included being enthusiastic, grateful, reducing filler language, and putting a positive spin on things when you can.

Writing a Personal Statement

Lastly, the theme that I struggled the most with, but that I feel like I also improved upon the most during the semester, was the effective writing of a personal statement. I’ve never been particularly good at bragging about myself, but the material we learned in class really helped me write a compelling, excellent self-portrait. The “Preparing​ ​to​ ​Write​ ​a​ ​Personal​ ​Statement​ ​or​ ​Application​ ​Essay” handout from the Center for Writing and Speaking brought up mentioning exciting courses, volunteer experiences, and creating a timeline of events in your life. Both Bottoms and Nysse (1999) and Sleigh’s (2009) articles outlined the importance of revision and peer review, which I took to heart. I’ve never been the type of person to share drafts with others for review, but I sent my personal statement to family members, friends, and family friends in academia to see if they had any tips for me. I feel like this really helped refine my personal statement and my understanding of the need for peer review.

All in all, this course has been incredibly helpful to me in redefining and understanding my new career goals, as well as all the new requirements that come with that goal. I know for sure that I will use my new acquired skills in areas like interviews, personal statements, and graduate school applications, and I look forward to putting these skills to the test up to and during the time I start to apply to graduate school for real.