What career do you think I should choose?

Hi everyone,
I hope you're all doing ok :smile:

I just decided to make this thread today as I am in year 12 at sixth form and I have not decided on my career choice yet and I know that with exams coming up soon and UCAS/uni stuff going on at the start of yr 13/end of yr 12, it is pretty important to decide what I would like to go into.

So far I have considered mental health nursing, social work and a career in psychology.

I know that doing a psychology undergraduate degree is very competitive and it requires significant postgraduate study and experience to become a Dr of Psychology. After considering this route, I don't think it is for me as I don't want to have to essentially train for a decade before I achieve my career. However, I have not completely crossed out a psychology degree.

I have also considered doing a social work degree as I really enjoy helping people and supporting them through difficult times, as well I know that social work carries many different options including working in mental health, with people with learning disabilities, helping people who have been abused/are at risk of abuse, working with people through the adoption/fostering process etc. I am considering a career in this area as I love to help people and everyday is different-there are so many options as to what specialties I work in and everyday I will meet a variety of people who come from all walks of life and backgrounds.

I am also considering a career in mental health nursing as I enjoy supporting people through difficult times and it will be really rewarding to have the privilege of supporting someone as they recover from a mental illness. Also, I have personally experienced a mental illness as well as my closest friends, one of whom stayed in an inpatient unit. I know that mental illnesses can seriously impact on people's lives and as a nurse I know you can provide both medical and psychological support to people going through really difficult times. Moreover, I would say that I am a very empathetic person and I am non-judgemental, I often imagine myself in other people's situations to try to understand and I can often find myself relating to other people's situations in one way or another. I am quite a patient person and I am quite sensitive to changes in people's emotions and behaviour

As you can probably tell, I am passionate about both of these areas so I am really stuck as to what to go into.

I am considering MH nursing due to the reasons above and I know that you are probably able to offer more psychological treatment and expertise as well as being able to advance to higher roles than say a social worker who worked in mental health. I also know that MH nurses can now become non-medical prescribers which I know would be a really useful skill to provide the service users with both medical and psychological treatment, especially as psychiatrists are often really busy. I am especially interested in the working in the areas of eating disorders and peri-natal mental health services.

That said, I am interested in being a SW as I know that there are many areas to go into which offers more options in terms of diversity than a MH nurse. I have met many SW including my old therapist and SW's who worked with my mum who was a foster carer. Moreover, myself and family members have experienced domestic abuse which is one of the reasons I am considering SW as I know how trapped and isolated you feel when you are being abused.

One of my doubts about MH nursing was that I may start a degree in it and it turns out that it may not be the career for me or that I feel that I should have chosen SW instead. However, I am planning some work experience in the mental health field to see if this is an area that I would strongly consider working in (many people have said that I would be a a good nurse).

Sorry for waffling but I was just wondering whether anybody has any advice as I am unsure what to go into?

P.S I have spoken to my careers advisor already

Reply 1

surayah

Hey there.

Omg this is literally the exact same position I was in a couple weeks ago. A really good idea is to possibly choose a combined honours? I' m currently in A2 and applied for psychology and abuse studies at mmu and other combined courses because i just don't know if psychology or mental health counselling/therapy is the route I want to go down and it's always good to have a backup.

If you do a combined honours degree then there will be parts that you can pick out about the degree that you like and enjoy and parts that you don't like and that will reassure you on the path in which you want to go down?

Ps. not everyone is dead certain on the exact career path they want to do at this age, as long as you have an idea of the area you want to go down it's completely fine as our mindset and decisions are always changing!

Good luck and hope this helps!

What career do you think I should choose?

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