Your career

Whether you’re set on a specific career path, or you’re still weighing up your options, during your time at Sheffield we’ll help you to prepare for your next step.

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On

Where can a psychology masters take you?

Throughout your research training, you’ll develop valuable skills and knowledge that employers are looking for.

Our graduates tend to pursue careers in one of three broad areas: 

  1. PhDs and research careers
  2. Clinical training or careers in the field of psychology
  3. Data and technology careers

By choosing the School of Psychology for your postgraduate study, you'll join our global alumni network. Explore our interactive map of graduate destinations:

You can also discover what some of our recent graduates have gone on to do with their masters degrees in our student stories.


PhDs and research careers

If you choose to continue your research training, our courses are great preparation for a PhD in a range of areas. Depending on the focus of your MSc, you could explore topics from neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and brain interfaces, to neuroimaging, health psychology and social psychology.

After PhDs, it’s common to embark on a research career in academia, government or in industry. PhDs are a great stepping stone to roles such as Postdoctoral Researcher or Research Associate. A number of our graduates have gone on to begin their research careers at prestigious universities around the world, progressing to roles including Lecturer.

A profile photo of Alex Patterson

The statistical programming skills I developed during my masters have proven extremely beneficial for my PhD

Alex Patterson MSc Psychological Research Methods with Advanced Statistics

Alex chose his MSc in order to gain a better understanding of statistics and scientific methodology. Alex is now pursuing a PhD at Sheffield, focusing on applying data analytics to crime data. The statistical programming skills he developed during his masters are proving extremely beneficial for this next stage of his studies.


Clinical training and other psychology careers

Our MScs are a great stepping stone towards a career in the field of psychology. Many of our students choose to apply their theoretical knowledge to help clients through different forms of therapy. Our recent graduates work in a variety of roles including Psychology Wellbeing Practitioner, Assistant Psychologist, Therapy Assistant, Clinical Trials Assistant and Mental Health Worker. Employers include NHS Trusts, schools, or charitable and not-for-profit organisations like Mind and Rightsteps.

Others choose to progress down the DClinSci route, gaining practical experience after their MSc before embarking on further training to pursue a clinical career in the NHS, working as Occupational, Educational, Clinical, Forensic, Health and Counselling Psychologists.

A profile photo of Caroline Wojnarowski

I was lucky enough to have a fabulous supervisor that gave me great opportunities for research in depression and anxiety

Caroline Wojnarowski MSc Psychological Research Methods with Advanced Statistics

After completing research in depression and anxiety as part of her masters, Caroline is now a Clinical Studies Officer in the NHS, working within mental health and dementia.


Data and technology careers

Data science is a growing field that’s popular with graduates of our courses. With practical skills in data handling and interpretation, coupled with an understanding of the ethical implications of using data to predict and influence human behaviour, you'll be well equipped to pursue an exciting career in this area.

A huge range of industries employ data scientists. You could be interpreting market research and building customer insight for large technology and social media companies, or you could enter the finance or banking industry, working on bespoke customer solutions. Hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry employ Data Analysts, and there are also roles within deep learning, machine learning or artificial intelligence.

A profile photo of Muneerah Patel

I particularly enjoyed modules which involved looking at models of the brain from multiple levels of abstraction

Muneerah Patel MSc Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience

Muneerah wanted a masters programme that blended neuroscience, mathematical modelling and neuroimaging to give her a broad overview and a future focus. Muneerah is now a Research Software Engineer at the University of Sheffield.


Helping you get to where you want to go

When it comes to showcasing the skills and experience you'll gain during your time at Sheffield, there's plenty of support available both within the school and from the University's Careers Service who run workshops on CV and application writing, job hunting and preparing for interviews. The Careers Service will continue to support you for as long as you need them after you graduate, too.

Careers Service

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Postgraduate online open day

Become part of our community of talented postgraduate students. Join us at our online open day on Wednesday 27 November 2024.