There is an increased demand for psychological services in schools, hospitals, social service agencies, mental health centers, substance abuse treatment clinics, consulting firms and private companies. If you hold doctorates from leading universities and have specialized in popular streams like counseling, health and school psychology, you will be in demand. A background in quantitative research methods and computer science will be an added advantage.

Among the specialties in this field, school psychologists especially those with a specialist degree or higher usually enjoy the best job opportunities. The growing awareness among parents and schools about how students' mental health and behavioural problems such as bullying, attention deficit disorders etc can affect learning has increased the demand for school psychologists to offer student counseling.

Similarly, a fast-paced work life, an unhealthy lifestyle (smoking, alcoholism, obesity), marital problems etc has led to an alarming increase in depression and other mental disorders among people. Clinical and counseling psychologists are needed to help people assess, diagnose, treat and prevent mental disorders arising out of these problems. Clinical psychology is the largest subfield within psychology and so offers career opportunities in a number of sub-specialty areas including substance abuse treatment, child mental health and health psychology.

Large companies and businesses are hiring industrial-organisational psychologists to help boost employee productivity and retention rates within the organisation. These psychologists help companies deal with issues like workplace diversity and anti-discrimination policies. Companies also will use psychologists' expertise in survey design, analysis, and research to develop tools for marketing evaluation and statistical analysis.

Another sub-specialty area that is seeing rising demand in India is sports psychology. These psychologists typically perform a diverse range of tasks related to sports performance and education. You can teach at the university level or work directly with athletes motivating them and helping them improve their performance.

If you have specialized in forensic psychology, you can work in different settings like family courts, drug courts, criminal courts and private consulting.

Career Options

Depending on your specialization, your career path can also vary. Studying psychology leads to you varied career options:

• Career or Vocational Counselor
• School Psychologist
• Counselor
• Genetics Counselor
• Forensic Psychologist
• Engineering Psychologist
• Clinical Psychologist
• Sports Psychologist
• Industrial-Organizational Psychologist
• Special Education Teacher

Payoff

Salaries vary considerably based on specialty area and employment sector. Psychologists in general earn anywhere between Rs 12,000-55,000 per month. Clinical psychologists earn between Rs 12,000-35,000 per month. School psychologists take home around Rs 10,000-15,000 a month.

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