Business psychology is the study of employees in the workplace, looking at how to motivate employees and what improves working conditions to the point of benefitting the organisation as a whole. There tend to be two types of business psychologists – researchers and advisors. Both are incredibly beneficial to businesses and can really help them stand out from the rest of the market, so it’s a great area of study to go into.
Whether you’re in the middle of obtaining your online graduate certificate of business psychology or looking to apply for business psychology degrees, you might want to know the career paths you can go down after you’re finished your studies. Let’s look at four you can get excited about right now!
- Industrial counsellor
As an industrial counsellor, you’ll be able to use your psychology skills and principles to improve two core areas of the business – its performance and the working environment. You’ll also be able to help design better screening tools to use during the hiring process, making sure the business hires the best employees for the job.
Your main job will be to address current issues in the workplace that can adversely affect productivity, as well as create strategies to resolve these. You can often be the vital component in a time of make-or-break in a business.
Average salary of industrial counsellors: Between $85,000 and $100,000
- Human resource management
Business psychologists often go into human resources because this is where the majority of their skills can be applied to the fullest. When you head into HR management, you might find yourself completing tasks such as:
- Employee performance evaluations
- Consultations
- Employee relations
- Behavioural and organisational assessments
- Management development and employee training
- Fair hiring practices
- Employee personal development
This is just the tip of the iceberg of your responsibilities when it comes to using your business psychology skills in HR management. This is because the study of this subject comes with an incredible amount of skills for you to use in the screening, interviewing, and hiring process, making you one of the most ideal candidates.
Average salary of human resource management: Between $120,000 and $140,000
- Marketing executive
Business psychologists learn a plethora of beneficial skills that will help them in the marketing field, so this is one of the best career options to go into after you graduate. You’ll be able to analyse consumer trends and thought processes, using your knowledge of human behaviour to predict what will work best for your individual product or service. By using your learned skills, you’ll be in a much better position to develop strategies that can attract more customers and pull in more revenue.
In fact, many businesses prefer to look for business psychologists specifically when hiring, as well as marketing graduates. The ability to analyse the market and consumer trends to benefit the business as much as possible is, of course, a desirable trait that’ll hold you higher than other candidates.
Average salary of marketing executive: Between $75,000 and $90,000
- Corporate consultant
Business psychology gives you an edge that many other applicants can’t offer, with expertise that can help large corporations improve their productivity and overall performance. A corporate consultant analyses the corporate structure to see the bigger picture. Instead of working with specific departments, you’ll be working with the upper management to properly understand and locate where the issues are coming from within the entire organisation’s structure. You’ll then be able to come up with a strategy to change this for the better, improving the whole company to keep it functioning as effectively as possible. No pressure!
Corporate consultants won’t be solely responsible for this, but you can certainly help upper management find where employees aren’t performing well and how to motivate them without unfortunate circumstances like layoffs and disciplinary action.
Average salary of corporate consultant: Between $115,000 and $135,000
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are plenty of career paths you can go into after studying business psychology – and this is just the beginning! Other intriguing options include human factors specialists, teaching, talent management, and more. Your qualifications can help you understand business and employees in such a way that many marketing professionals simply can’t.
Even if you’re not interested in going into the field of business, the transferable skills you’ve learned through your degree will surely make you even more marketable to potential employers, improving your chances of getting most jobs you find appealing. Good luck!
