Unemployment figures affect everyone, but the careers that are issued year after year by a large number of graduates, even more so. This is the case of the world of psychology , that although it has many professional opportunities that are increasingly more varied, it does not have it especially easy at the time of generating the jobs necessary to absorb the graduates.

Furthermore, and although it may sound ironic, as much as psychology is about actions and ways of perceiving the world of human beings, people trained in this field do not always know how to make their candidacy attractive in the eyes of recruiters .

How to make a resume if you are a psychologist

Fortunately, there are always ways to maximize our options to make our application stand out in the form of a paper or digital CV.

Some of these rules on how to make a resume are virtually universal and apply to any profession, while others are more specific. In fact, the most general ones can be found in this other article: “The 10 tips to improve your Resume”.

As for the tips for making a curriculum vitae in the field of psychology , these are the keys to bear in mind:

1. A clear and coherent structure

A resume cannot just be information about oneself accumulated, even if that information is well filtered and totally relevant to the purpose we have set for ourselves.

That’s why its structure must be clear, showing the data of each type together and in its own section , and creating hierarchies within each category, placing the most relevant information at the beginning.

Thus, the contact details should be all together and very close to the name, since those are the elements that allow us to identify and contact each other, while academic and work experience should be separated and in reverse chronological order, from the most recent times to the most distant in time.

2. Includes the courses

Psychology is a very young discipline, and between that and the fact that there is a lot of research done annually in this field, constant training is very necessary in order not to become outdated .

When making a resume to apply for a position in psychology or related fields, that means that you should not have any qualms about adding the courses and workshops we have done. Not only do they inform about our skills and knowledge, but they also indicate the philosophy of constant training that we have. And yes, the free courses are also welcome: many of them are of very good quality.

Now, do we have to include all these complementary courses to the CV? It depends, if they are few (less than 3, for example), we can put them without problems. But if they are more, it is better to filter and put only those that we think have more relation with the job you are applying for, because a long list of workshops and courses can give the impression that you only want to inflate your CV without more.

3. Choosing what to prioritize: training or work experience

If the parts closest to the top of the CV are not convincing to the HR staff or recruiting technicians, it is very likely that they will not read any further. That’s why it’s important to put what we emphasize most at the beginning.

This, applied to the structure of a psychologist’s curriculum, means that when establishing the order in which work experience and academic experience always appear we must first put that section in which we excel .

In the case of a student who is looking for an internship place, for example, putting university education and the courses that have been taken first is a good option, since her working life in the field of work that is being chosen is probably very short or none at all.

4. Indicate as soon as possible what we focus on

Psychology has many branches, and there is little relationship between some of them. Therefore, it is good to “sharpen” the profile we want to give as much as possible by eliminating ambiguities and making clear from the beginning what we do or want to do.

To do this, we must first indicate whether we are engaged in research or intervention on individuals or groups. This means that if in recent times we have collaborated with research despite the fact that we fundamentally dedicate ourselves to psychotherapy, it is worth including this collaboration in a separate section located below our experience in intervention.

Once this is done, we do the same with the field we have chosen, writing in a very visible place the specialization we have done and placing the mentions of specific collaborations that are not very representative of our career in a more discreet place than the rest of the functions performed, below them.

5. Include publications and mentions

It is clear to almost all psychologists that it is good (and sometimes essential) to include the name of the publications in which one has participated, whether they are magazine articles or books. However, it is not so often that mentions are taken into account.

This last point is important, because those people who have a small personal website or blog may be surprised that have mentioned them in some digital and paper media , using information we have published.

In fact, these situations are not uncommon: many journalists seek to base the issues they cover in their texts on the views of professionals in that field, and sometimes, instead of agreeing to interviews, they simply quote without warning.

6. Include a specific location for certain technical capabilities

There are certain technical skills that, although they are mentioned in the description of the workshops and jobs occupied, deserve to be highlighted. For this reason, it is a good idea to create a separate module or section of work or professional experience and include them there.

For research positions, this text, in list format, should emphasize the data collection methods that are mastered, both qualitative and quantitative: structured, semi-structured or in-depth interviews, psychological tests, etc.

Data analysis skills should also be mentioned: experience with statistical programs such as SPSS, mastery of programming languages or programs such as R or ATLAS.ti, etc.

For intervention-related positions, you must also indicate the methods of data collection you have experience with, as well as the types of individual or group treatment or intervention you have worked with.