Career Options After Graduation
If you are going to graduate soon but have no idea what you’ll do as a career you can check out a video series of the UvA-alumni talking about where you can end up after graduating: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM-mb7IpX4mq0Lmw5b6-9e2brxQvlPuGS
Becoming a Health Care or Clinical Psychologist:
In the Netherlands the title ‘psychologist’ is not statutorily protected. Anyone may use this title regardless of one’s training or work experience. When you graduate from a science based university you can use the title Master of Science in Psychology. However to be able to work in certain disciplines within psychology you often need additional registrations.
BIG means ‘Professions in the Healthcare of the Individual’ (Beroepen in de Individuele Gezondheidszorg.) The BIG-register is a governmental body that lists officially acknowledged providers of healthcare. Only BIG-registered professionals are legally authorised to use this protected title that stands for identifiable expertise and capability.
In order to get included in the BIG-register healthcare professionals need to have completed a course or training that is approved by the Dutch government.
You need post-graduate training to become a registered Health Care Psychologist ‘Gezondheidszorgpsycholoog’ (2 year program) or registered Clinical Psychologist ‘Klinisch Psycholoog’ (an additional 4 year program). Note that these most of these post-graduate programmes are offered in Dutch only.
You can read more about this subject on this link.
Becoming a Researcher:
Another career option you could consider after studying Psychology is to become an academician or a researcher. This option might be a bit more international friendly as becoming a Clinical Psychologist without practicing in the official language of a country you’re residing in is extremely difficult. The basic steps of adapting a research career is summarised below;
- Earn a bachelor’s degree
- Seek research opportunities
- Find work in the research field
- Apply to a doctoral program and earn your Ph.D
- Complete a post-doctoral fellowship
- Apply for appropriate licensure
- Research assistant
- Professor
