Impactful jobs for psychology degree graduates 

Considering a psychology degree, currently studying, or already graduated? This guide will take you through some of the most promising career paths you could enter with a background in psychology.

These aren’t just any careers. At Probably Good, we believe your career is one of the most significant opportunities you have to make a positive difference. With this in mind, in this article, we’ll explore some of the most impactful careers where a psychology degree can open doors and potentially offer unique advantages.

​Psychology research

Psychology researchers use scientific methods to generate insights into psychologically relevant phenomena like emotions, behaviors, and decisions. Research jobs might take place in academia, industry, or research-focused nonprofits, and entry into these careers will require (at minimum) a degree in psychology or a related subject. However, roles that allow one to lead research projects, rather than just assist in research, will often require a master’s or PhD. This is particularly true in academia. 

In their day-to-day work, psychological researchers might do some of the following:

• Design and conduct experiments.
• Collect and analyze data using statistical methods. 
• Present research findings at conferences and talks. 
• Teach undergraduates and postgraduates, if employed by a university.

Psychological researchers might work in any psychology sub-discipline, like social psychology, cognitive psychology, forensic psychology, developmental psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, and more. Naturally, a degree or major in psychology is an excellent (and likely necessary) starting point for careers in psychology research.

How much impact could you have?

Overall, it’s likely that some psychological research jobs could allow you to do a lot of good if you’re able to focus on high-impact research questions. Our full profile on psychology careers gives some examples of these topics.

It’s worth bearing in mind your impact as a psychology researcher will be highly dependent on the research topics you’re able to pursue, as research may not always focus on how to best improve the world at scale. 

Different areas of psychological research can come with their own challenges for focusing on impact. In academia, for example, you are often incentivized to publish research papers in prestigious journals, chasing popular research topics that aren’t necessarily helping to solve important problems. And, in industry, you may be limited to working on research projects that are designed to generate profit rather than achieve the most social benefit. 

Whatever sector you choose to work in, it’s important that you can find ways to either overcome these incentives that might impede impact or otherwise find areas where these incentives align with promising, impactful research.

Psychological researcher salary

The salaries of psychological researchers will vary quite a bit by the type of research they perform. It’s hard to get precise data, but in the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an average salary of $131,220 for scientific research and development services (as of 2023). Psychologists generally receive an average salary of $117,580.

Operations

Every organization relies on a substantial amount of essential behind-the-scenes effort to achieve its goals. This is where operations professionals come in. They are the individuals responsible for ensuring everything functions smoothly and effectively. 

The exact tasks an operations professional handles can vary significantly. However, common responsibilities often include: 

• Internal systems tasks that involve managing and improving internal processes and workflows.This can include anything from setting up CRM systems to keep track of donors and donations, to managing vacation request and approval systems.
• Legal tasks, such as securing an organization’s legal status and ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Financial tasks, like managing payroll, invoices, and budgets. Some operations staff can even take on fundraising for their organization.
• Project management responsibilities to keep projects on schedule and within budget.
• Logistics responsibilities, like organizing real-world activities, including events or office space. 
• Human resources tasks, such as assisting with hiring and handling workplace conflicts.

A background in psychology is likely a strong starting point for operations roles. There are usually no specific backgrounds needed for operations jobs (particularly those with a more general focus). However, the understanding of people can help with navigating the more human side of operations, and the attention to detail you’ll develop during psychology research will be a good starting point for much of the detailed, process-driven work operations staff often perform.

How much impact could you have?

Overall, we think operations can be a highly impactful career for someone who’s a great fit. An operations specialist can effectively multiply the impact of the rest of their organization. By making internal processes more efficient, helping to make good hires, and guiding projects to completion, good operations can help an organization to meet their goals better and quicker.

For instance, in a research organization like a think tank, an operations specialist can take on needed administrative work, freeing up researchers to spend more time doing valuable research. In a health nonprofit, an operations professional might organize the procurement and distribution of health products – getting this right could save the organization money and time.

So, although operations staff are rarely helping other people directly, they often perform an instrumental role in helping others to help others more effectively.

Operations professionals can also play a hugely important role in protecting their organization from risks–whether these be legal, financial, or reputational. These kinds of risks (for instance, a nonprofit failing an audit) can have disastrous consequences for an organization, preventing it from performing its valuable work. 

All this comes with a caveat: because operations is a supporting role, to have a positive impact, it’s vital to work in an organization that’s performing effective work in a high-priority cause area. If you help an organization that doesn’t stand a good chance of having an impact, then neither will you.

Operations salaries

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an average salary of $91,290 for operations research analysts. For operations managers, builtin reports an salary of over $95,000. We couldn’t find better data for more “standard” operations roles, so take these numbers with a pinch of salt.

Getting started in operations

Here are a few practical ideas for actions you can take now to test your personal fit and upskill for operations careers.

• Find low-stakes opportunities to test your fit. Find a local volunteer group that needs some help with logistics or legal work. If they need it, helping to officially register them as a charity could be both a great learning experience for you and genuinely helpful for them, too. 
• Take on measurable projects that can bolster your CV when applying for jobs. Providing concrete examples of improvements you’ve made in ways that organizations care about will give you an advantage in the hiring process. Examples like I helped scale a volunteer organization from 3 to 50 members or I ran a successful event with half the budget are great for demonstrating operations experience and competence.
• Develop more specialized skills. Though you’ll have a strong skill set for the legal side of operations, there are other specialist skills that can help you be more of a generalist. For instance, learning project management, human resources, and people management can all make you a more well-rounded operations specialist.

People management

People management involves managing others – whether that’s managing their tasks and responsibilities, keeping them motivated and value-aligned, providing whatever is necessary for them to perform their job effectively, and more.

People management isn’t a separate “job” or career path per se, because management duties are often tied to seniority and expertise in different career paths. Because of this, you’ll usually need specific experience in whichever career path you take a management job in. 

The daily tasks of a people manager might include:

• Meeting with employees to check on progress and form schedules.
• Hiring new staff and assisting with their training and onboarding. 
• Setting your team’s priorities and strategies.
• Navigating potential performance issues and supporting staff, as well as mentoring them and helping them to develop. 
• Setting goals and tracking progress.

People with a psychology degree may be well-placed to take management roles due to their ability to understand people and behavior. Their skills in reading and understanding scientific literature may also aid them in making managerial decisions guided by evidence. 

How much impact could you have?

People management can let you help people at a really large scale and have lots of positive impact – if you find the right opportunity. 

One reason people management can lead to impact is by working as a multiplier for the impact of others – particularly good managers seem to be able to increase the overall productivity of the team under them, sometimes by dozens of percentage points. If you’re in an organization that’s already doing lots of good (for example, an evidence-led nonprofit working in global health and development), this productivity increase could achieve huge amounts of impact.

Managers can also help an organization grow. Management is often a limiting factor in the number of employees who can be hired, so having more managers (even if they’re only passable) can help an organization to have more impact by increasing the number of people working there.

However, the impact of a people manager is highly dependent on the organization they’re in. Even a great manager might not be able to make a significant difference if they’re in a team that’s not working towards an important or useful goal.

Because of this, it’s crucial to look for organizations that are focused on pressing problems where lots of impact can be had, and that are deploying effective solutions to these problems.

People management salaries

Because people managers can work in any industry and organization and at different levels of seniority, salaries will vary much more than in other jobs. The average salaries in specific industries are likely a better guide to salaries in this path than the average salaries of all people managers. However, management jobs tend to be senior positions, and so may often command a higher salary than the industry average. 

It’s worth bearing in mind that at least some of the most impactful people manager jobs may be in nonprofit organizations, which tend to have lower salaries than other organization types.

Getting started in people management

Here are a few practical ideas for actions you can take now to test your personal fit and upskill for people management.

• Excel at your role. Justifiably or not, most industries tend to promote strong individual contributors into management, so performing well in your non-management roles can significantly improve your chances of getting a management position.
• Try to reach great managers and mentors. Learning from people with experience is important in management, whether you do that by seeing them in action or asking for advice. Try to seek role models who support your goal of becoming a manager and are willing to invest in teaching you (or at least providing some guidance).
• Identify informal opportunities for management. Try persuading your peers to help out with an exciting project at work, volunteer to manage an informal project such as a fundraiser, or ask for permission to spend part of your time on a project you initiate (and will hopefully someday lead).
• Consider the option of getting an MBA. In some industries, this can be helpful, though we’d highly recommend checking with managers familiar with your context on whether this is a good choice for you.

Other relevant careers

The careers explored above are ones that may be particularly advantageous to explore for people with a degree or major in psychology. Here, we’ll give a few quick extra examples of careers that may also be a good fit.

Industrial-organizational psychology

Industrial organizational psychology (also known as workplace psychology or business psychology) is a discipline within psychology that addresses psychology-related needs for organizations like for-profit companies, governments, and others. Workplace psychologists can work as either internal specialists or, often, as external consultants. 

An industrial organizational psychologist might perform do some of the following tasks:

• Identify the mental health and motivational needs of employees, and implement solutions.
• Improve hiring and workplace effectiveness by designing and employing relevant psychometric tests.
• Design a company’s culture and ensure its upkeep.
• Make improvements to office design and layout to improve productivity and employee satisfaction.

We’re highly uncertain about the amount of impact that people in industrial-organizational psychology jobs can have. Much like people managers and operations managers, the most promising route we can see for workplace psychologists to have an impact is by working at impactful organizations to help multiply their impact. This could include both nonprofits and for-profits that have a large positive social impact by deploying evidence-based workplace psychology practices to improve various aspects of an organization, helping its performance. You could even consider offering pro bono consulting to nonprofits that might not otherwise be able to pay for a workplace psychologist.

However, workplace psychology is a relatively new field, and as such, the evidence base for interventions at the organizational level seems to be smaller than other areas of psychology. From a brief amount of research, we found evidence for a few potentially effective workplace interventions (you can read more about this in our full psychology profile). 

However, we’re not aware of many dedicated workplace psychology jobs within high-impact organizations. This means it might be difficult to find a path to good impact within industrial-organizational psychology.

Roles that build career capital

Regardless of the exact career path you go down, often the best way to have an impactful career over the long term is to focus on building skills and experience, known as career capital, while you’re still early in your career. Counterintuitively, this can mean taking jobs that aren’t directly impactful, but that might put you in a better place to take highly impactful jobs later on. 

Here are a few guidelines for opportunities that can offer strong career capital:

• Jobs that offer strong development. Some roles will let you develop skills more quickly than others. For instance, graduate schemes are often focused on professional development. Small, early-stage organizations can often offer more personal mentorship and opportunities to contribute. 
• Jobs in prestigious organizations. Roles in organizations with strong reputations for excellence will look impressive on your CV; they’ll also often give you experience in a high-performing environment, developing your general professional skills.
• Postgraduate education. Getting further education in your chosen field can unlock more, and sometimes better, opportunities. In psychology, it could help you get roles with even more capacity to make a positive impact–especially in research or other science roles. However, it’s always worth bearing in mind if it’s worth the financial and time costs.

Expanding your options

It’s important to note that this is just a small selection of the careers that you’ll be in a good position to pursue with a degree or major in psychology. These are careers that we think have a potential for high positive impact and personal fulfillment, and your degree will put you in a good place to pursue these kinds of jobs.

However, don’t feel limited by these options. Careers are flexible and often take unexpected directions. Your degree will provide a great first step for the jobs discussed in this article, but your true list of options is much larger than it might seem. 

In fact, most graduates (as many as 74%) go into careers unrelated to their degree subject or major. Because of this, it’s well worth keeping an open mind and exploring other paths, too, even if they don’t immediately seem relevant to your education.

What should you do next?

Here are a few suggestions for steps you can take next to plan your career and find great opportunities.

• Read our career guide for a step-by-step guide on building a career that’s good for you and the world.
• Find great job opportunities on our high-impact job board and explore great internships and fellowships.
• See our career profiles for a full list of impactful careers that we’ve researched.
• Consider applying to our free 1-1 advising service, where we can give you helpful, tailored career advice.