Students acquire both specific content knowledge and marketable skills. Specific content knowledge in psychology may include discipline specific information such as knowing the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder, knowing Piaget’s model of cognitive development, and understanding the use of reinforcement schedules as motivators of employee performance. During your time in the MSU Texas psychology program, you have obtained substantial content knowledge. At the same time you have also developed a number of marketable skills.
Marketable skills are skills, developed in the pursuit of discipline specific content knowledge, that transfer readily to a variety of employment settings. For example, it may not be directly relevant to a future employer that you know the symptoms of major depressive disorder. However, the writing skills that you developed while writing a 15-page paper discussing differential diagnosis of major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder may be of considerable value to a future employer. For example, a future employer can certainly capitalize on your ability to distill information and communicate in a professional manner.
For those not immediately pursuing graduate training in psychology, marketable skills are the most valuable benefits associated with gaining a degree in psychology.
As a graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from MSU Texas, you have developed the following marketable skills:
- Empirically-supported problem solving
- Interpersonal competence
- Effective writing, rhetoric, and communication
- Cultural competence for adaptability in the workplace
- Analysis and synthesis of information
- Effective communication in multiple contexts
Additionally, you may have developed other marketable skills such as:
- Critical thinking
- Data collection, interpretation and analysis
- Cross-team collaboration
- Creative use of technology to facilitate project completion
- Project leadership
Take time to talk with your academic adviser and take advantage of the free consultation services at the Career Management Center about marketable skills. By the time you graduate, you will want to know what skills you have developed, what evidence demonstrates you’ve obtained these skills, and how best to market those skills!