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I have no idea if this is a good place to look for advice, but here I am anyway! I need some impartial viewpoints.
I know that right now, a lot of people feel the same way I do... confused about their career path. I am looking for some guidance. Which is pretty ironic due to the fact that I'm trained to be a therapist.
I graduated with my Masters in December 2019 and passed my licensing exam in March 2020... If you recall, that's when the pandemic really started to ramp up. I wasn't able to get any of my paperwork done to apply for my temporary LPC license. I had 3 supervisors during my graduate coursework that I needed signatures from, I needed to find a supervisor to agree to oversee my work, I had to find $200 for the Texas license application fee, and I needed to find an organization to hire me. Due to COVID, I wasn't able to do any of these things. My supervisors were under the same shelter-in-place orders as the rest of us, the Texas licensing offices were unreachable, and no one was hiring anyway. Not to mention there were no regular jobs available in the small town I was living in; all the restaurants and bars were closed, the university was closed, and any stores that remained open were as fully staffed as they could possibly be. Soooo no money for the application fee.
Now things are opening back up, I have a steady job, and it seems like it's finally time for me to get this rolling. HOWEVER I now have doubts about if this is what I should be doing. I also want to get my PhD. Should I go that route instead? Then another part of me says that I should find another stable job, one that I would like more than the one I have currently (at a hotel). There is an opening at the CPS office in my town, and I could also apply at different universities in the state as a teacher. But I'm at a loss. If you're still with me, help! What do you think I should do????
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mothraa
do what you really deep in your heart want to do. even if it means less money now. satisfaction and purpose in life are the most important.
Donald
Hmm might be good to get the $200 for the fee, and start calling for those signatures on the paperwork. Everyone had the same mess fall on them. so use the excuse! Say hey I wanted to get this done before everything happened but now that things are going again I’m trying to get this paperwork done! And keep asking every 2-3 days until you get it wrapped up. Then you have the qualifications that you already spent years working for.
After that you have options. Take a new job with the therapist qualifications, or keep studying for the PhD. Or switch fields and get another job if you like...
There should be therapy jobs opening up because many organizations have said they want mental health to be a priority and so on. May have to move cities to find the job you want!
You can consider applying your therapy skills in an informal setting to help the people around you as well. It won’t pay, but it can help you to see the impact and environment that type of job will have.
PhD is a big decision, and there is a cost benefit analysis that goes with that... years of effort and tuition costs, but then more income and prestige when you start working at that level. You can run the numbers, and consider what you want out of life. Imagine each lifestyle or workload... talk to people that have made this choice or decided to do something else, PhD students, graduates that have been working in the field for a few years, professors, if you can find anyone that almost did this but then decided something else.
I hope you find the path that suits you best :) we’ve all been through a lot and sometimes we need to refocus and shake off some things that are not helping us do what we want to do.