There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior staff psychologist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $35.0 an hour? That's $72,797 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 26,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many senior staff psychologists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and integrity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior staff psychologist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.0% of senior staff psychologists included group therapy, while 16.4% of resumes included mental health, and 15.1% of resumes included correctional. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the senior staff psychologist job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior staff psychologists actually find jobs in the health care and education industries.
If you're interested in becoming a senior staff psychologist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 3.7% of senior staff psychologists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.6% of senior staff psychologists have master's degrees. Even though most senior staff psychologists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a senior staff psychologist. When we researched the most common majors for a senior staff psychologist, we found that they most commonly earn doctoral degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior staff psychologist resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or license degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior staff psychologist. In fact, many senior staff psychologist jobs require experience in a role such as clinical psychology internship. Meanwhile, many senior staff psychologists also have previous career experience in roles such as psychologist or internship.
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Evanston, IL • Private
New York, NY • Private
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Long Beach, CA • Public
La Jolla, CA • Public
Vestal, NY • Public
New York, NY • Public
College Park, MD • Public
Clemson, SC • Public
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.0% of senior staff psychologists listed group therapy on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior staff psychologist. The best states for people in this position are California, Alaska, Nevada, and Utah. Senior staff psychologists make the most in California with an average salary of $105,087. Whereas in Alaska and Nevada, they would average $84,030 and $83,991, respectively. While senior staff psychologists would only make an average of $82,955 in Utah, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$105,087
Avg. Salary
2. Nevada
$83,992
Avg. Salary
3. Alaska
$84,031
Avg. Salary