How To Become A Staff Psychologist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a staff psychologist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Jim Sliwinski Ph.D.,

Amy Mezulis Ph.D.

As a staff psychologist, you have a very important role in ensuring the staff's health and mental well-being in your company, the patients in your clinic, and your mental health. You will need to have medical knowledge and analytical skills.

A staff psychologist also needs to be observant and have integrity or be able to keep secrets. You will need to have at least a bachelor's degree, but you will find a position easier if you have a master's degree. Staff psychologists usually are working toward a doctoral degree in psychology or social work. You will also need experience in clinical psychology or an internship. It would also be good if you had experience in clinical psychology settings.

Usually, as a staff psychologist, you will need to carry out difficult assignments when assessing clients' mental states. You may need to assess and treat children, adolescents, adults, develop programs, and evaluation reports, do clinical research, and have communication skills. As a staff psychologist, you can be compensated with an average salary of $71,000 per year.

What general advice would you give to a staff psychologist?

Dr. Jim Sliwinski Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychology, Defiance College

I encourage all undergraduate psychology majors to consider graduate school. A bachelor's degree in psychology is becoming much more of a pre-professional program. That's not to say that there are not many jobs out there for individuals who only have a bachelor's, but full-time jobs, with benefits, are becoming harder to come by.

ScoreStaff PsychologistUS Average

Salary

6.1

Avg. Salary $77,671

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.6

Growth rate 14%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.20%

Asian 3.34%

Black or African American 6.18%

Hispanic or Latino 10.44%

Unknown 3.44%

White 76.39%

Gender

female 56.28%

male 43.72%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

8.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.9

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a staff psychologist

Explore staff psychologist education requirements

Most common staff psychologist degrees

Bachelor's

44.3 %

Doctorate

33.7 %

Master's

20.0 %

Start to develop specific staff psychologist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	13.64%
Group Therapy	7.94%
Crisis Intervention	7.05%
Veterans	5.57%
Treatment Planning	5.33%

Complete relevant staff psychologist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New staff psychologists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a staff psychologist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real staff psychologist resumes.

Research staff psychologist duties and responsibilities

Provide psychological therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder, deficit/hyperactive disorder, specific learning disorder and others mental diagnosis.
Provide consultation regarding appropriate placement/treatment of juveniles in the DJJ system.

Prepare your staff psychologist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your staff psychologist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a staff psychologist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable staff psychologist resume templates

Build a professional staff psychologist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your staff psychologist resume.