Jobs
There are many places to search for jobs that will provide 'relevant experience'. This page gives you some ideas of the sorts of jobs that might be useful, and where to find them.
If you have any ideas to add to this page, please send them in.
If you want to read or list information on individual vacancies, please see the jobs section of the forum.
What is 'relevant experience'?
This refers to the kinds of work that should strengthen your application for training. The Clearing House provides a useful outline of 'relevant experience'.
Job titles / roles
This section is on my 'to do' list.
At some point, I will write a little here on the kinds of jobs that can offer relevant experience. Suffice it to say for now that the most useful posts are probably entitled 'assistant psychologist'. But they are by no means the only useful jobs, and sometimes they don't much help you develop as a psychologist.
Websites
Here are some useful websites that are worth searching:- jobs.ac.uk - vacancies in further and higher education (therefore particularly useful for university research posts)
- vacancies.ac.uk - similar coverage to jobs.ac.uk, but is free to list shorter contracts
- jobsunlimited.co.uk - produced by The Guardian
- fish4jobs.co.uk
- sector1.net - for public sector jobs in northern England
- PsychJobs - more psychology vacancies
- BPS Appointments Memorandum - Monthly vacancies listings, including some posts that should provide 'relevant experience'. Available to BPS members only.
- Health Jobs UK
- Jobs in Health
- psychminded.co.uk - also a useful general psychology and mental health resource
- Jobcentre Plus - their database seems to be much more useful these days
- NHS Jobs - a national database, seemingly more up to date too
- Jobsite UK - one of the first multi-sector recruitment sites
- Mental Health Jobs - does what it says on the tin
The vacancies page of your local universities are often worth checking out, although universities generally list their vacancies on jobs.ac.uk. For example, the University of Newcastle has its own vacancies page.
Newspapers
Local papers generally carry adverts for local NHS trusts, universities, voluntary organisations and councils.
National papers can also be a good source, but remember that there will be more competition for these posts (not that that's a reason not to apply!)
Of course, the nationals have their own websites which will list these vacancies too - quicker to search (and probably cheaper) than the 'dead tree' versions.
It can still be useful to browse (for example) the vacancies in the 'Education' and 'Society' supplements of The Guardian, published on a Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. These can give you an idea of the kind of posts out there, as well as containing interesting articles related to health, welfare, schools - even the occasional bit of psychology!