I am currently 40 years of age and a college student living in New Jersey and potentially looking to move to Galveston, Texas after graduation. I have no professional experience a this time and this will be my first time entering the professional work force.
Answers
You will want to focus on your skills that are transferable. Entering the mental health field, even as an "Assistant", will help you get to your desired career. The idea is to get your foot in the door.
Sincerely,
Wendy Eccles
Professional Resume Writer
Owner of Amazing Resumes
(253) 670-8328
www.resumeservice.biz/
Go after your master's. My son followed the same career path as you and I always remember him talking about how valuable a master degree is in the field of psychology.
Jean-Paul,
What school are you attending?
A good place to start is setting up a series of appointments with a career counselor at your school. Print out the questions you have asked he on CAPE, and ask them to help you. Let us know what they say.
Start networking with people you already know, such as professors and staff at your school. (This can be done using phone conversation if you are taking classes online.)
Ask your school to help introduce you to alumni who have the jobs you want.
Let us know what your school says.
Hi Jean- Paul,
I think I can help answer your follow up question about how to network in this field. I would recommend using the large network of healthcare professionals on ACP AdvisorNet to start.
This site has a Community feature that is meant for expanding your network. If you go to the 'Community' section, you can then filter Advisors by industry, years of experience and location. If you filter for Healthcare, you'll see all of our Advisors in this field across the country. Once you decide where you want to move, you can use this tool to find healthcare Advisors near your new city.
I searched the term 'mental health' in the search bar and found a bunch of Advisors who list mental health experience in their profiles. I've included the urls for their profiles below. These people live across the country, so you could begin building your network now by contacting them. If you decide you want to move, you might have already built a network in your new city by starting now.
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/54tn6z/thomas-luten
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/3rmp5z/marie-sanchez
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/sgtqrg/alexis-nager
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/q9334s/cassandra-pearce
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/mdbmqb/barbara-hawes
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/8wnf8s/anna-sanchez
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/js3bxw/armand-gravel
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/tqv5mt/ed-waiskopf
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/vq3qkc/mona-lederman
My last piece of advice would be to start volunteering in the mental health field to begin making connections.
Best of luck to you!
Thank you Wendy Eccles for taking the time and effort to respond to me. My other inquiry is exactly how to go about actually networking and trying to find connections to enter the professional mental healthcare field? Generally speaking, as I may move. Are their web rings of mental health professionals who offer advice as how to get entry level positions?
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