The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How to decide between one or more job or course offers

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

Starting point is 00:00:32 the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. Today on the Aspiring Psychologist podcast, we are looking at how you weigh up which job offer or course offer to accept if you're in the position where you have one or more

Starting point is 00:01:14 to choose from. I'm guiding you through my top tips and stay right to the end to get all of them. Hope you find it useful. With Dr. Marianne Trent Hi, welcome along to episode 75 of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. If you're listening to this episode when it's freshly available you will now know that it is mid-May and we are approaching the end of the interview season for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. A date to remember is the 9th of June. A time to remember is specifically 2 p.mpm on the 9th of June. If you are in the position where you have any offers for doctorate in clinical psychology places, that is the time that you must have accepted your offer. I presume if you haven't, it will be automatically cancelled and your place

Starting point is 00:02:42 will be offered to somebody else. So that is most definitely something to be aware of. Now, sometimes people will leave it until the last day because they're trying to decide what is going to be the best fit for them. And of course, this crops up in other areas of psychology as well. Sometimes you might well be in the position where you have more than one job offer and you're trying to decide which is going to be a bit of you. So today's episode is all about that. How do you choose between two job offers? So last week was thinking about should you still, could you, might you, would you still go to interviews if you already had a job offer so if that's what you're looking for you might well find that a useful

Starting point is 00:03:31 listen that's episode 74 but today is you know you've done well you smashed it out the park you've got at least two job offers or course offers to to mull over okay so let's guide you through this with what I'm thinking is likely to be six key topic areas to consider but you know me may always be a few more if you're watching on YouTube please do subscribe and like this video let me know in the comments what you're thinking what your top tips are if you're listening on audio please do take a moment to rate and review this episode either on apple podcasts or on spotify and come along to the aspiring psychologist community brackets free group on facebook where we can talk about this and a whole lot more too.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Okay so consideration number one is going to probably be more relevant if these are job offers rather than course offers but if it's for example a master's course that you're trying to weigh up against each other this might well still be relevant for you as well. So it's weighing up the job offers in terms of the job description, in terms of the salary, in terms of you know what it is that's being offered to you and the opportunities that will crop up within that. Where's the location? What are the job hours? What's expected of you? And is that something that you want to consider? So very important factors to consider. And of course, when we spoke about some of the similar issues last week, we're thinking about,

Starting point is 00:05:17 well, what's the approach if you've got dependents or if you care for somebody? You know, how inclusive is the employer in that regard how much does it look after your needs point number two is all about company culture now that might well be the employing trust if you're you know looking for assistant work or training course in you know psychological well-being practitioner or something like that or it might be the employer for a private organization for a relevant role in um in the career path to becoming a qualified psychologist or it might be a course it might be a course in counseling psychology doctorate course in counselling psychology doctorate, it might be clinical

Starting point is 00:06:05 psychology doctorate. What is the university like? What is the employing trust like? Because there's of course those two aspects. Is it a good fit for you? What do the values of that trust or organisation say about them? Do they feel like a good fit for you? One of the interesting things I did recently was look at the Clearinghouse website for how different clinical doctorates talked about themselves. And some of them to me felt a bit oppressive. it felt like really heavy-handed and exact and precise and the ones that for me were a bit more free-flowing and a bit more you know you don't I'm trusting you not to need to know every single detail of what's going to be taught and instead just giving you the themes of what will be taught for me that would be more a bit of what i wanted rather than yeah giving me every

Starting point is 00:07:08 single breakdown point of each lecture i'd ever attend that's um too much for me of course that's going a bit ott they're not going to list every single lecture but certainly all the themes and all of the module titles and things were included and for me that was a little bit much I would rather know about how they treat their trainees or how they treat their staff and what they're hoping I'm going to learn and what you know why I should pick them you know what is it about them that they feel is unique and special and that they do really well that's the kind of things that I'd be wanting to weigh up and of course now is the time for thinking about what others who've gone before

Starting point is 00:07:51 say about the employer say about the course say about the university itself say about you know departments you're going to be working in you know do you know anyone is there anyone on LinkedIn that you might know who might already have had some experience with this particular and specific offer you've been made and it can be a really good idea to check out the alternative handbook as well to see what people have said about it if it is a course. But that said, of course, people do have different experiences. So you're allowed to still make a choice, even though someone has told you that it wasn't a good fit for them. And sometimes, because it can be really competitive, sometimes we choose to do something that we think might be a little bit tricky because we feel that this is our chance to move on forwards in our career, this is our chance to get our first

Starting point is 00:08:50 assistant psychologist interview for example and so you might still choose to make a decision which feels like it may not be the wisest most forever permanent choice but I'd say when it comes to choosing a doctoral course that it really should feel as right and like as bit like and like it's a bit of you as much as possible. So point three to consider is all about career growth. So if it's a qualified role then is there you know potentially a perceptorship opportunity to take you from band seven to band eight and beyond is there a potential to go from band four assistant to band five assistant have there been or could there be opportunities for you to to do a specific type of training during

Starting point is 00:09:40 that course or that role might it offer you the opportunity to do some research within that job role so that you're learning more and getting more to add on your CV as well. If it's a course, do they teach specific modalities which are going to be really useful for you in terms of going forwards in your career after you qualify. It might also at this stage be useful to look at what previous people have done as a result of having done this job or completed this course. Where have they gone to? Where have they flown their wings? What areas do they work in? Again this can be a really useful time to check out LinkedIn. If you're not already connected with me on LinkedIn, do come on over. I'm Dr. Marianne Trent. Now might be a wonderful chance to take a little moment and to listen to a little jingle.

Starting point is 00:10:36 And whilst you're listening to it, if you like it and you're on YouTube, please do like and give me a comment too. I'll catch you on the other side when I will be back along to discuss the three remaining points plus any other musings I've got to. So stay tuned and I'll see you very shortly. I'm the way to get to. So many tips. So many things that you can try. The aspiring psychologist. The aspiring psychologist. Inspiring Psychologist Collective Thank you for listening.

Starting point is 00:11:34 Thank you for staying tuned. I know a song that will get in your head, get, get, get, get in your head. And I think the same is true with my jingles. So I hope you love them being there as much as I do. In the first half we were guiding you through the first three of my six top areas for consideration when deciding which job offer to accept or which training offer to accept and so this next half is going to be all about guiding you through the next three as well

Starting point is 00:12:05 as any other random bits and pieces I can consider to throw in. So this is especially important if you are going to be on a doctorate course for three years and this is about distance, this is about commute. Not everybody can practically afford to or literally afford to pack up their old troubles in their old kit bag and move off to their university town for three years. I did, I did because I was footloose and fancy free but there's many reasons why you might not do that. You might have parents who need your support, parents who maybe are not well, you may have children who are already in schools and you don't want to rock their boats so much. There'll be a variety of reasons. Maybe you're already mortgaged and you really love your home and your environment and

Starting point is 00:12:57 you know that your friends and your networks around you are really going to be a strong, supportive factor for you, protective factors, as we talk about in psychology. And so it might be that you're going to be commuting. And of course, it's useful to know that that might affect how you bond and how you share time with your cohort. So there were a couple of people that did commute in our cohort and it meant that quite often they didn't come to the after University pub gatherings because they had to get back and that did affect their university experience so for me I was able to be you know more going with the flow and you know walking

Starting point is 00:13:44 to uni on the days when I wanted to be perhaps having a little a little tipple after uni there are factors to consider but sometimes people do make it work with you know airbnbs or actually a b&b and you know staying over a few nights a week so that they can immerse themselves in university and the studying and the requirements of the course whilst still benefiting from their home and their family life for days or for nights a week. So it's got to feel right for you. It's got to be tenable for you and your family because we don't want you to burn out and if you've got you know two hours commute each way plus you might end up on a placement that is like an hour outside of where you live already which might mean you've got three hours each way that's going to be tricky so definitely factors you'll need to consider so if it is a course offer you're trying to weigh up it can be useful to

Starting point is 00:14:46 consider or maybe even ask the courses what are their areas for placement. So I'm aware that you know for example Solent NHS which covers the Southampton course, Isle of Wight of course is a place that needs mental health provision. And so it might well be that you end up with that as your catchment. And so you might find yourself having to take the ferry across to the Isle of Wight for maybe a few of your placements. And so you'll need to factor that in to your decision making as well. Now you know there are very much more less beautiful places that you could be about to consider living and moving to and having spent a couple of holidays in that nectar woods it is stunning it is sensational and one of my good friends her

Starting point is 00:15:38 family home is in the Isle of Wight and she sends me the most wonderful videos and photos and sends me voice notes from there and it sounds incredible so it's not all factors to consider as disadvantages you know sometimes we can embrace this moving this relocation as something really special and unique but of course along with the commute comes cost expense. I know that my car is a slightly older model. I drive a 10 year old a month, across a year, across the whole time that you might be living there. And you know how sustainable is that commuting cost going to be for you? Factor five to consider is all about the work-life balance. So if you're trying to weigh up opportunities for employment, where actually some of the culture of the employing trust is that they promote home working, you know, flexible approaches, perhaps, you know, you live close enough that you

Starting point is 00:17:02 can walk to work sometimes, you know, that's going to be advantageous. That was certainly the case when I was most recently employed, that sometimes I was able to walk and that made such an incredible difference. Not all the time. Life's not always that kind to us. But, you know, for the work-life balance, it was pretty incredible. And when it came to choosing between driving, you know, 26 miles each way during really heavy rush hour traffic and then being able to sometimes work from home, sometimes walk and generally be closer to where my family was, even when I was in a base, that was a hard case to answer for so even though it was it meant moving my discipline to adults from children I moved job and even

Starting point is 00:17:57 though it meant moving from a substantive qualified paid permanent contract to moving to a fixed term contract for me it felt like it was worth it because the work-life balance benefits were going to be so brilliant for me and my family. Usually within courses you're probably going to have the same amount of annual leave because it would usually be pretty standard for band six NHS staff if you're employed but there are different courses who do allow you to have some annual leave time within the teaching year and there are others who don't allow it at all so if you know you've got you know family who are likely to to schedule a wedding on a midweek day

Starting point is 00:18:47 across your three years of training and that you'd really like to go then it's maybe just worth considering how flexible courses are about annual leave and again that's something that you might be able to ascertain by speaking to previous trainees. When weighing up job offers from private trusts or hospitals and NHS it's worth looking at their sickness benefits and their pension benefits and how many days annual leave you get for example and whether you get any additional perks. So when I was working for a large psychiatric hospital that was non-NHS, they would give you a celebration day that would mean that you would be able to get an additional day's annual leave. You could choose to take on your birthday or your child's birthday or your anniversary, some day that was important to you which didn't count towards your annual leave allowance

Starting point is 00:19:45 and again that same trust would give you I think it was monetary value in your pay packet for every six months that you'd not had a day off sick for I don't know if they still do that because potentially that might lead to contributing to burnout but certainly at the time it was very useful I think I used to get like an extra hundred pounds or something for not having a sick day and then of course I think if it got to a year I then would be given I think additional day off as well so it might be just worth looking at any individual or specific benefits that come about as part of that job offer or employment. And if you think you might want to become a parent during training, then it might be useful to think about what's gone before you. So of course, it is a job,

Starting point is 00:20:36 it is a fixed term contract for a doctorate in clinical psychology. And so they do have to treat you like any other staff and there's maternity leave paternity leave all of that jazz but what's gone before you have people tended to defer a year or drop back a year what's gone before you and again chatting to previous trainees can be really useful in that regard I don't know of any male caregivers who have decided to take shared parental leave whilst on training but who knows it might be a possibility if you have done that and you'd like to come and chat on the podcast or you know somebody who has done that please do get in contact because I'd love to chat with you. Last but not least in our six point run through of choosing between two job offers is your gut, trust your gut feeling. How is it feeling to you? How did

Starting point is 00:21:29 it feel to be part of the interview processes for both or all of these job offers or course offers that you are weighing up? Which felt more aligned to you? Who treated you in the way that you like to from that interview or if it was remote, what you felt in your body as you shut down your laptop and you went off to make a cup of tea. Did it leave you feeling uplifted, excited, hopeful? Did it leave you wanting to cry? really useful communications and do not shut down your own ability to tap into your gut instinct because it can be really important communications. You know, it's normal that you might feel completely exhausted after certainly a doctorate interview, especially if it's been going on for hours or days, or if it meant that you had to do some element of prep beforehand. So exhaustion, I think, is normal. But if you felt exhilaration, you're tired but exhilarated, that's important communication

Starting point is 00:23:00 in itself as well, I think. So I think in summary you know we're evaluating the job offers, we're looking at the company culture, we're looking at the career growth opportunities for you, we're looking at the commute and how it would impact on you and your life, we're looking at the work-life balance and we're looking at gut feeling. It's also important to know there might well be no right or wrong decision here. You get to choose you know what feels like it's going to give you the best chance of getting to the next stage of your career whatever that might be. If you enjoy this sort of approach, this sort of musing,

Starting point is 00:23:47 this sort of reflection, I think you might quite well enjoy the Aspiring Psychologist membership. And if you're looking for ideas about which jobs to apply for, I think you'll really enjoy the Clinical Psychologist Collective and the Aspiring Psychologist Collective book. So I hope you found this useful. If you've got any questions or any ideas for future podcast episodes, drop them in the comments if you're watching on YouTube or get in contact with me if you're listening. Even if you're watching on YouTube, you can get in contact with me too. I'd love your ideas for future episodes. Thank you so much for being part of my world.

Starting point is 00:24:27 And I will look forward to catching up with you very soon for our next episode of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast. Take care. If you're looking to become a psychologist Then let this be your guide With this podcast at your side You'll be on your way to being qualified. It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. With Dr. Marianne Trent. My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological well-being practitioner.

Starting point is 00:25:11 I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book. I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one. And this kind of filled me with confidence that, no, I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How to decide between one or more job or course offers

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