Psychologist Career path

Private practice, research and teaching-those are the traditional career paths for most psychologists. But a growing number of recent graduates are forging ahead in new, less traveled directions. They're finding that employers increasingly recognize-and crave-the skills psychologists have, from critical-thinking, to an understanding of human behavior and a grounding in statistics.

In this special section, we meet 21 recent graduates who have chosen off-the-beaten-path careers. Some went to graduate school thinking they'd be practitioners but revamped their expectations in the face of a changing health-care market. Others discovered they had a desire to serve the public in government posts. Others were lured by private enterprise and the excitement of the high-tech industry. Some are pursuing careers that aren't all that new, but are giving those jobs a new twist.

All of these psychologists have one thing in common: a love of psychology and a desire to do more with it.

Kristen Ralph Beyer, PhD

Beyer-whose official title is violent crime resource specialist at the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resource Center near Washington, D.C.-works with specially trained agents to conduct a new research project on child abductors who murder and serial murders.

The project involves interviewing 150 child abductors and 150 serial murderers to glean demographic and epidemiological information, such as a murderer's education, marital history, employment history and sexual deviancy. Her job is to not only help agents conduct team interviews of prisoners and corroborate their stories, but to also manage the study's protocols and data. In her first six months, she's helped to hone the 700-item questionnaire used in interviews as well as an additional one for those who can't be interviewed in person for legal reasons.