11 Applications: Translating Post-Secondary Education into Career Readiness
By Meghan E. Norris and Riley J.T. Bonar
In this Applications series, we aim to share content that helps you make connections between psychological science and how it is applied. A large part of this is demonstrating how psychological science is applied in various careers, and we focus much of our content on the Canadian context, and the Queen’s University context. That said, we believe much of this content will be broadly applicable and encourage you to share it with your community as is helpful!
Here, we would like to share some general career supports. It sounds silly, but it can be easy to forget the many things you’ve accomplished. We encourage you to connect with Queen’s Career Services, or your local employment support office, to build a resume template if you do not yet have one. For example, if you haven’t yet, you are able to add that you are a student at Queen’s University completing your degree! If you began the Queen’s Human Rights and Equity Office Foundations in I-EDIAA Program: A pilot in partnership with PSYC100 for 2026-2027 that we introduced in our last unit, you already have a second new and big initiative to put on your resume! Congratulations! : )
As you engage in your studies, you will dive deep into discipline-specific details in your courses. This is critically important as you develop expertise. It can be hard to communicate these details on a resume or in a cover letter, especially if you are translating your expertise into new contexts. We encourage you to think broadly about how you can communicate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other competencies you are building. A framework we find helpful is to consider how your experiences map onto common attributes desired by employers (Norris & Baker, 2019). Below we provide a simple spreadsheet that you can use to track examples of your competencies tied to commonly desired attributes—you can find an open copy of this spreadsheet here that you can “make a copy” of and fill in with your own details.
| Coursework that demonstrates my skills and ability | Volunteer experience that demonstrates my skills and ability | Paid work experience that demonstrates my skills and ability | Lived experiences that demonstrate my skills and ability | Awards/honours that demonstrate my skills and ability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership | |||||
| Ability to work in a team | |||||
| Communication skills (written) | |||||
| Problem-solving skills | |||||
| Communication skills (verbal) | |||||
| Strong work ethic | |||||
| Initiative | |||||
| Analytical/quantitative skills | |||||
| Flexibility/adaptability | |||||
| Technical skills |
If you are looking to go deeper into tracking your progress as you build competencies, there is more comprehensive spreadsheet where you can track your development.
If you are a student at Queen’s University, or an alumnus who graduated within 1 year, you are able to book in for a free session with a career coach for support in developing your resume (and for carer guidance more broadly!).
In the coming units, we are so excited to share profiles of PSYC100 alumni from here at Queen’s. You’ll see some real examples of career pathways of students who have completed this course. Some of them might surprise you! We also hope that as you explore the opening “Making Connections” units, you will see some tangible ways that psychological science can be broadly applied, especially in ways that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. There is a lot happening in the world of psychological science! We are excited to share more about the application of psychological science in many contexts as we kick off IntroPSYC with you!
References
Norris, M. E., & Baker, T. W. (2019). An introduction to careers in the psychological sciences. In M. E. Norris (Ed.), The Canadian handbook for careers in psychological science. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/psychologycareers/chapter/introduction/
How to cite this resource:
Norris, M. E., & Bonar, R. J. T. (2026). Applications: Translating post-secondary education into career readiness. In PSYC 100: Principles of psychology. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/testbookje/chapter/applications-translating-post-secondary-education-into-career-readiness/
