The most obvious career choice for people with a psychiatry degree is to work as a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist counsels patients who are experiencing mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder, to name a few. As a psychiatrist, you can help patients cope with their mental illnesses and provide them with the proper medication that will help alleviate some of the symptoms of their conditions.
Someone with a degree in psychiatry can open and manage a psychiatric clinic, but not necessarily work as a doctor who sees patients. A clinic manager, or medical director, is an administrative position in which the main doctor of the clinic oversees the other doctors that work for him. Having a degree in psychiatry affords you the ability to run a practice that provides mental health services to patients, and the psychiatrist in charge can manage the personnel, policies and procedures, quality management, finances, credentialing and other administrative tasks.
If someone has a degree in psychiatry but does not want to work in the health care field, she can become a professor of psychiatry or psychology. As a teacher, you are able to instruct others on topics within your specialty, psychiatry, and work in undergraduate college atmospheres or even medical schools. Being a professor allows you to share your knowledge with others, while putting your degree to use.
People with degrees in psychiatry can perform extensive scientific research in particular areas of psychiatry. Research may consist of performing experiments or conducting studies and formulating new theses about mental illness. People with psychiatry degrees can also write books about theories they have regarding psychiatry, medication, the mind and the body.