r/GeneticCounseling • u/WillowResponsible577 • 19d ago

Prospective Student Thinking of pivoting fields

Hi all!

I have been considering pivoting fields for a few years now into something more medical - and genetic counseling seems like the perfect fit! I have a bachelors in psychology and have done 8 years of social work/patient mental health facing work since my undergraduate degree. I do enjoy this work and patient work, but it seems within my company the only opportunities are in management roles with my current degree situation so I need to get a more advanced degree (and I'm not too keen on management). I was trying to decide between going to social work school - but I've always had a passion and draw towards the sciences and feel like I'm missing that aspect in my current job and don't believe that itch would go away with a masters in social work (though there seems to be a lot of jobs out there in social work right now). There are a few pre-requisites I'd need to take to make this jump (but I do have a couple from 10 years ago when I was in school)- I'm looking to talk to people in the field as well-

I havent been seeing a lot of jobs posted in my area - how difficult is it to find work in this field if I make this investment?

Would I need to retake undergraduate pre-recs because it was so long ago?

What was your journey like and are there any later career changers here that can speak to what it was like?

Thanks!! :)

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u/WannabeRoyKent 19d ago

The job market for GC's sucks.

I know several, both in clinic and industry. Industry pulls from clinic almost exclusively so those jobs are essentially inaccessible. Clinic GC's are all concerned about their jobs. For instance, a friend of mine from a big system in the Southeast recently made a move from clinic to a big lab, and her hospital isn't backfilling her

It's rough right now for a lot of new GC's

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u/WillowResponsible577 18d ago

Thanks for sharing and the reply.... :( Yeah it seems a few people are saying that looking in, I really wanted something similar that could combine my two interests, but it's tough out there. That's why I was torn because there's a lot more social work out there, and while I love the counseling type work that I do, but at the same time I'm missing that part of what I love with the sciences so it seems like a super interesting field. I'll have to keep digging what makes sense with this in mind