The Federation of Swiss Psychologists (FSP) has launched a petition. Add your signature to it!

The time has come to act. On 17 November, the FSP launched a petition demanding the coverage of psychotherapeutic care by basic health insurance when prescribed by a doctor. It’s crucial to get as many signatures as possible to prove the necessity of changing the current system (that of delegation).

Mental illnesses and crises are frequent occurrences. Nearly one in every two people suffers from mental illness at least once in their lifetime. Access to ambulatory psychotherapy is fraught with obstacles, resulting in largely inadequate care. The fact of not treating mental illness in time has disastrous consequences.

There is a simple solution to this problem: the psychotherapy carried out by psychologists must also be covered by basic health insurance when prescribed by a doctor.

Sign the petition! You’ll be contributing to greater recognition of the profession of psychologist and better access to care for people suffering from mental illness.

• Read the full text of the petition (in French or German)
• Read the arguments (in French or German)

How to sign

• Online, at www.eliminer-les-obstacles.ch (F) or www.huerden-abbauen.ch (D)
• By printing out the petition form (F or D) and filling it out by hand. It will hold around fifteen signatures. When completed, put it in an envelope, stamp the envelope and send it to the address on the document.
• By ordering ready-stamped petition forms from the FSP (send an email to [email protected]). These will hold five signatures.

Note: anyone can sign a petition, including minors and people who do not have Swiss nationality.

Spread the word!

If every psychology student gets involved, the potential number of signatures is huge. Please share the link to the petition (www.eliminer-les-obstacles.ch, www.huerden-abbauen.ch) with as many people as possible, circulate the explanatory video (in French or German), follow the Facebook page and encourage everyone you know to do the same, send the link to the petition to your contacts on WhatsApp and include it in your email signature. Talk about it with your student friends from other faculties too. If we all work together, we can make things change.

Many thanks in advance for getting involved!

Sooner or later we are all faced with the challenge of presenting ourselves as the intelligent, successful, motivated and experienced people we are on one piece of paper: the curriculum vitae. We have summarized some of the most important points for you.

A CV should be tailored to the specific position you are applying for. The goal is to present yourself as the best fitting person for this job. So, do your research, be sure about what they are looking for and adapt your CV accordingly.

Usually a CV is 1-2 pages long. It is advisable to put some effort in design elements so that employers see your motivation for the job. A typical CV consists of the following elements:

Contact information:

Name, address, phone number, email address, professional media (LinkedIn, Xing, …), nationality, and date of birth.

Photo:

Professional quality is very important. Usually Universities offer free opportunities to get a professional picture, for example at the Long Night of Careers.

Education: list the universities where you have studied, start with the most recent one.  

• Indicate the duration of your degree
• Write the title of the degree, specialisation, the name of the University
• Specify your focus, show them what you’ve learned

Hint: If you had outstanding grades or if a specific project might be interesting for your future employers, make sure to highlight it. If you are applying for an academic position, make sure to include the names of your supervisors (“name-dropping”). If you are applying for a position in a country with a different grading system, translate your grades in words (e.g. “excellent”, “very good”, …).

Professional experience: list relevant experience as bullet points

• start by specifying the date/duration of employment
• then the title of the position, the company name and if you think it might help include the names of your supervisors
• describe your activities, the technical skills you developed and highlight the ones that are of interest for the position

Hint: Show them very clearly what your skills are and where you have acquired them.

Professional training:

If you had the opportunity to do a special training, follow a specific course, attend a summer school or got a relevant certificate, it is important to mention it, this could help you to stand out from the other candidates.

Technical Skills:

Here you will mention all the software that you are able to use. If you like you can state your level.

Publications and Conferences:

If you are applying for an academic position you should mention publications and the attendance at conferences. These kinds of Super-Curricular activities show your enthusiasm for your field of interest.

Languages:

Mention all the languages that you studied and your level (native/ proficient /conversational/basic, or alternatively: B1, B2, C1, etc.)

Extracurricular interests:

This part is not to be neglected; it can very much positively distinguish you from the other candidates. In this section you can list your activities and hobbies (e.g. association, sports, music, art, volunteering, …) and the quality that you developed through them (organization, supervision, budgeting, …).

References: there are 2 possibilities:

•  either you mention the references: name, relationship (professor, internship supervisor, …), email, and phone number
• or you keep the references private at the first stage and simply write “References upon request”. The recruiter will have to contact you first to get your reference contact and you will be able to notify your reference person that he/she might receive an email from this particular company for this specific position.

Finally, make sure to ask someone for proof reading and good luck with your application!

Author: Sonia Lebboukh

Edited by: Cécile Vitali

All about psyKo!

PsyKo is a National Congress for the psychology students of Switzerland organized by the psyCH. About 100 psychology students will gather in a big house in Hasliberg Reuti (BE) on the weekend of 26-28 April 2019 to take part in interesting presentations, workshops and trainings. The program is in English (with a few exceptions in French or German).

Why should I go there?

Do you want to enlarge your knowledge of psychology outside of your studies? Do you want to meet psychology students from all over Switzerland? Are you thinking about a career in research? Or do you miss the camp feeling and want to have a fun weekend with your study buddies?

All of the above are valid reasons to participate psyKo! The broad program ensures that everybody finds lectures and workshops they are interested in. Contrary to other psychological congresses, psyKo chooses not to have one specific topic in order to cover a vast majority of different fields of psychology.

With fun welcome games and a party on Saturday night, you will get the chance to meet psychology students from different universities. Have you ever considered studying on a different campus? This is your chance to ask your fellow students all about their university!

Thanks to student lectures you will get the chance to present your bachelor or master thesis and to gather your first congress talk experience.

Another highlight of psyKo Congress are the psyCH trainings given by the psyCH trainers.

That does sound fun… how can I apply?

Applications will be possible between 23 November and 23 December 2018. As the number of seats is limited (100 students + our organization team), you need to show your motivation via a google form and only the 100 selected psychology students will have access to the link for the final registration. This is NOT a first-come, first-served system. Therefore, it is all in your hands! Think about your motivation to attend psyKo 2019 and fill out the google form since the selection will be primarly based on that. The participants will have to pay a participation fee to cover food and logistics.

Great! So we will see you at psyKo 2019 in Hasliberg Reuti (BE)!

University is a world full of wonders. It is a world where people come together in the pursuit of knowledge, passion, science, sports, art, music, friendship and so much more. It is the place where people find their true interest, where they learn how to become who they want to be and hopefully meet some companions along their way. University is the place where people discuss complex problems with excitement and strive to revise their beliefs. It’s also a time during which you can party on a Thursday night without feeling bad because: you are a student.

Of course this new world can be overwhelming at first: you need to learn the rules, you need to learn where you can go, how to get there and how not to get lost. But don’t worry. We got your back and support you with advice from older, wiser and successful students.

The first thing you will probably be worrying about is what every student is worried about: exams! It’s the one occasion where you can show what you can (and also cannot). The most important thing you should do to be effective is buying a calendar; these are cheap and look nice. Make a plan that clearly states when you are going to do what, and how long it will take you. List your tasks, do urgent things first and most importantly: start early to avoid panic studying in the middle of the night. Skip a party, if you have a lot of things to do the next day. There will be many, many more of these. If you have one of those bad Mondays, don’t beat yourself up, take the day off and work on Saturday instead. Go ahead and make that coffee break, but maybe don’t discuss Marxism or how you feel about Donald Trump and his latest tweets for three hours. Don’t stay up till 2:00 am, if you have to get up at 6:30 and of course you can take a weekend off every now and then, but don't fly to Madrid two weeks before your exams.

The second thing you will realise when studying psychology is: there’s so much free time. While you might really enjoy this at the beginning, you might get lost along the way. So get active! University offers all kind of activities: yoga, volleyball, kung fu, sailing, orchestra, theatre, students associations (psyCH maybe?), fraternities and sororities. Whether you want to get politically active, show your talent on a stage or swim across the ocean, your University supports you.

The third most important thing is: you are in an environment where you can try everything, be great at something, fail at another thing and observe where life is taking you. People usually tell you that they had the time of their life when they were at University. Now this might not be true for everyone but this time for sure is unique and we should try to enjoy it while it lasts. University is a world full of opportunities waiting to be grabbed, go ahead and take them. Explore your potential and lead others to new ideas.

And welcome to our world.