Change in career from B.Com to psychology

No. You need not do a BA again. With your B.Com qualification, you can apply for MA Psychology. There are many universities offering MA to graduates.
The admission to MA will be two types. Some colleges offer admission based on your B.Com percentage and some colleges are offering based on the entrance test they conduct.
The following colleges are offering seats on merit that is the percentage in your graduation.
1. Fergusson College Pune
2. IGNOU
3. Banasthali University, Jaipur
The following colleges are offering seats based on the entrance test.
1. Daulat Ram College
2. Indraprastha College for Women
3. Zakir Husain College
These colleges will give seats based on the entrance test conducted by the University of Delhi.
Once you complete your MA psychology, there are many openings and you can try for those jobs. After completing an MA you can attend the test conducted by UGC for lecturer eligibility. Once you are qualified in this you are eligible to join as a lecturer with UGC scales in any college. You can also apply for a UGC fellowship for doing PhD. You will have fair chances to excel in the teaching line once you complete your MA and PhD.
You can do BEd and join as a teacher in any school. These are the options you have in teaching line.
There are many other jobs also which are mentioned below.
1. Mental Health Counsellor. Some corporate hospitals will have these posts. These are to looking after the emotional and mental health of the patients.
2. Psychologist: You will have these posts in various Hospitals, Schools, Prisons and Universities also. Psychologists help people in overcoming their personal problems including basic, severe and chronic problems.
3. Supervising Counsellor: These jobs are available with counselling firms and private practitioners. They will train the supervisors enabling them to deliver effective and ethical services.
4. Adoption Services: These posts are available in adoption centres. They will deal with the parents and the child being adapted so that they will have a healthy relationship.
5. Alcohol and Drug Counselor: These people will help individuals who are addicted to alcohol and drugs and see that they will be away from them. The Rehabilitation centres, Government Agencies, and NGOs will have these openings.

With the changing lifestyle, there are many possibilities of making a career in Psychology. Psychology treatment is based on the consumption of medicines and changes in thinking. If you are interested in this field from the beginning, then this is a career option.

Course for you:-
MA / MSc in Psychology (2 years)
PG Diploma in Psychology (2 years)

How to get an entry:
For admission in BA or BA Honors in Psychology, it is mandatory to pass 12th with 50 percent marks. Apart from this, you can also do PG or Diploma, for which a Graduate degree with 55 percent marks is necessary. To do an MPhil or Ph.D., it is necessary to be a postgraduate in Psychology with 55 percent marks.

Option :
There is no shortage of employment in this sector. Psychologists can find employment in government and private hospitals, universities, schools, government agencies, private industries, research organizations, corporate houses. Apart from specialization in Psychology, many new fields have emerged. There can be a lot of opportunities for you as well.

Consumer Psychology:
Before launching any new product in the market, consumer surveys are conducted and try to test the consumers' tests, needs likes and dislikes, etc. based on the analysis of these experts.

Social Psychology:
Apart from removing social tensions, these include freeing criminals and drug users. Their services are taken by government social welfare departments, NGOs, and many agencies involved in social reforms. They also have an important role in resolving family disputes, marital affairs, and other problems.

Industrial Psychology:
The role of a psychologist in the selection process of employees can be seen generally. Their task is to assess the behavior, personality, and presentation of the applicants who came to the interview.

To become a Psychologist it is necessary to:
To become successful psychologists, one should have good communication skills, patience, and the art of working with people of all ages. Along with this, it is also necessary for psychologists to be sensitive, caring, confident, and satisfy the client.

Major Institutions:
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Delhi University, Delhi
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Noida
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

If you are seriously interested to persue Psycology, your existing qualification B.Com would not create any hindrance while choosing your M.A course with Psycology.
There are two modes prevalent for taking up admission in this subject, the first one you should have at leat 55 percent or above in your graduation level and on the basis of your marks, you will be offered admission.
The other alternative is that you have to clear both written and oral tests prescribed by the university for inducting the aspirants.
Hence you have to fulfil the criteria of the admission set by the different unversities. They follow either of the modes.
Regarding your apprehension that you should continue B.A taking up Psycology is baseless and post graduation in Psycology can be persued straightaway even with your present degree.
However the following criterias are preferred while taking up the course of Psycology-
1) The candidates should have the analytical approach to understand the human behaviour of varying forms.
2) They should be sensible and caring while tackling the different cases.
3) They should have amazing communication skills to impress the persons/ patients.
There is no dearth of job opportunities for such aspirants. They may be absorbed in Hospitals, Schools, Universities, Health Centres, Reserch Institutions, Private agencies etc.
There is tremendous scope of advancement in tens of service career with the specialisation of Psychology after acquiring M.A in Psychology followed by certain certifications in the field given below - 1) Industrial Psycologist -
An Industrial Psycologist applies his advanced knowledge of psychology to deal with common workplace issues. They concentrate on increased productivity of the organisation, selection of best workers for augmenting production etc. The choose the right blend of talents for stepping up production.
2) Clinical Psychologist- The clinical psychologist has sufficient training in the assessment, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of mental illness.He renders his service in health centres, hospitals and even carries out his own practice independently.
3) School Psychologist- He is employed in a school to diagnose and treat various behavioural problems of children reading in different classes. He works closely with the educational professionals such as Doctors, Teachers and Guardians.
4) Counselling Psychologist- A counselling psychologist generally works with clients having less serious mental illness. He works in a Research Industry, Vocational Counselling apart from psychotherapy centre.
5) Forensic Psychologist- The Forensic Psychologist handles the psychological issues relating to crimes and law. He needs to develop a psychological profile of possible criminal and dealing with the child custody matters apart from investigation of allegations relating to child abuse.
Before you take up the course in M.A in Psychology, you can have queries with the following institutions so as to have entire details with respect to admission.
1) Jamia Milia Islamia , New Delhi
2) Indira Gandhi National Open University
3) Aligarh Muslim University
4) Banasthali University Jaipur
5) Ferguson College, Pune
6) Delhi University, Delhi
7) DAV College, Chandigarh.

For making a career in life one has to find out what one's interest line is. The reason is that a person can work seriously and sincerely in his area of liking and passion. If one can pinpoint that then that is the ideal thing to do and is a key point for the success in life. Now you have already acquired a degree in commerce which itself a good subject for making a career but if you do not like it much and have interest for other subjects like Psychology then you can definitely change stream at this juncture as there are many colleges and institutions where graduates can get admission in MA Psychology irrespective of the fact that they had it as a subject in their UG course or not. So from that angle there is absolutely no problem. If you have interest in Psychology then there are many niche areas in it where people can try to make a career after doing the Post Graduation and may be some specific diploma course after that to strengthen the knowledge and learnings for applying in a particular field of Psychology.

As you have so far not studied it, I would suggest you to go through some basic Psychology books which are prescribed for class XI, XII, and UG courses and do some home study so that you will not have to cut a sorry figure when you start attending the PG course in Psychology. This is a very essential step for those who want to make a change in their stream at such a juncture after completing UG course in some different stream and planning for a subject in PG in an entirely different stream. Please note that today we are in a very competitive environment and a good career can only be made when a student scores high in any stream whether it is commerce or Psychology. So I need not to mention that commensurate efforts are to be done for getting a good score in the PG exam in Psychology that you are intending to join soon.

Doing BA in Psychology first and then going for PG will take 3 years extra from your prime career making time and I would not suggest for it. Instead searching an institution where direct admission in PG is allowed would be a better option. You can even consider doing it in correspondence mode and joining a certificate or diploma course in parallel to it for increasing your learnings in this field. One can attend two courses simultaneously also if one of them is in correspondence mode.

There are many areas where a PG in Psychology can try for making a career and some of them are -
1. Teaching - For those who have interest in teaching, there is scope in colleges and universities and for that after completing PG one has to qualify in National Eligibility Test (NET) which is a necessary pre qualification for applying for lecturer positions in colleges or universities.Those who can complete PhD in the same line are exempted for NET and can apply for these positions simply after PhD.

2. Psychologists in industry - Every industry has to manage their workforce and treat it in a proper way to keep them motivated and inspired to get the best productivity from them. In order to achieve that ambitious targets industries usually hire qualified psychologists to counsel their staff or employees time to time. This is a good prospective area to look up to.

3. Psychologists in Healthcare industry - Healthcare industry is booming day by day and it also employs psychologist to manage the depressive moods of the patients who undergo long treatments and start feeling sad and depressed in their lives. The psychologists have a great role in bringing them back to the normal world.

4. Psychologists in media - Media is becoming very powerful nowadays as public participation from the social media platforms is increasing day by day. The big media house or communication agencies hire the psychologist to understand the media happenings in subtle ways and advise the management for various appropriate actions and measures. This area is emerging with much scope.

5. Counselling Psychologists - Psychologists are required for counselling in so many areas in our lives like treating the drug addicts, alcohol addicts, family problems and counselling for couples, crime related tasks etc. Many organisations having this nature of work hire them for these purposes. One can even have an independent counselling agency also.

Some of the institutions where you can enquire more about the PG course in Psychology before deciding to take admission or apply for it are -
1. Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Kolkata.
2. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
3. Fergusson College Pune.
4. Delhi University, Delhi.
5. Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Noida.
6. IGNOU.
7. Banasthali University, Jaipur.
8. DAV College, Chandigarh.
9. Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, Pune.
10. Jyoti Niwas, Bangalore.
11. Mithibai College, Mumbai.
12. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

As mentioned above, you have done graduate in commerce and now aspiring to pursue M.A in psychology. There would not be a problem in joining psychology as a postgraduate subject. No need to do graduation in this subject. You can take up admission in M.A psychology with B.Com degree. Many universities offer this course as a post-graduation subject. But, there are different rule for getting admission to a different university. Some university takes admission based on graduation marks whereas some conduct entrance test followed by an interview. You will have to clear test only then you can get admission. Thus, you have to follow the rule and regulations prescribed by the university from time to time.
There are many job opportunity available after doing post graduation in psychology as follows:-
1). Counsellor- Psychologist counsellor are much in demand in our society. Many organisation invite application form for recruiting counsellor post. These counsellor help in treating the problem of alcohol addiction, drug addiction and other family related issue.
2)clinical psychologist- This psychologist has great opportunity to render their service in heath centre and hospital. They can also open own clinic.
3) Teaching field- There are many opportunities in teaching field also. After completing M.A you can go for PhD and UGC-NET which is essential qualification for being recruited as lecturer in University. Moreover, you can do B.ED and CTET which is essential criteria for joining school as a teacher.
Apart from that, there are many opportunities available in media, industry and school as a psychologist.
Some of the university which provides quality education as follows:-
1.Jamia Millia University, New Delhi
2.IGNOU
3. Banasthali Vidyapeeth
4.Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
5.Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
6. Delhi University, Delhi,

Earlier there was limited scope for a Psychology student like teaching or some competitive exam which everyone attempts. But now in many industries there are some openings for the Psychology qualified people. These industries are healthcare, law firms, counselling agencies, media houses etc. Psychologists are required for various assessments whether it is the customer inclination or public participation in an activity which only a Psychologist can properly decipher.
So after doing B.Com. one can think of going for Post Graduation in Psychology for making a career in aforesaid environment. It is also to be noted that we are in an era of specialisation and simply doing PG will not be sufficient for making a career and some specialised certificate or diploma might also be needed like child counselling, family counselling, labour related matters, Psychology of masses, and many other such specific fields.
So you have to find an institution where such courses are available and you can complete them in one go spending 3 years that is 2 years for PG and 1 year for the specific course which will generate a job potential in the selective market. If you have paucity of time due to your financial condition and want to pursue these courses along with some livelihood job then it would be wise to go for correspondence mode education.