Psychiatrist — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Pediatricians, General · Neurologists · Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses · General Internal Medicine Physicians · Clinical Neuropsychologists · Neuropsychologists · Clinical Nurse Specialists
In the official classification#
Psychiatrists
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 5: extensive preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
Specialist medical practitioners
Fit with this page: broader than this page
Psychiatrist
Fit with this page: same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 29-1223.00 (Psychiatrists). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Social PerceptivenessExtremely important
- Service OrientationVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- CoordinationVery important
- InstructingVery important
- PersuasionVery important
- Time ManagementImportant
Knowledge
- Medicine and DentistryExtremely important
- Therapy and CounselingExtremely important
- PsychologyExtremely important
- BiologyExtremely important
- English LanguageExtremely important
- Customer and Personal ServiceVery important
Work activities
- Assisting and Caring for OthersExtremely important
- Documenting/Recording InformationExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesExtremely important
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal RelationshipsExtremely important
- Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with OthersExtremely important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionExtremely important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
- Problem SensitivityVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningExtremely important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- WritingVery important
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 6 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 6 match at least one. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Assessment interview and mental state examinationCollect medical information from patients, family members, or other medical professionals.O*NET's activity is broader · Getting Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: General practitioner · Medical coderRecord patient medical histories.covers part of this task · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Registered nurse · Nurse practitioner · Midwife · Paramedic · Anaesthesiologist · General practitioner · Surgeon · DermatologistExamine patients to assess general physical condition.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Nurse practitioner · Anaesthesiologist · Physiotherapist · Veterinarian · Dermatologist
- Making the diagnosisAnalyze test data or images to inform diagnosis or treatment.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Analyzing Data or Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Nurse practitioner · Midwife · Optometrist · Pathologist · Radiologist · General practitioner · Veterinarian · Surgeon · Sonographer
- Prescribing and monitoring medicationPrescribe medications.the same activity · Monitoring and Controlling Resources · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Nurse practitioner · Anaesthesiologist · General practitioner · Veterinarian · DermatologistAdvise patients on effects of health conditions or treatments.covers part of this task · Providing Consultation and Advice to Others · O*NET 31.0Develop medical treatment plans.O*NET's activity is broader · Thinking Creatively · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Nurse practitioner · Physiotherapist · Dentist
- PsychotherapyTreat patients using psychological therapies.the same activity · Assisting and Caring for Others · O*NET 31.0
- Risk assessment and involuntary treatmentPrescribe treatments or therapies.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Monitoring and Controlling Resources · O*NET 31.0Explain medical procedures or test results to patients or family members.covers part of this task · Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: General practitioner · Radiographer · Surgeon · Sonographer
- Notes, letters and reportsPrepare reports summarizing patient diagnostic or care activities.the same activity · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Occupational therapist · Speech-language pathologist · Pathologist · RadiologistPrepare official health documents or records.covers part of this task · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Teach and supervise medical students, residents, and nurse practitioners.New task · 2026-08 · reported by surveyed workers · O*NET 31.0
- Perform mental health evaluations to provide information to courts of law on patients' mental states.New task · 2014-07 · reported by surveyed workers · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 0 backed by a verified event, 6 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.