Rob wrote a great post about what kinds of things Psychology majors can do to increase their chances of getting a job out of college. He then invited me to write a post on getting into graduate school in I/O. So here it is.

I don’t consider myself to an expert on this subject but there are two things that certainly make me qualified:

1. I got into an I/O Ph.D. program (and finished!)
2. I am part of an I/O Master’s degree program’s selection committee

There are lots of reasons why I call this a “game.” First of all, because it is such a stressful, sometimes tedious, process it helps to keep if fun (just like you should “play with” your data, not analyze it). Second, there is a bit of strategy involved in the whole process. You want to do EVERYTHING you can to increase your chances of getting in. I’d like to go beyond the basics in this post, but let’s get the basics out of the way first:

1. Have GRE scores that meet (or better yet exceed) the program’s standards
2. Have a GPA that meets (or exceeds) the program’s standards
3. Write a personal statement that is well-written, introspective, specific, and explains why you would fit into the program to which you are applying
4. Have stellar letters of recommendation written by professors (or other professionals) that think you are the best thing since sliced bread

But what about the non-basics? You might think, “I satisfy all of those criteria, I’ll be a shoe-in at all the programs, right?” WRONG! The most competitive programs get hundreds of applications and can only accept a handful of students. Here are other things you can do to play the game well:

1. Have plenty of research experience
2. Apply to several programs, both Master’s. and Ph.D. programs (don’t be tied down by geography; now’s the time to spread your wings)
3. Visit the programs you are applying to and talk to the faculty (especially those on the admissions committee)
4. Research the I/O faculty like you would research any company that you want to work for. Show evidence of this research in your personal statement.
5. Speaking of your personal statement the writing process should look something like: Write, revise, revise, revise, get feedback, revise, revise, revise, get feedback (you get the idea).
6. Don’t get a letter of recommendation from a professor that says “Oh, okay, I guess I can do that for you.” You want the one that says, “Absolutely, it would be my pleasure.”
7. Explain all of your “red flags” in your personal statement. If there’s an elephant in the room (e.g. a C- in organic chemistry), address it.

That is all I can think of for now and I don’t want this blog post to be too long so I’m going to invite you to post YOUR thoughts on this community wiki question I created.

One last message to the students: I only mean to prepare you, not scare you. Yes, it’s a stressful process but the rewards more than outweigh the costs.

A user asked via twitter if I had any advice for how to find a job in IO. While I am not personally qualified to give advice on jobs within the IO space in particular, I can talk a bit about finding jobs in general. I have plenty of experience with that.

Typically, in the US, you will hear the mantra “Nothing happens from November to January.” The thinking here is that we have a long list of holidays that the decision makers most likely take off and nothing except essential keep-the-place-running tasks take place. I can vouch for a slow down this time of the year and a desire to push off otherwise important things to the New Year, but sometimes hiring cannot be pushed off.

I have held two full time, permanent jobs since leaving college with my B.S. in Psychology and both hiring decisions were made between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So it’s not impossible, you just have to be:

1. Exactly the right candidate for the position
2. Show an open willingness to do top-notch work for peanuts
3. Or, the company needs to be really desperate.

In our current economic climate (according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, current unemployment in the US is just over 10%), you cannot bank on a company being ready to hire the first drug-free, decently dressed and awake candidate that walks in. That crosses out desperation since there are likely several qualified candidates that dressed well enough and had enough coffee before heading into the interview.

I can’t help you with B either, but you would be surprised how well your psych skills can map to the “real world.” For example, let’s look at some of the things you learn along the way to your psych degree:

• Scientific Method: As a graduate, you should be able to form a hypothesis, explain why that hypothesis is logical, devise a method for testing that hypothesis, run the tests, then measure and interpret the results. Maybe not end to end. You’re not ready to run a research lab, but you can participate in one. In grad school you would refine and expand that knowledge and get more first-hand experience applying it. You should at this point, however, have the basic understanding of how to form an opinion based on relevant information and have some idea of how to test. This, I would argue, is the single most valuable thing to take away from an undergrad program. (Note: If you are an undergrad now and reading this, seek out the professors that are actively conducting research and see if you can get into one of their labs. That will help reinforce what you learn in Stats and Research Methods)
• Basic Statistics: Do you know your mean from your mode? Great. You know more statistics than the average MBA(strike) non-graduate. Being able to interpret research findings from others, including those “reports” from marketing, is a valuable skill.
• Professional Writing: being able to collect, organize, and express your thoughts in a clear and concise manner is very important when writing emails and letters to both current and potential clients, partners, and bosses. I’m not talking about Tweet concise, more like really good blog post concise.

Look at those 3 skills. When you are writing your resume think about how those skills would benefit you in the job you are trying to obtain. When you write the descriptions for the jobs you have already held, frame your experiences so that it serves to highlight those skills (and any other skills you actually have that will be of value to the current prospect). Yes, this means a lot of individualization, but that’s kind of the point. What makes you a great fit for a position in HR may seem out of place for securing an internship in Marketing. We’re still talking about the same 3 skills, but showing that you know how to apply them within the proper context is almost as important a skill in and of itself. That goes for the cover letter as well – when sending your resume via email, consider the body of the email to be the cover letter.

Once you have the interview, dress appropriately, be as awake and clear-headed as possible. Most importantly, be yourself. Acting a certain way in order to get a particular job not only backfires in the interview, but also sets you up to work in a place where you will be a bad organizational fit.
Lastly, remember that your new degree is a foundation. It will take the bulk of your career to build the rest of the house.
Should you decide to go on to grad school and hone those research skills, prepare to become a professor – or want to specialize in a particular area of IO Psych, stay tuned for a post from Prof. Jennifer Bunk on how to prepare.

If you have recent experience in the IO Job market and have specific tips, please add them here. If you have any comments, questions or complaints, use the comment section below or email me at OPIEWeb@Gmail.com.

This is the first post in what will hopefully be a series about Crossing the Divide between research and practice. If you have topics you want to add to this discussion, email to OPIEWeb@gmail.com and we’ll get you set up to post them

ProfHacker.com is a blogging site that talks about technology for professors. They have a guest post this morning asking for folks to join a discussion on how to evaluate student performance. I can’t help but think the IO community would have something of value to add to the discussion. Personally, I agree with this statement from the intro:

While traditional grading tends to do a decent job of evaluating individual student work, it isn’t always the best means of measuring the kinds of skills that are valuable in the digital world, such as collaboration, creativity, and the use of emerging technologies.

I can’t help but think that there would be some similarities between student performance and that of certain classes of employee. Many undergraduate are put situations familiar to upperclassmen knowledge workers such as group work, research projects, report writing and the like.

What tenants, norms and practices from the business world do you think could be applied to evaluate students in a more holistic manner? Post your responses on the question side, or via email at OPIEWeb@Gmail.com.

Oh, and don’t miss their recipe for Potato Curry Soup. It looks great.

Community development is hard enough as it is that we don’t need unnecessary barriers to entry (or do we?). Right now, as we speak, there are about 85 sites just like OPIEWeb for different topics ranging from parenting to math or even starting a new business. You can see the complete list here.

It’s an interesting experiment we have entered into. We all started with the same look and feel and we have slowly differentiated ourselves mainly through logos and colors. Some have gone well beyond that.

We all serve different communities as well, so in a sense, it’s a really huge usability experiment.

One of the more controversial decisions when building the software was the use of OpenID for site login. In theory, OpenID allows me to avoid having to maintain your user ID and password – your OpenID provider does that for me. Presumably, you choose an OpenID provider that integrates with some other service you use on a regular basis like email. We can all use fewer log ins and passwords to remember, right?

There is a hitch. OpenID uses a novel and therefore less familiar method of logging into participating sites like OPIEWeb. This breaks one of Jacob Nielson’s Heuristics for Web Usability (namely, “Consistency and Standards”). Once you get past the initial “who is your provider” screen, you see the familiar username and password boxes, but how many people never get to that point?

Apparently on some of the sites, a lot. So many in fact, that there is a movement among site owners to replace it with a traditional username/password scheme like you see on most sites.

My opinion is that OPIEWeb has bigger fish to fry (like getting more questions and site promotion), but I could be wrong. How big of an issue is our login setup for you? Let us know in on the Question side or via email at OPIEWeb@gmail.com.