Hi, Here is the summary of advice in response to my student's search for information about org psych degrees and programs. Thanks for your responses. ===================================== Have your student check our our I/O master's website: http://www.cudenver.edu/public/psych/IO_welc.htm. It has some links to other useful information. Cheers, -- mitch -------------=============>>>>>>>>>[][][][]<<<<<<<<<=============------------- Mitchell M. Handelsman, Ph.D. Phone-- Fax-- Professor of Psychology 303-556-2672 303-556-3520 Campus Box 173 University of Colorado at Denver Internet-- P.O. Box 173364 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Denver, CO 80217-3364 -------------=============>>>>>>>>>[][][][]<<<<<<<<<=============------------- I had such a student. <clip> But she got a great MS, and a very high paying job. That's what she wanted. I wanted her to do a Ph.D., do research, and teach. She's very happy with her degree and her profession. Al Al L. Cone Jamestown College <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> North Dakota 701.252.3467 X 2604 http://www.jc.edu/users/faculty/cone You wrote, in part: > My student is currently interested in consulting sorts of work. She > doesn't want to close the door completely on someday doing research, but at > the moment she is pretty sure she'd like to work in the field. She knows a > woman who works at Andersen Consulting in Chicago and can see herself in > that sort of environment. Someone who is actually working in the field seems like a tremendous resource to tap. Can she arrange a visit with her contact and perhaps spend a day doing a "job shadowing" with her? Perhaps her contact can suggest others actively working in the field with whom your student could talk, too. > Her particular interests at the moment in org > psych have to do with the role a job plays in the rest of a person's life > (and vice versa). Her senior project is looking at the fit between > personality and job characteristics (what is a good fit, does fit matter). These two questions might be of some interest to potential consulting clients. One tactic she might try is to visit local employers and ask questions about their perceived needs in the areas she is actively interested in. The entry, clearly, is generating real-world hooks for her project, but the broader interest in those kinds of problems might be useful, as well. > 1. What sort of degree should she get? Is a PhD. actually a disadvantage > for the sorts of jobs she is interested in? She has heard that a Master's > and work experience may be a better route. If she really wants to do consulting, she better realize right quick that it is first of all a sales job she'll be doing. Anything that makes her skills as a consultant look (a) good enough to do the job she's bidding on and (b) better than those of her competitors is to her advantage. I think the doctorate is the ticket here for those reasons: It simply connotes more expertise and credibility to potential clients (and to employers, e.g., Andersen Consulting). I assume she has done enough homework to believe she has a reasonable chance of being admitted to relevant graduate programs...got good grades? got good GRE scores? got research experience? got good recommendations? If those pieces aren't pretty much in place, she may simply be kidding herself about graduate work in the first place. As an advisor, you have some responsibility to check these background elements, I think. > 2. For particular schools offering I/O degrees, do you know of any > resources other than www.siop.org that would have information about the > quality of the school and the sorts of work the faculty are doing. My > student wants to go to a good school to learn of course, but also wonders > about 'name value' or prestige. I wasn't able to guide her on how much > employers care about that sort of thing. Search the literature; search the literature; search the literature. She has problems in mind and (because she is doing a project) should have some familiarity with workers actively investigating the kinds of problems she is interested in. Who are the research leaders with respect to those problems? Where are those folks located? Write to them. I really, really think that personal networking is a major component of success in any kind of consulting work. What will matter most is (a) who she knows who can recommend her and (b) what success she has had in past work, ie. a track record. Active researchers in fields like I/O often have an active consulting practice, too, so hooking up with such people may open doors via her mentor(s) It might be that a prior question, before worrying about the prestige of various programs, is to ask if she can actually get into any program at all (cf. commentary above). If she doesn't (and if you don't) already have Keith-Spiegel's book on graduate school admission, go get it and read it thoroughly and follow the guidance she gives. > 3. Do any schools or professors leap to your mind as being particularly > well suited to her interests. See the response to question #2 above. Finding names in the literature is probably the best route here. Checking Social Sciences Citation Index to see whose work is being cited broadly is a pretty good indicator of who the most prominent players in the field actually are. Write to those people. Apply to the schools they are affiliated with. Hope this is some helpful. Pat Cabe ************************************************** Patrick Cabe, Ph.D. Department of Psychology University of North Carolina at Pembroke One University Drive Pembroke, NC 28372-1510 (910) 521-6630 [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________ Connie Wolfe, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Hanover College P.O. Box 890 Hanover, IN 47243 812-866-7318 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
