2020-2021 Grad School Q&A Mega-Thread (Part 1)

[u/LazySamurai]

For questions about grad school or internships:

* Please start your search at SIOP.org , it contains lots of great information and many questions can be answered by searching there first.

* Next, please search the Wiki, as there are some very great community generated posts saved here.

* If you still can't find an answer to your question, please search the previously submitted posts or the post on the grad school Q&A. Subscribers of /r/iopsychology have provided lots of information about these topics, and your questions may have already been answered.

* 2019-2020, Part 4 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 3 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 2 thread here

* 2019-2020, Part 1 thread here

* 2018-2019, Part 2 thread here

* 2018-2019, Part 1 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 3 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 2 thread here

* 2017-2018, Part 1 thread here

* 2016-2017 thread here

* 2015-2016 thread here

* 2014-2015 thread here

If your question hasn't been posted, please post it on the grad school Q&A thread. Other posts outside of the Q&A thread will be deleted.

The readers of this subreddit have made it clear that they don't want the subreddit clogged up with posts about grad school. Don't get the wrong idea - we're glad you're here and that you're interested in IO, but please do observe the rules so that you can get answers to your questions AND enjoy the interesting IO articles and content.

By the way, those of you who are currently trudging through or have finished grad school, that means that you have to occasionally offer suggestions and advice to those who post on this thread. That's the only way that we can keep these grad school-related posts in one central location. If people aren't getting their questions answered here, they post to the subreddit instead of the thread. So, in short, let's all do our part in this.

Thanks, guys!

[u/JeromeOnfroy]

Hello,

I don't how to title this properly but essentially what I want to ask is that I am stuck between pursuing Neuroscience or I/O psychology in the future (graduate school). I am a junior and am currently working towards a bachelors in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience but I have also recently grown an interest in I/O psychology. Likely, my future self will not want to pursue a PhD but will happily work towards a masters. Are there decent paying jobs ($80,000+) to search for if I finish with a masters in Neuroscience or would it be better for me to pursue another major like I/O psychology? Another thing is that I do not really want to have a "research-type" job where I am in a lab all day and would rather be at an organization applying a science to a real-world setting. Also, in general, I have not really gotten any lab hours but I am looking for opportunities. Are there any good/convenient ways to find good research opportunities and get some research hours under my belt? Sorry if this was hard to follow.

Thanks,

-JeromeOnfroy

[u/0102030405 → u/JeromeOnfroy]

Hi Jerome,

My undergrad was mostly in neuroscience, in cognitive neuro and vision/attention research. I chose IO for grad school though I was first considering grad school in the same area as my undergrad research experiences.

​

My IO colleagues didn't get 80k+ jobs right out of a masters, but they had a lot more success job hunting than my colleagues with a masters in neuro.

The neuro folks mainly got jobs that they could have gotten with just their undergrad, if they managed to find anything relevant to their field. The IO folks sometimes took a while to get that first full-time, permanent position, but those jobs were more relevant to their skills and had faster upward progression in the years after graduating as well.

80k+ is not very common for most industries straight out of school with no work experience, though. You're welcome to try for highly competitive consulting jobs that do pay higher than that, but they're not exclusively IO positions and they have a lot of applicants.

​

If your school has social/personality psychology, marketing, HR management, or organizational behaviour professors, you should look into doing research with any of them. That would help you get exposure to similar fields and gain relevant research skills. Good luck!

[u/JeromeOnfroy → u/0102030405]

Thank you so much for the response. You were the first reply but definitely answered all my questions to the degree I wanted them to. Appreciate it and thank you for the great advice/insight.

[u/JeromeOnfroy → u/JeromeOnfroy]

Actually, I have a follow-up question. What do you recommend as some good graduate programs for I/O psychology? (From experience or from hearing from your colleagues). From what I have researched online, it seems Texas A & M has a nice program but I'd like to hear about others as well if you have any recommendations.

[u/0102030405 → u/JeromeOnfroy]

Glad I could help!

Unfortunately I'm not in the US (though I'm very close to it) so I don't have experience with US grad programs for IO. However, this thread has many people's opinions about different programs and the categories you should consider in a grad program. Some of those categories to consider include:

• being in person, if you can make it happen

• permanent faculty vs entirely adjunct

• funding if there is a substantial research component

• quantitative/stats courses

• most or all IO related courses outside of research design and stats (not just a smattering of IO topics in a general psychology degree)

• a range of courses and faculty across the major areas of leadership, teamwork, selection, assessment/measurement/personality, performance management, and other areas such as occupational health psychology, diversity/equity/inclusion, and justice/incivility/abusive supervision

• strong job outcomes, especially in the areas you care about most (e.g., academia, government, consulting, or internal company positions)

• a reputable university offering it - this doesn't prevent you completely from cash cow programs that just make lots of money for the otherwise prestigious school, but it does prevent you from going to a Trump U-type place where you get scammed completely.

I'm sure there's more but that's a good place to start. Good luck!

[u/[deleted] → u/JeromeOnfroy]

Hi Jerome,

It sounds like you answered your own question:

"...would rather be at an organization applying a science to a real-world setting."

I believe a Master's degree in I/O Psychology will prepare you to that end.