The SIOP Exchange

How I Stumbled Upon I-O from a Totally Different Career

By Carrie Zapka, SIOP blogger

How does a Microbiologist end up in I-O?  It was not easy. I-O is definitely not a well-known career option. I will share how I stumbled upon I-O (and I hope you will reply and share your story too) because I believe that we should find ways to help more people from diverse non-psychology backgrounds to discover I-O too. 

A few years ago I hit an invisible mental career wall. I was happy when I was immersed in my day to day tasks. When I thought about my future, though, I was anxious and frustrated. I looked around at colleagues who were a few stops ahead of me on my default career path and I just couldn’t see myself in their shoes.

New Psychology at Work Series

What Do I-O Psychologists Really Do?

Sometimes one of the most difficult things for Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychologists to explain to non-I-O psychologists is what exactly it is that they do.

The field of I-O psychology is, in fact, a varied one, encompassing almost any aspect of the workplace and people within organizations. I-O psychologists’ job titles and employment environments can be even more varied—ranging from employment consultants in private firms to testing and assessment experts in government agencies to human factors professors in University or research settings. (For a PDF explaining potential job titles of I-O psychologists, read “What’s in a Name?” here. For informational brochures about I-O, click here.)

Request for Information About HR Applications of O*NET

By Ann Marie Ryan and Ken Pearlman

The U.S. National Academies has convened a Panel to Review the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). O*NET is an electronic database of information on the occupations in the U.S. economy, based on a content model covering work characteristics and worker requirements (see http://online.onetcenter.org/ for more information on O*NET).

We (Ann Marie Ryan and Ken Pearlman) are the Panel members charged with gathering information regarding uses of O*NET for HR-related applications. To that end, we would like to hear from any SIOP members (or others) with interests in job analysis regarding their experiences in using O*NET for HR applications, along with any thoughts about improvements to O*NET.