Kathleen Monks
2nd year I/O MS student
I have been fortunate enough to experience first hand how I/O Psychology comes to life in the workplace through a variety of internship experiences during my time as a graduate student at UT Arlington. My current internship, as a member of the Talent Selection and Assessment Team at Baylor Scott and White Health, has shown me how valuable this field proves itself to be to organizational success. Over the past four months, I have received exposure to multiple areas that touch I/O and have developed an unexpected and altogether welcome passion for Selection work.Contributing to multiple projects has expanded my knowledge and appreciation of I/O topics and how they interact within organizations to drive forward business needs. The first project I worked on at BSWH was developing a realistic job preview for a call center. The words, “I trust you,” have never been so powerful to me as my manager gave me the freedom to be creative and devise a product based on my original thought and somewhat limited work experience. She gave me the freedom to fail and succeed. I also helped develop questions and create structured interview guides, followed up by my first business trip to implement our training initiative. My manager allowed me to lead portions of this meeting. While uneasy at first, expanding beyond my comfort zone in this group setting allowed me to develop confidence in speaking in front of business leaders while delivering a high quality product.
In addition to answering other internal consulting requests, I have been heavily involved in a selection assessment initiative. Our team is championing a change in the selection process that will have widespread and long-term organizational implications. I have been a part of project planning, a project kick-off meeting involving organizational leaders across divisions, and am currently playing an integral part in managing the project as it continues to take shape. I have realized the importance of generating buy in from leaders internally and remaining committed to project milestones. One of my favorite portions of this project includes the extensive focus groups we conducted as a part of job analysis work. Never have I more appreciated the difficult work nurses go through on a daily basis and the incredible resilience required for the people in these roles to meet the demands of their jobs.
While I have to admit that my previous conception of selection was that it was somewhat dry, my current views toward selection and assessment could not be further from this misinformed idea. I am part of a dynamic team that constantly seeks to innovate and answer the needs of the business as both psychologists and consultants. This project work became much more meaningful to me when a close family friend had surgery at a BSWH Hospital. The impact of this work affects both people I know and strangers. I want only top tier employees taking care of and serving the needs of the people of Texas (we are the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in this great state). My experience at BSWH has not only allowed me to learn more about myself and more fully understand the field I am currently studying, but most importantly it has elucidated how selecting the right people for the right jobs plays a powerful role in sustaining a healthy organization, and in my case a healthy community.
