A Growing Passion for Selection

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.

Make it to the Top

By Ajeng Soepangat

I flip through my photos from my 6-week trip to Indonesia this summer. Thoughts of nostalgia begin to pop up. No. I can't be reminiscing right now. The first week of Graduate school starts tomorrow. I have to finish reading this Social chapter before bed.

Great. Now the pressures of grad school begin to form. Let me just get through this chapter first. Nope. I'm too distracted now. I can't focus.

Okay, Ajeng. Just remember all the advice you were given about grad school.

Manage your time wisely and efficiently. Dividing a large project or reading into smaller, manageable chunks will make it a less daunting task.

Take initiative and ask questions. Speak up in class, not because of participation points, but because you are an information seeker and researcher.

Embrace your mental breakdowns. You're bound to have at least one a semester, and that’s okay. It’s a right of passage.

All right. Now I've gained perspective.

Instead of asking myself, “What did I get myself into?” I can ask, “Well how can I improve?”

Any area I currently still lack in leaves even more room for improvement.

It’s important to become your own anchor and embrace the challenge. 

No matter how many mental breakdowns you may have, you have to stay with an open mind. 

I know it will be difficult, but we'll make it to the top.

First Year Master's Students ready to make it to the top!

Grad School… It changes you

By Kyle Swaim

If you walk into any beginner level graduate course, you’re likely to find several things. First, you will undoubtedly pick up on the fear. There is a certain level of anxiety that accompanies nearly all major shifts through life but the fear you find in newbie graduate students is unique. You’ll most likely never hear it vocalized explicitly but it will be evident via the tension in the room. It presents itself differently to each student but ultimately it all comes down to the same question “what did I get myself into?” Aside from the fear, you’ll probably notice the overwhelming amount of ambition in the room. At first glance, it’s intimidating, each student with some aspiration, each more unrealistic than the last. But as you progress, it becomes charming, almost inspiring. You notice that each of these individuals hope to change the world in some way… and then classes start.

When students begin their program, eager to become masters of their art, they each have some interest, some idea or concept that has motivated them to pursue this degree. In our program, it’s typically anything from leadership, training, or teams or in our degree’s case perhaps it is just the fascination for the human mind coupled with the practical desire to make a living. However, as the students move through the various stages of the program, taking the required course load each semester something interesting, and most likely intentional, occurs. These interests change. This may seem like an obvious happening but keep in mind that these interests were what drove these people to commit two or more years of their lives to this program. What is really happening is that the professors of the courses are enlightening the young minds as to what “training” or “leadership” really is. And more importantly, what a career in those topics will look like. From this, you get a sort of refinement process where the students are continuously narrowing down their lists of interests to, at times, what is the least painful project I worked on.

With all that said, at the end of the day, you get a very different person than the one that started the program. What you ultimately find, in most cases, is an analyst of some sort. You get an individual who has been through hell and back, beaten the dead horse to death, and has learned more than they ever really wanted to. Those who have endured this trial will come out of the other side with a view on life that is altered to forever be viewed through a particular lens. In our case, upon graduation, we will never look at statistics on medicine commercials the same, we will never be able to observe a group interact without thinking of Asch and Zajonc, and most importantly, we will never set foot in an organization again without leaving it a better place than when we started.

Kyle at the 2014 Society for Consulting Psychology Mid-Winter conference in San Antonio. 

Don't be shy - Ask for help!

By Jaclyn West

As a graduate student one’s first impulse, and indeed impression, is to be independent and find ways of getting things done that don’t involve other people to the extent that it’s possible, but I’ve been learning that in graduate school, as well as life, you need to ask for help. In fact that was one of the first pieces of advice impressed upon us from the first day we stepped in the door from some very wise graduate students who had been down this road before us. Know when you need help and ask for it. This creates an atmosphere that not only promotes collaboration and shared knowledge but mimics the business world as it exists today as well as what it will continue to become in the future. Asking for help is both humbling and empowering. If we can learn to do it correctly, everyone can benefit. An important lesson to learn as early as possible is that isolation is not how we as people were designed to function and although it may be scary, intimidating, or even seem futile at times, you never know how much asking for help can potentially lead to a phenomenal outcome and maybe even some new friends. So as one who is trying to put this lesson into practice, I must learn to acknowledge that I can’t do everything myself and begin to leverage others’ considerable strengths, should they be willing to lend them, because the people around you have some pretty amazing things to offer. Just step outside yourself and see!