Excited to Enter the IO Psychology Field

The field of IO Psychology is a great place for professionals who thrive in analyzing issues and providing potential solutions. Saad Arshad '21, M.P.S. IO Psychology, enjoyed this aspect of his capstone experience.

"What intrigued me the most about the field of IO psychology was studying an organization and then being able to diagnose and solve a problem. I enjoyed working with teams of people as we figured out the problems and following through with a strategic plan to solve them."

Tune into this episode to hear more about Saad's experience in studying IO Psychology and applying his new knowledge in the real-world.

Learn more about UMBC's M.P.S. in IO Psychology.

Transcript

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Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Welcome to this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up, my name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs. We're joined by a recent graduate of our IO psychology graduate program. Saad Arshad, we hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome Saad to this episode of UMBC's Mic'd Up. It's wonderful to have you here with us.

Saad Arshad  0:21  
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be on.

Dennise Cardona  0:24  
Saad, can you talk to us a little bit about what made you choose the UMBC graduate program in IO psychology at UMBC.

Saad Arshad  0:34  
I would say what made me choose the program here at UMBC in IO psychology was that when I was an undergrad, I was thinking about a few options. I don't, I didn't know which subfield of psychology to choose, there was a couple of options open to me, like clinical psychology. But ultimately, I chose IO psychology simply because the job opportunities were just abundant with even just with a master's degree. And so I found that IO, Psych psychology would provide me with a lot of not only just great job opportunities, but a lot of marketing and networking opportunities as well, with simply just like, with a master's degree at UMBC, I found that UMBC was a very practical and applied and hands on program. So I decided to pursue UMBC.

Dennise Cardona  1:27  
What I love about the UMBC graduate programs here in the Division of Professional Studies is all the programs are very applied in nature. So it's kind of like you can learn something on Monday night and go to work on Tuesday and apply it right directly. And it's, it's really an enriching learning experience, to be able to learn something and to be able to apply it and not just learn the theory, which is still important. But to be able to apply that theory in the real world, I think is a real takeaway. Can you for those listening? Could you explain just a little bit about what intrigued you most about the field of IO psychology?

Saad Arshad  2:05  
What intrigued me the most about the field of IO psychology was that the the sort of like, organize, like studying in organization, and being able to, you know, a lot of people, a lot of teams and whatnot, studying teams, studying the organization being able to diagnose a problem. And then being able to solve the problem with just teams throughout whether they're in the HR department or IT department making, you know, working with a lot of people coming together. And figuring out well, this is a problem in our workforce, maybe we're not doing a good job, we're not following through with our strategic plan. And being able to, you know, just work with different team members, and being able to solve organizational wide problems to improve employee productivity was definitely intriguing for me.

Dennise Cardona  2:56  
Yeah, that's a really wonderful description of what IO psychology is. An I'm studying right now in the Learning and Performance Technology graduate program at UMBC. So it's, it's sort of like, related, it's, I'd call it a sibling in a way, because what we do is we we are the ones who would create the training for if there was a performance gap. And there's, there's something found out with IO psychologists where there is training is needed. It's not always needed. But when it is, that would be where I would step in and create course modules and instructions to be able to help bring organizations up to speed so to so to speak. And it is an exciting field to be able to take problems that are happening within an organization and to be able to help improve processes. Because that's essentially that's what you're doing is you're looking at something, analyzing it, and deciding well, how can we improve this? How can we make this better so that everybody thrives? And people enjoy coming to work and doing a great job? What What was it that made you choose UMBC?

Saad Arshad  4:02  
I would say, you know, probably the biggest reason was just that I was at UMBC as an undergrad. And so I was already familiar with the institution, I already knew that they were very helpful. They had a broad wide array of resources when it came to, you know, just seeking help maybe outside of you know, just the classroom environment seeking professional employment opportunities, networking opportunities, with organizations like Sherm, just various, I just found UMBC to be helpful outside of the classroom, not just inside, but definitely outside of the classroom. Another reason was that UMBC once again, they marketed heavily as a applied hands on program as opposed to some of the other programs that I saw. Now again, as you mentioned, theory is very important, but I felt like a lot of the other programs just tended to not really provide you know, A lot of their faculty members weren't working professionals, they were more like research oriented. And so I definitely wanted program where working professionals brought their experience brought all this, you know, knowledge and their skill set from outside and, you know, brought it into the classroom and, you know, transfer that experience and knowledge on us, I think that was very helpful.

Dennise Cardona  5:23  
Yeah, I would imagine that it's incredibly helpful to be able to have these instructors who are out there every day, working in the field, understanding what the issues are, because things change, too. It's a dynamic type of industry that things don't just stay the same. So they bring in this knowledge of, hey, this is what happened in the office this week. And this is what I learned. So it's almost like real world case studies where you're learning something really enriching from a faculty member. And they're asking you to dig deeper to be able to understand and analyze what issues and how to resolve those issues. That's a really great benefit. What were your expectations, in coming into the program,

Saad Arshad  6:05  
I would say my expectations were that if I wanted to, maybe perhaps I was thinking about, like, if I wanted to be employed at a consulting firm, and maybe want to do or maybe want to do some work, and maybe an HR department, my expectations were that I would be able to walk away with just a, you know, a lot of with a practical skill, set applied knowledge, and also walk away with, you know, being able to network, being in a community with not just faculty members, but with other students and working professionals being able to stay connected with them, and just help one another out even after, you know, after the program was done with. So I would say that, yeah, definitely my expectations were going in that I would walk away with a lot of practical knowledge and looking opportunities. Yeah, yeah, that

Dennise Cardona  7:02  
networking factor, is incredibly pivotal when it comes to a career because I mean, that's how you can get your foot in the door somewhere. That's how, you know, you can brainstorm ideas that you might be having at work and not you have a network of teams of people who you can reach out to and talk to about these things and help brainstorm solutions. It's, it is a really great. It's a really great thing to have at the end of a program like this. Speaking of building a rich network, can you talk a little bit about what your fellow classmates were like in terms of maybe, you know, was there a spirit of collaboration in the in the class? And, you know, what, what kind of they were working professionals? Were some of them working professionals, were some of them, not working professionals, but what kind of experiences did they bring to the classroom,

Saad Arshad  7:53  
there was definitely a spirit of collaboration. That's one of the points that I would stress in this program that I really liked is that there, aside from you know, COVID, and before COVID, came around, and we had to, you know, switch to online modality. I remember during in person instruction, it was we always were in a group, a lot of the times almost every course there were several group projects. And there was definitely a lot of collaboration, many of the people that I was that I was in a group with, there were working professionals, some of them were those that were older and had a lot of experience, they brought a lot to the table. Some of them were working professionals, but they just didn't really maybe know much about the specific topic of the course that we were in. So it was just amazing to see a lot of people that especially those that you know, were had a lot of experience in a certain topic they were able to bring that into our you know, project one of the projects that we worked on, like in Job analysis, one of the group members worked in the HR department in one in one accompany and did a lot of work with not only recruiting but just updating job posts. And so they had they knew a little bit about how to access a jobs qualifications, the knowledge, skills, abilities, and whatnot, they were able to definitely help me out and I was able to learn a lot from them, as opposed to just simply learning from a textbook or from the instructor.

Dennise Cardona  9:25  
How did this program prep you for a professional career within IO psychology?

Saad Arshad  9:32  
The IO psychology graduate program at UMBC prepared me in a way where they definitely push their alumni, their students and alumni to not only seek out a lot of, you know, like, up going up the ladder and seeking a better job opportunities, but also exploring a wide array of fields within IOC And that's really, one of the things that they prepare you for is they're not just setting you up, like in a specific field, they're allowing you to get to explore many different fields, see what interests you see where your strengths lie, and then you, they will be able to work with you. And hopefully, you'd be able to find, you know, your specific niche and, you know, work, definitely pursue that specific line.

Dennise Cardona  10:27  
Yeah, that's really great to be able to have that lens to be able to look at various different opportunities, because let's face it, when you go into a program, not everybody knows every single facet of what you can do for a career. And that's the greatest part about being in a graduate program, like the IO Psychology program is that you're able to explore these different avenues, things you may not have even thought about. And now you're like, wow, I didn't even realize that that was an option. And I'm sure that it really does open many doors for people in terms of being able to just consider different career paths. What was your biggest takeaway from this program,

Saad Arshad  11:10  
the biggest takeaway from the program was the applied knowledge, the applied skill set, the practical knowledge that I was able to walk away with, after having taken some courses, you not only learn the theory, but you were able to take whatever you learned in the classroom environment and apply it. And I definitely applied that, you know, in the, in the last course, that everyone takes in the program, it's a capstone course, it's applied, it's outside of the classroom environment. And you take what you've learned, and you apply it. And that's something that I found that, you know, a lot of the, whether this skill set was in strategic planning, or survey design or job analysis, you were able to take whatever you learn, go into an organization, diagnose the problem, and then work with them to improve that process. Whatever it was, what

Dennise Cardona  12:05  
are your future plans for a career in IO psychology at this point? Are you working right now? Or are you do you have a desire to work in a particular avenue that you want to discuss and talk about?

Saad Arshad  12:16  
Well, my future plan is to maybe perhaps get a job at a consulting firm, and hopefully work in organizational development. And within that, I can also, you know, explore opportunities in strategic planning, and maybe even training and development. So my future would definitely be to work in consulting.

Dennise Cardona  12:39  
That sounds great. Can we talk a little bit specifically about the, the the experience you had with your capstone? Can you talk a little bit about what that experience was? Like? Did you work for a particular company? And what were the big takeaways from that experience?

Saad Arshad  12:57  
Yeah, so the capstone course, is this is a course where for the students that don't have a, you know, at that time, I did not have a job. So I didn't have a client. So you can seek out a client and what, what essentially it is, is that you work as a consultant, and you go into the organization, and they identify a certain problem, whatever it may be. And then you are tasked with, you know, bringing together the team, and using, you know, whatever you have learned throughout the program, applying it, and improving that process. In my specific case, I seeked out a client in Baltimore, and they were in a manufacturing business, food manufacturing business, and they needed some help with strategic planning their their strategic plan was outdated, I believe, like it was seven, eight years old. And so I was tasked with updating that strategic plan. And also giving, you know, working with many of the, in fact, I almost exclusively worked with many of the leaders of the organization to not only update the strategic plan, but also help them in maintaining and following through with that strategic plan and implementing it. And one of the biggest takeaways that I've found in that program was just Well, one was, you know, learning more and more about strategic planning, of course, but another one was just project management. And that includes time management, and interacting, being able to interact with leaders like a CEO, CFO, and, you know, the director of customer and business processes, having them all convene and managing this project. Making them or not making election say that but definitely encouraging them to come together and give their input. And not only get not only to just you know, each person just you know, gives their little input by allowing them to bounce ideas off of one another and managing that whole process and updating the strategic plan. Just juggling a lot of these, a lot of the leaders of the program, I found that it was quite difficult to manage this project and do so in a very timely manner. You know, the semester that we had to do this was very short. But I found that, you know, I learned a lot about strategic planning how to, you know, I guess, I would say, to look at an organization's vision and their mission and being able to work with that. Just being able to see how far you know, they can plan out a year, a year and a half, two years. And not only just having also coming up with specific objectives that they want to accomplish, and just doing that, you know, in a timely manner, setting deadlines, being able to manage this whole project as well, just, I would say, those were like the biggest takeaways for the program. Yeah.

Dennise Cardona  15:59  
Yeah. real world application. Once again, that seems to be the the theme and the trend, which is wonderful. And yeah, just just the fact that this is added to a really rich portfolio experience so that when you are out there interviewing and applying for these jobs, you've got some real world experience to be able to share in your CV, as well as just in the interview itself, you'll be able to provide this kind of context to real world situations. That's what it sounds like. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So are you excited about applying for jobs and getting yourself out there into the field?

Saad Arshad  16:36  
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm in the process currently. But yeah, just hoping that some type of opportunity, hopefully, you know, one that is more, right up my alley, you know, getting like, even if it's not necessarily consulting, just anything, maybe that would allow me to use what I've learned. And, you know, I'll definitely be able to learn from that job experience, and then hopefully, maybe then later in the future, being able to pursue a consulting opportunity.

Dennise Cardona  17:07  
Absolutely. Well, Saad, it's been wonderful chatting with you today, I'm really grateful that you spent some time with us. And it's just been a really great enriching conversation about the value of UMBC IO psychology graduate program, it sounds like you got a lot out of it. And I'm really happy to hear that. And any last words, anything that I have not asked you that you think would lend any value to this conversation.

Saad Arshad  17:31  
I would just just like to add that for any students that are or anyone that's working professional that maybe wants to pursue IO psychology, they're confused, they're on the border, they know, they don't know, I would say definitely pursue a master's degree at UMBC because they would definitely equip you with the practical knowledge and with the networking opportunities, they'll definitely help you to find many professional opportunities to help not only just you know, in the classroom environment, but also as a working professional, help you build your resume help you with your professional life. I definitely think it's a great opportunity to not only build your skill set, but also command a higher salary those you know, next year jobs that many people with, you know, maybe that don't have an advanced degree wouldn't have access to.

Dennise Cardona  18:27  
Very well stated sad, thank you so much once again.

Saad Arshad  18:30  
Thank you, Denise. It was a pleasure being on.

Dennise Cardona  18:34  
Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of UMBC's Mic'd Up. We hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to learn more about UMBC's graduate program in IO psychology, please visit us at umbnc.edu/io