Early Careers: Another New Beginning TIP October 1999

Welcome to Early Careersthe newest addition to your beloved TIP publication. The purpose of this inaugural issue is to introduce the column and describe its objectives, format, and intended audience. We begin our account with a bit of retrospection. Remember way back to the beginning of graduate school? Everything was new and exciting. You had a million questions about psychology, your new role, and how to succeed in such a novel environment. Fortunately, most of you had some help navigating your way through graduate school. Experienced peers and instructors offered inside information about which classes had grueling loads, which major professors could get you through your thesis with the fewest scars, and how to balance life and graduate school. Yes, with the help of various mentors, you gradually learned the ropes.

But wait! Just when you were starting to get the hang of things, something remarkable happened... you graduated. You slipped on the `ole cap and gown, smiled for the camera, shook hands, grabbed your diploma, walked off the stage, and abruptly relinquished your "top dog" status. It's hard to believe that after 2, 4, or n years of seminars, internships, and finally that last research project, a single tassel-adorned ceremony can catapult a person back to rookie classification, but that's exactly what happened. You moved on to another new beginningthe beginning of your professional career. Suddenly, you face a world that is new and exciting. You have a million questions about psychology, your new role, and how to succeed in such a novel environment. Sound familiar?

Faced with a new beginning, most folks revert to strategies they've employed successfully in the past. Most Early Career-ians (academicians and practitioners alike) seek the guidance of experienced coworkers or other professional resources to gain helpful hints, pointers, and advice. And this is exactly where TIP's newest regular feature comes into the picture. The main objective of the Early Careers column is to address important issues, problems, and questions faced by I-O psychologists during the early stages of their professional lives. With input from many experienced folks, the column will serve as a professional resource or compass of sorts to help academicians and practitioners navigate through the initial days of their new careers. It's kind of like mass mentoring!

Why Focus on Early Careers?

Although the need for a column of this sort seems obvious to some (e.g., those of us seated in the greenhorn section), the impetus behind the creation of Early Careers is worth noting. As many good I-O things do, it all began with SIOP. The idea for focusing on early career issues originated within the SIOP '99 Program Committee led by Mike Burke. In response to the Society's increasing student population (this year's SIOP membership information shows students nearly outnumber Members2,497 Students and 2,634 Members [N.B. the Member catagory does not include fellows, associates, foreign affiliates, and retired membersgroups which currently total 896 additional nonstudent members]), the Program Committee invited three sessions to focus on early career topics. The sessions were designed to offer beginners' manuals (so to speak), imparting keys to success in both practice and academe. This year's conference program communicated a subtle yet unmistakable message emphasizing the need for guidance, education, and socialization for new I-O psychologistsand the overwhelming, standing-room-only response to this special event series confirmed the suspicion: SIOP members crave information about early career issues!

Yes, early careers are indeed on the minds of SIOP members. We might also mention that early career issues are especially on the minds of these two SIOP members. All right, we admit it, our motives are not totally selfless. As two early career psychologists, we need this column as much as anyone does! With a vested interest in the column's success, we're eager and grateful for the opportunity to explore the relevant issues and walk our early career paths with TIP.

Who Should Read an Early Careers Column?

EVERYONE! Okay, so that was a gut response from the authors, but it might not be entirely unjustified, as we'll suggest in a moment. If your initial thought was "new I-O psychologists," you are right on target! Newly minted
I-O academicians and practitioners alike will find this column useful. However, these are not the only people who will benefit from our new TIP installment. In fact, we have two words for those who consider themselves beyond the "early career" years: stick around. This column promises to touch on topics relevant to you too. Although the column speaks to professional issues from an early career perspective, much of the subject matter is relevant for I-O types at various stages of career development. In addition, Early Careers will provide useful and entertaining "behind the scenes" information from successful I-O professionalsa must-read for both novice and experienced psychologists alike!

The Column's Format

Each issue of the Early Careers column will contain two main segments. The first is aptly entitled The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (get it, TIP?). In keeping with SIOP's "TIP" acronym, this segment takes a look at The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist of today. It will feature both a professional and a personal analysis of an established, successful I-O psychologist. The professional aspect of this first segment will outline various roles and jobs performed by our featured psychologist, illustrating the model leading him or her to a successful career in I-O. The personal inquiry will satisfy even the most inquisitive reader, offering a feel for the person behind the name, and perhaps providing tips regarding practices leading to success. The featured psychologist will have the opportunity to address questions such as:

1. What do you do to relieve stress?

2. What do you do during your time off?

3. If you were stranded on a desert island and had one piece of reading material, what would it be?

4. Do you have a nickname? If so, how did you get it?

5. What is your favorite beverage?

6. Do you have a routine that you like to follow?

7. What factor(s) contributed significantly to your success? What factor(s) do you think might be critical to the success of others, in general?

In addition to professional and personal info, each issue will include a photo of our featured mentor, allowing readers with limited experience to put a face with the name and hopefully avoid those potentially embarrassing conference social hour mishaps! In short, our features promise to advance your social adeptness, but more importantly, they will provide insights into the personal and professional workings of successful folks from whom you might glean a tip adaptable for your own success!

Whereas the first regular segment of each column will feature an established psychologist, the second segment, entitled "Career Gear," will tackle a topic that our featured mentor deems important to early career types. Having experienced professionals identify the "Career Gear" subject matter will help to ensure we investigate and report on issues that are timely, poignant, and useful. In researching these focus topics, we will gather experiences and opinions from both new psychologists and experienced I-O professionals. When appropriate, we will also draw from the media and other relevant literature.

In sum, the column's format should facilitate discussions of important issues, problems, and questions faced by I-O psychologists during the early stages of their professional lives. By featuring established individuals in The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist segment, we hope to contribute to the mentoring flavor of the column in a "Who's Who" kinda fashion. By asking our feature mentors to guide the content of the "Career Gear" segment, we will attempt to provide a useful compass to help our readers navigate the early days of their professional lives.

Help!

The success of this new column clearly depends upon input and feedback from numerous people, including our featured mentors and YOU. Because we want to address the topics that are important to our readers, we encourage you to communicate with us during this career development journey. In this regard, there are three areas where we currently need your help:

1. Identifying feature mentors. Is there an established psychologist who you'd like to learn more about? If so, send us the name, and we'll consider featuring that person in a later column.

2. Interviewing feature mentors. What do you want to know about our feature mentors? We previously listed a handful of questions/issues for our featured psychologists to review. Take another look at this list, and send us additional items that we might add to our pool of general interview questions. In addition, at the end of each column we'll try to let you know who will be featured in the next issue (no ironclad promises here). This will give you an opportunity to send in that question you've always wanted to ask of ..., our next featured psychologist. We'll do our best to get you an answer! Don't forget, the Q&A portion of The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist segment focuses on the personal side of the person!

3. Gathering critical incidents. We are currently collecting descriptions of "lessons learned" for a later issue. In the spirit of the Critical Incidents Technique, we'd like you (yes, we are talking to you!) to identify an early career triumph or tribulation, describing the conditions and the problems that you faced, the action that you took, and the consequences of your career-related behavior. When we receive an adequate number and range of descriptions, we will incorporate them into an Early Careers issue. Importantly, these types of critical details can communicate a wealth of information to new psychologists, providing real-life tips for success and pitfalls to avoid.

We appreciate your input regarding any or all of the opportunities above. You can reach us via the options provided at the end of this column. If you prefer to remain anonymous, please indicate this when you contact us.

A Final Note

We are very excited about this new addition to TIP, and we hope you are too! We will close with one valuable piece of career-related advice: stay tuned. Be sure to catch the upcoming January 2000 issue of Early Careers, which features none other than Eduardo Salas. (Yes, this blatant plug is a shameless attempt to convince you to read our next column!) Dr. Salas is an established psychologist who recently transitioned from the Naval Air Warfare Center in Orlando to the University of Central Florida, and he promises to offer useful guidance that you simply don't want to miss. If you have any questions you'd like to ask of Dr. Salas (e.g., if he were a tree what kind of tree would he be?), or other questions or issues that you would like the Early Careers column to address, you may contact the editors via the options presented below.

See you next millennium!

To contact the Early Careers editors:

Dawn Riddle
Dept. of Psychology, BEH 339
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33620_8200
email: riddle@luna.cas.usf.edu

Lori Foster
Dept. of Psychology
East Carolina University,Rawl 104
Greenville, NC 27858_4353
email: fosterl@mail.ecu.edu

October 1999 Table of Contents | TIP Home | SIOP Home