I-O at Work Series, the Intersections of Service and Science: A Career Journey in I-O Psychology From the Military Community Perspective

The I-O at Work Series is proud to spotlight a look at the career journey of the military community in partnership with SIOP’s Military and Veterans Inclusion Committee to highlight how I-O is used throughout one’s career from the service member’s and/or spouse’s perspective during active duty/reserve, transition to civilian, and postduty life.

This spotlight explores the I-O career journey of Dr. Destinee Prete from her perspective as a veteran and military spouse who is currently stationed in Europe and will be looking for new employment as they return to the states next year.

If you have another I-O at Work spotlight work role you’d like to see highlighted in the series, please contact TIP, the SIOP committee chairs, and subcommittee leads for the community of interest. Please use the MVI’s inquiry form for areas related to the military/veterans, their dependents, or Department of Defense (DoD).

Introduction

There’s a Little I-O in Every Workrole

What I love most about our field of practice is that there is a little bit of I-O integrated in every role in the workplace. Even when you are not positioned in a position explicitly titled I-O, there are countless ways to leverage our science to address a variety of organizational functions, challenges, and opportunities. One of the unique aspects of our field is the marketing challenge it presents; many people have never heard of I-O psychology, even though they interact with its elements daily. As practitioners, we get the distinct opportunity to help others understand what our field is by directly embedding ourselves into the solutions we create. For me, the most meaningful path has been working in roles that intersect with service, specifically military service.

The I-O Career Journey and Components

I-O in Active Military Service

I have a servant’s heart and have always gravitated toward service-connected roles. I began my career as a medical service corps officer in the United States Army. My experiences in the military fundamentally shaped how I view leadership and my own place within organizations. The military is an incredible organizational ecosystem; although highly focused on career pathing, it is also deeply people oriented. For example, the military follows a “rank-in-person” structure, meaning that personnel move up in rank, position, and career trajectory based on personal development and performance. Everyone has a clearly identified role and understands their responsibilities and expectations.

Furthermore, every individual in the military develops not only hard, technical skills based on their occupational specialty but also critical soft skills, including leadership, agility, resilience under stress, and unparalleled communication skills. These are highly sought-after capabilities in the civilian workforce, as they are notoriously difficult to develop within traditional corporate norms. The military also utilizes a structured performance system embedded with performance metrics and leadership potential assessments, which are concepts definitely worth mirroring in the civilian ecosystem. Additionally, everyone works toward a common goal. That mission focus underpins the camaraderie, morale, drive, and motivation of individuals and teams. It creates a powerful shared identity that translates seamlessly into the civilian workforce. Ultimately, organizations have a lot to learn from the military’s processes, and they stand to gain immensely by bringing veterans into their workplaces

I-O in Transition From Military Service to Civilian Career

At the close of my military career, I had 9-month-old twin boys and was pregnant with my third son. Leaving the Army was a hard decision but I knew that I needed to focus on my family and considered additional goals of mine. I decided to enroll in a PhD program in I-O psychology. Initially, I had a hard time connecting with my peers, who were predominantly in corporate leadership roles, as I had just transitioned from the military into the roles of a stay-at-home mother and a military spouse (my husband is active duty Army). In an effort to connect, I began using parallels from my time in the service in my academic responses and studies. I quickly realized how many intersections existed between I-O psychology and the military-connected community. This realization lit a fire in me. Not only did I identify significant gaps in research and practice, but I also discovered an intense passion for advocating for this population. I started networking and found a small force of trailblazers working to showcase the importance of our military-connected communities within I-O. This became the impetus for my ongoing advocacy, leading me to conduct my dissertation on women veterans and their transition from the military to the civilian workforce.

I-O in the Civilian Career as a Veteran and Military Spouse

My postmilitary career began in the veteran transition space, working for the DoD’s Transition Assistance Program and serving in several roles within the Department of the Army. I witnessed the personal struggles of transitioning service members trying to self-promote to the civilian workforce while simultaneously engaging with corporate leaders on the “value of a veteran.” This challenging dichotomy, coupled with my following experience as a program manager at the Department of State overseeing over 150 personnel, propelled me to dive deeper into I-O pathways. I quickly learned a lot about people and found myself diving deeper into topics like people analytics, change management, and data-driven decision-making. Although these roles were not I-O in title, I became competent in many areas that are I-O in nature. In every role that I took on, I became a consultant, applying research and best practices to improve company processes and solve workplace challenges. I quickly learned that the secret to employment in our field isn’t necessarily seeking an “I-O” title but rather finding ways to bring I-O practices into your daily work.

Following the completion of my PhD, I was hired into a specialized I-O role by an organization contracting with the DoD and the intelligence community. Much of my work focused on psychometrics and highly technical analysis. This broadened my portfolio and challenged me to explore new pathways of service-connected opportunities. From there, I moved to a nonprofit organization, leading their certification and psychometrics programs while connecting service members and veterans to valuable credentials.

Later, I transitioned to a consulting firm supporting the DoD, specifically focusing on space and workforce strategy. My team acted as a think tank of innovation, tackling everything from creating predictive models and performing job task analyses to conducting focus groups and military essentiality studies.

The Link Between an I-O, Career Military Spouse Identity, and Giving Back

The primary reason I have navigated so many different roles across my career path is inextricably linked to my identity as a military spouse. My husband’s career has necessitated frequent relocations, and balancing these moves with raising three boys, who were toddlers when I first entered the civilian workforce and are now teenagers, required me to seek out roles that offered flexibility. Although managing my career, studies, and motherhood was exceptionally challenging, every opportunity was worth the effort. These experiences fueled my desire to advocate for other military spouses; I intimately understood the struggle of maintaining meaningful employment, articulating my value, and overcoming the stigma of being viewed by organizational leaders as a “temporary” asset.

Currently, my family is stationed in Germany, where we moved less than a year ago. Overseas employment is notoriously difficult for military spouses to secure, but I was fortunate to find a role I truly love: serving as a Family Readiness Support Assistant for a military brigade. In this position, I help soldiers and their families connect with the right resources and support at the right time. Although it is not a role explicitly titled I-O, I find opportunities to bring our science into the workplace every single day! For example, I created a holistic readiness framework to help leaders balance their approach, identify gaps, and target interventions. I also conducted an organizational culture and dynamics assessment that leverages both organizational and behavioral indicators related to readiness. Additionally, my data background has allowed me to shape how we gather and integrate family data across systems and processes. Above all, I love that my role allows me to constantly remind leaders to consider the “human” factor in every decision they make. As always, I have positioned myself to continue serving the communities I love. True to the cycle of military life, my family will be relocating once again in the summer of 2027 to Anchorage, Alaska, where I will once more be seeking meaningful employment and new opportunities to apply my I-O expertise.

Throughout my entire journey, I have relentlessly advocated for the skills and capabilities of our service members, veterans, and military spouses. I am incredibly proud of my work with SIOP, particularly in helping transition the Military and Veterans Inclusion Committee into a full standing committee. Between mentoring thousands of service members, veterans, spouses, and early-career I-O practitioners, to advocating on Capitol Hill for gainful employment initiatives, I have sought every possible opportunity to champion the intersection of I-O psychology and the military community.

Q&A: Supporting the Military-Connected Community in the Workforce, as an I-O

What are the common misconceptions the labor market has about veterans and/or military spouses?

1. Veterans:
   A pervasive misconception about veterans is that they are rigid, rely solely on a chain of command, and struggle to function without explicit orders. In reality, the military operates in highly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. Veterans are incredibly agile, innovative problem solvers who are trained to adapt and lead when plans fail.
2. Military spouses:
   For military spouses, the most damaging misconception is that they are “unreliable” or “temporary” employees due to frequent relocations. What the labor market often misses is that military spouses are master logisticians, highly adaptable, and incredibly resilient. Their varied life experiences often make them empathetic leaders and quick learners who can seamlessly integrate into new teams and cultures.

What little things can HR/recruiters do to better support and evaluate veteran and/or military spouse capabilities? 

HR and recruiters can start by looking past exact job title matches and focusing on competencies. Career coaches and performance development specialists can complement these efforts by working with veterans and military spouses to reframe their experiences and present their skills using language that resonates within the civilian workplace environment and the specific industry.

1. Get past the jargon and ask clarifying questions.
   Military resumes can be laden with jargon, so recruiters should feel empowered to ask clarifying questions like, “Can you tell me how your experience in [military role] translates to the skills required for this position?”
2. Recognize the trust and responsibility from a young age.
   Recruiters should recognize the massive scale of responsibility many veterans hold at a very young age, such as managing millions of dollars in equipment or leading dozens of personnel in their early 20s.
3. Seek to understand and reframe the story for spouses and dependents.
   For military spouses, recruiters can intentionally offer remote, flexible, or portable work options, and view a nontraditional or “gappy” resume not as a lack of commitment but as a byproduct of their service to the country.

What little things can I-Os build into their projects to better support and represent the veteran and/or military spouse perspective and capabilities?

I-Os hold the keys to systemic organizational change.

1. Include veteran and military spouse as demographic identifiers.
   A simple yet highly effective starting point is inclusive demographic data collection; I-Os should ensure that “veteran” and “military spouse” are included as distinct demographic identifiers in climate surveys, engagement surveys, and HRIS systems to enable better people analytics.
2. Invite veteran and spouses unique perspectives and experiences in focus groups:
   When conducting Job task analyses (JTAs) or competency modeling, I-Os should intentionally recruit veterans and spouses for focus groups to ensure their unique cognitive diversity and experiences are represented in organizational frameworks.
3. Map military competencies to civilian competency models
   Finally, when designing selection systems or leadership development programs, I-Os can explicitly map military competencies (like those developed in formal military schooling) to civilian competency models to create clearer pathways for hiring and promotion.