Title
Are psychology undergraduate students equipped to work in business and technology after graduation?
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Introduction Psychology students are underemployed in their field after graduation, so one potential avenue is examining job opportunities less directly related to psychology. Business and technology are rapidly growing fields and many of the related occupations and careers have a bright outlook as defined by O*NET (National Center for O*NET Development, n.d.). As psychology is the fourth most popular major, there are opportunities for psychology graduates to contribute to other fields (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Determining the presence of gaps and overlaps between KSAs acquired through the psychology curriculum and those needed in business and technology will enhance students’ abilities to work in business and technology fields. Methods Our research will follow a similar methodology as laid out in Sterling et al. (2021), by using O*NET to filter jobs that fall into business and technology-related fields and job levels 3-5 to examine the KSAs needed for those jobs. Sterling et al.’s (2021) results already defined 41 KSAs from O*NET that psychology undergraduates have from their psychology curriculum. We will compare the psychology-related KSAs to those needed in business and technology jobs, where we can then find the overlap and gaps in KSAs that psychology students have. Expected Results Understanding if psychology students are missing specific KSAs from their undergraduate education would allow us to determine how they can better capitalize on job opportunities in business and technology. The KSAs required in the field of business and technology largely overlap with the KSAs psychology graduates possess, so identifying the gaps and overlap in KSAs needed in these jobs will allow psychology graduates to be better informed in the options they have after they graduate. Implications This information will reflect the existence of this gap in KSAs and prepare students for working in business and technology. The psychology curriculum may be adjusted to further develop the missing KSAs and better prepare psychology graduates to work in business and technology. This industry could benefit greatly from this increase in interest from psychology students with a variety of KSAs to be utilized. Identifying gaps between the undergraduate psychology curriculum and the KSAs needed to effectively work in the field of business and technology will allow psychology students to better position themselves for jobs post-graduation.
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Poster: Psych Students Business/Tech
Included in
Are psychology undergraduate students equipped to work in business and technology after graduation?
Introduction Psychology students are underemployed in their field after graduation, so one potential avenue is examining job opportunities less directly related to psychology. Business and technology are rapidly growing fields and many of the related occupations and careers have a bright outlook as defined by O*NET (National Center for O*NET Development, n.d.). As psychology is the fourth most popular major, there are opportunities for psychology graduates to contribute to other fields (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Determining the presence of gaps and overlaps between KSAs acquired through the psychology curriculum and those needed in business and technology will enhance students’ abilities to work in business and technology fields. Methods Our research will follow a similar methodology as laid out in Sterling et al. (2021), by using O*NET to filter jobs that fall into business and technology-related fields and job levels 3-5 to examine the KSAs needed for those jobs. Sterling et al.’s (2021) results already defined 41 KSAs from O*NET that psychology undergraduates have from their psychology curriculum. We will compare the psychology-related KSAs to those needed in business and technology jobs, where we can then find the overlap and gaps in KSAs that psychology students have. Expected Results Understanding if psychology students are missing specific KSAs from their undergraduate education would allow us to determine how they can better capitalize on job opportunities in business and technology. The KSAs required in the field of business and technology largely overlap with the KSAs psychology graduates possess, so identifying the gaps and overlap in KSAs needed in these jobs will allow psychology graduates to be better informed in the options they have after they graduate. Implications This information will reflect the existence of this gap in KSAs and prepare students for working in business and technology. The psychology curriculum may be adjusted to further develop the missing KSAs and better prepare psychology graduates to work in business and technology. This industry could benefit greatly from this increase in interest from psychology students with a variety of KSAs to be utilized. Identifying gaps between the undergraduate psychology curriculum and the KSAs needed to effectively work in the field of business and technology will allow psychology students to better position themselves for jobs post-graduation.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology