2023 Article: The Impact of the IOMP Experience on Dr. Beth Duggan's Medical Career Alumni Spotlights Jacklyn Faith (2016 Graduate) Current Job: Director of Diversity Change Management at Upwork What do you do in your current job that is relevant to your I-O education? In my current role, lead HR Transformation and Change advisory projects to aid clients in various transformations initiatives. I manage complex, large-scale projects, including Talent Planning, Onboarding, Performance Management, Employee Engagement, Succession Planning, Rewards, Culture change, HR Operations, and Technology transformations. Another important aspect of my role relates to helping leaders develop various competencies, including coaching and change. I often describe these disciplines as microcosms of all the IO domains. To accomplish this, I employ competencies related to organizational and personality assessments, organizational development, leadership coaching, learning & development, organizational design and employee engagement, to name a few. What specific experiences in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? The most valuable aspect of the program, in my view, is the opportunity we were provided to put the theories and concepts into practice by executing consulting projects with local organizations. There is no substitute for practical application. We worked with clients to build strategy, develop detailed plans, perform assessments, as well as create and execute on science-based recommendation. We were able to add real value to our partner organizations. How has your IOMP experience helped you to advance your career? Enrolling in the IOMP program was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The knowledge, skills and the practical experience I obtained from the program have been instrumental in enabling me to transition out of finance into HR Transformation and change management. I had spent years attempting to make that transition, prior to enrolling, with little success. Less than a year after starting the program, I was able to secure a highly prized, paid internship with a Fortune 100 financial institute. That experience was a springboard to where I am today. I owe the UGA IOMP program and the faculty a debt of gratitude. Makayla Greathouse (2015 Graduate) Current Job: Manager, Talent Management at Salesloft What do you do in your current job that is relevant to your I-O education? I apply several of the skills I learned in the IOMP program on an ongoing basis. Specifically, I drive talent management, performance management, culture, communications, learning and development programming and assessments. What specific experiences in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? The competency modeling class in the IOMP has served me in multiple organizations now and I still refer to the resources we were given in that class. How has your IOMP experience helped you to advance your career? My experience in the IOMP has been invaluable for my career. The knowledge and skills I gained in the program have helped me to become a trusted adviser in the workplace. It has helped to improve both my business acumen and my approach in planning and executing projects. Frances Larson (2016 Graduate) Current Job: Director, Talent Management at Emory Healthcare What do you do in your current job that is relevant to your I-O education? In my current job I am responsible for our talent management and performance management practices for 24,000 employees across 11 hospitals, the Emory Clinic and more than 250 provider locations. I partner with the business to retain employees, coach leaders, drive team effectiveness, build succession, and grow a culture with strong career development and supportive, regular feedback. All of my work is based on underlying I-O principles. What specific experiences in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? The most useful learnings I gained from the program came from three specific classes: Competency Modeling, Testing and Assessment, and Organizational Research Methods. From these courses my technical skills were increased to make me a better leader. After having these courses, I find I am a better partner to the business and have been able to add a level of science into HR practices that may not have been there before. How has your IOMP experience helped you to advance your career? My career has grown by leaps and bounds since I started the journey of gathering my master’s degree through UGA. I started my career as an employee support specialist, and then as a talent development coordinator in learning and development team. I have grown my career over the years to leading Talent and Performance practices for large, successful organizations. My ability to become the leader I am today was greatly supported by the credibility and knowledge built from this degree. The value I add from the scientific principles and experiences of this program, matched with my experience on the job, makes me an even stronger partner to the business. The wonderful network I have built from the UGA IO program has also been immensely rewarding and supportive. Alissa Manolescu (2017 Graduate) Current Job: Senior Behavioral Scientist, People Insights at BetterUp What do you do in your current job that is relevant to your I-O education? From building competency models for internal and external clients, to writing white papers addressing the link between pay and performance, to measuring teamwork processes in cybersecurity operations centers, my I-O education informs much of what I do as a human capital consultant. I am frequently called upon to provide I-O subject matter expertise on various projects, so even the more theoretical components of the program have proven to be highly relevant to my work. What specific experiences in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? The applied nature of the program – the ability to practice hands-on what we learned in the classroom – was the most valuable aspect, but the opportunity to build a meaningful network with my cohort and professors has also been of great benefit both personally and professionally. How has your IOMP experience helped you to advance your career? I worked in Testing & Assessment in my previous career, but wanted to move into the Human Capital/Talent space. Through the MA program at UGA, I was able to successfully pivot into a role as a Talent Management consultant, and then to my current role in Human Capital consulting. I would not have gotten my current job had it not been for my MA in I-O, nor would I have been so successful without the education the MAIOP program imparted. Brittani Nolan (2015 Graduate) Current Job: Organization Transformation & Talent Consultant at Deloitte Consulting What do you do in your current job that is relevant to your I-O education? A lot of what I learned from my I-O education is relevant, but in my current role, I use the change model/curve and assessing personalities in the workplace in order to determine how to best work together. What specific experiences in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? The applied projects! I developed a competency model for a professional services firm and also assisted a large university with revamping their employee engagement survey. How has your IOMP experience helped you to advance your career? I enrolled in the IOMP because I knew I wanted to change careers from HR Business Partner to Human Capital Consulting. The process was extremely tough, and I felt like recruiters doubted my knowledge and skillset. However, because of the consulting focus in the IOMP and my own self-study, I was able to effectively speak to typical consulting concepts and methodologies during the interview process. Athar Naseer (2017 Graduate) Current job: Manager, Talent Management at Veritiv Corp. Briefly describe a few of the interesting things you do in your job relevant to your I-O education. Working in the area of talent management has afforded me the opportunity to delve into a wide variety of projects and initiatives which all rely on the foundations of my I-O education. I have had the opportunity to own and manage developmental assessments enterprise wide for Veritiv, lead career pathing efforts, supported the launch of diversity and inclusion initiatives by providing analytical insight into diversity data, launched formal training on individual development planning for better talent outcomes and have been able to add insights to talent discussions using data and analysis. Additionally, I am involved in leadership development efforts for Veritiv through the use of assessments such as the 360 assessment in conjunction with providing leadership coaching. It excites me to know that the majority of what I get to work on in my job ties back to my I-O education. I enjoy being able to blend data, analytics and research as a means to inform our talent decisions. What aspect(s) of or experience(s) in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? The many projects that we completed through the program have become invaluable to me as I journey through my career. These projects make up my “portfolio” of knowledge that I can, and have always gone back to as a source of guidance and inspiration if I get stuck on solving a particular issue or challenge. This is due to the real-world examples on which these projects were built. For me, the other valuable experience was being able to work with data and become comfortable cleaning, manipulating and analyzing it. I am fortunate at my company to have access to large swaths of data, but it is not always clean and often there is work to be done to dig up the hidden nuggets of information that allow us to make insightful and meaningful human capital decisions. How has the program helped you to advance your career? The I-O program has completely made my career for me. Without the program, I certainly would not be where I am today. The applied projects and knowledge gained from professors in the program have allowed me to arrive at job interviews confident and with real world experience; not just theory. Beyond the interviews, my notes and work from previous courses guides me to ensure I am keeping I-O fundamentals in mind when designing solutions. If you enrolled in the IOMP to change careers, briefly describe your situation, the outcome of that effort, and/or your satisfaction with that transition so far. I was initially working on the administrative side of the healthcare sector when I decided to change careers to I-O. Working for a large healthcare organization at the time, I was always intrigued by the conundrum that while many healthcare professionals find their work meaningful in caring for patients, they are often burned out and have low levels of organizational engagement. Through a fit of chance, I came across I-O and did some research to find out more about what the field was about and existing educational programs which lead me to the UGA IOMP. Reinventing myself and changing careers was not easy, but the one thing which helped tremendously was that I tried to volunteer my organization for as many of our class projects as I could. In doing so, I was able to take those projects back and show my organization that I wanted to add value to the company and that the I-O degree would allow me to do so. This effort made it possible for me to transition from an administrative role within my organization to one in HR. I have been immensely satisfied with my transition. Parker Thomas (2018 Graduate) Current job: People Analyst at Google Briefly describe a few of the interesting things you do in your job relevant to your I-O education. I am a People Analyst supporting Google's Hiring Design team. I am responsible for providing analytical support and consultation on hiring process design pilots and roll outs. We are often piloting adjustments to the hiring process and measuring the impact of those changes - all with the end goal of improving effectiveness, efficiency, experience, and equity. It's a lot of fun to see design ideas be challenged through the experimentation process. I rely heavily on the analytics courses that I took in the IOMP as well as best practices we learned related to understanding behavioral competencies, assessing talent, change management, and leadership development. I find the most reward in being able to answer challenging questions through thoughtful analysis. I also enjoy being able to utilize SQL and R to conduct those analyses. The biggest win for me still is that I have been able to apply the analytical-people focused approach that is I/O psychology into my daily work life. What aspect(s) of or experience(s) in the program do you think have been most valuable to you so far in your career? First and foremost would be role-related knowledge. I honestly think that I have been able to apply a little bit of knowledge from all of the IOMP courses into my work. I constantly reference back to materials we have had in class, either for the content or as a jumping-off point into further research. Do your readings - it will pay off. One of the most valuable parts of the program is the opportunity to partner with real organizations. Experiential learning provides first hand exposure to the challenges and rewards you are likely to face when bridging the gap between theory and application. It taught me how to demonstrate the value of research-based practices to an organization, and how to confidently communicate that value to key stakeholders. How has the program helped you to advance your career? I owe my career growth to Dr. Frost & the IOMP faculty. Their passion for I/O and dedication to the student body is unparalleled and you should make the most of it. They equipped me with the strategies and domain expertise needed to win-over key stakeholders - which I used to take my career to the next level. Any thoughts on the perceived financial value of the program at this point in your career? Speaking from my personal experience, the IOMP had a significant financial ROI. I was able to take what I had learned from the program and directly apply it to my career in ways that far exceed my anticipated career trajectory before enrollment. But it’s important to acknowledge that the IOMP is only part of the equation - it’s what you do with the knowledge, skills, and abilities you acquire (or enhance) through the program that will determine your success.
