|
|
©2009, Rose/AtlantaPhotos.com
|
|
 |
|
|
Mark Your Calendars for the 26th Annual Conference:
April 14-16, 2011
Chicago IL at the Hilton
Call for Proposals for 2011 (Submit your SIOP 2011 proposal here)
Click here to see the popular History Posters that were located at the History Lounge at the SIOP 2010 Conference.
Fly, Drive, Walk, Swim, or Hitchhike to the SIOP Conference Next Year: A Five Minute Read About Why Students Need to Go to This Conference (Don’t Actually Hitchhike)
By: Christopher M. Rosett, Iona College
In retrospect, I almost can’t believe I considered not going. From the theory, research, and techniques I learned, to the awesome people I met, to the professional opportunities I was presented with, it seems almost silly that every student in the country isn’t at this thing every year. On the final day of presentations, a survey-designer at a panel discussion said, “The best way to get people not to do something is to have the management tell them they should.” Well I’m not management. I’m not SIOP. I’m not your professor, advisor, employer, or parent. I am a graduate student from New Jersey who was lucky enough to be convinced to go this year. And I’m going to Chicago in 2011. You should too.
When my professor told me I should submit my thesis research for publication at SIOP I was excited to give it a shot. After all, my goal had been to get the research published, so SIOP seemed as good a place as any to start. When the proposal actually got accepted I thought, “Wow. That’s pretty cool… now what?”
As a self-sustaining graduate student, the first thing that hit me was that I really couldn’t even afford to go. After all, plane tickets, hotels, and food aren’t cheap. I knew that I wanted to present my research, but the investment was significant for someone on a tight budget. However, both faculty and my parents assured me that the expenditures were worth their weight in gold: “The people you will meet and the things you will learn will far outweigh anything you spend in the long run,” they said. After significant coaxing, I decided it was worth it to find the cash.
Before I knew it I had a plane ticket, a hotel reservation, and absolutely no idea what to expect. I was flying to a city I’d never been to in order to hang out with a bunch of people I didn’t know. “This could be really fun,” I thought, “or I could be flying halfway across the country to sit in lecture for four days.” I decided I would hope for the former.
Before I even got to the hotel, I knew I had made the right decision. I climbed on a shuttle outside Atlanta’s airport on Wednesday night and a lady smiled at me and said, “SIOP conference?” She was a professor at University of California and was presenting the next day. We talked about psychology, grad programs, and potential career paths for the entire ride to the hotel.
From there things only got better. There were so many topics on the schedule that I couldn’t decide which to go to. There was a breadth of subjects at all times that any student in our field could find something that interested them. Teams, human factors, assessment, occupational health, job analysis, leadership, stats, motivation, counseling, HR, research methods… the list was endless. I spent hours each day listening to presenters talk about the research and applications that excited them the most. To make it even better, I was only attending presentations where the speakers were talking about things that I was interested in!
If possible, after hours was even more fun. I was adopted by my advisor’s alma mater and spent most of the time after sessions in their group meeting people who practiced in the very professions I am hoping to be in soon. I met managers and consultants in fields like research and development, organizational development, personnel selection, HR strategy and intervention, benefits, professional ethics, training and program design, and many others. And what’s even better, these people were very excited to talk about their careers and wanted to share their experiences with me. I learned about process analysis, survey design and administration, organizational restructuring, globalization, and about a million other things. I even got requests for about half a dozen business cards to read my research and three resumes for potential positions! “If you get a job out of this,” my professor said, “don’t you think it will all have been worth it?”
|