« on: September 04, 2009, 08:41:51 PM »
Hi, I plan to major in psychology for college next year and out of all the types of psychologists, I've finally decided that I want to focus on becoming an I-O psychologist.
I read that the job includes researching and monitoring, but also recruiting, training, motivating and counseling personnel. I'm a more of a person who likes keeping to research and statitics rather than interpersonal communication, because I'm a little introverted (although I've become more extroverted over the years) and I'm not that good at expressing my thoughts in speaking nor have any significant leadership experience. The only time I've been a leader in a group was when all the members were my friends; in a group with people whom I don't know/don't fit in with or seem better than me, I tend to become more of a listener and suggest an idea every now and then.
So, my question is, if I'm not comfortable with lots of interpersonal communicaion, is I-O psychologist not the right job for me, or do the tasks of an I-O psychologist all depend on the workplace and the employer? Also, do the interpersonal communication part of I-O psychologists earn more money than the research/assess parts?I do love identifying problems, looking at problems from many perspectives, and solving them.
Thnks for taking the time to read this post which came out longer than I expected :-)