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Extending the way we educate undergraduate students about I-O psychology: A career services perspective

As I read the focal article (Kath et al., 2021) I contemplated how I as an industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologist who leads an office of career and professional development (widely categorized and known as career services in many other colleges and universities) use I-O psychology research in our work in educating students. Furthermore, I thought about how career services could influence I-O psychology teaching in the more formal traditional classroom. I believe this notion is overlooked in the focal article, and I argue that a perspective from career services should be considered in the teaching of I-O psychology to undergraduate students. The mission of our own Career and Professional Development office is to educate and empower all students to translate experiential learning to the professional world as it is going to be. Many career services offices have similar missions that resemble the broader mission of career readiness. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines career readiness as “the attainment and demonstration of requisite competencies that broadly prepare college graduates for a successful transition into the workplace” (NACE, n.d.). Typically, we in career services may help students in individual, group, and programmatic settings with issues such as career and major exploration; resume preparation, LinkedIn profiles, and cover letter preparation; mock interviews; internship and job searches and corresponding applications; and graduate school applications. In addition, we provide services and programs for students; we educate students through one-on-one appointments, workshops, and seminars around I-O-related topics such as diversity, teamwork, selection processes, interviewing, work–life balance, career management, feedback, and goal setting and leadership topics such as influence, motivation, and communication. Our goal in career services is undoubtedly shared with the viewpoints of the focal article: Students must learn about I-O psychology because they will be leading, hiring, training, and working with others in the future. Clearly, knowledge from I-O psychology is relevant in shaping, guiding, and inspiring our work. I argue that we in career services also educate students about I-O psychology indirectly through these approaches. Our “classroom” may not be what Kath et al. (2021) thought about when they were writing the focal article. We obviously don’t have a syllabus or tests or quizzes or set lectures to discuss I-O topics in a classroom setting for 2–3 hr a week for 16 or so weeks as would be typical in the teaching of I-O psychology as a class. Furthermore, the students that we serve are not all psychology majors, and some may not even know (or care about) what I-O psychology is. But career services can be seen as another constituent that educates students about I-O topics in a real-world application of what is being learned. With this stated position, I contend that some of the ideas that Kath et al. (2021) proposed as changes that instructors can make in teaching I-O psychology may need to be altered when one considers the small number of opportunities that we in career services have with students. In turn, I put forth some thoughts to consider how I-O research has shaped our work in career services at