End of First Year

So.... The end of the first year has approached!!! So what has happened so far???!!! Welp read and see. 

New Internship

So my internship at DePaul University ended in the beginning of January. Knowing me, I started applying for new internships in December.... I got a few calls and a few interviews which lead to a few offers :) bowing (thank you, thank you). One was exactly what I was doing at DePaul (wanted something different), one was way more than I was ready to do (I didn't feel prepared), two were full time offers (ehh my thesis is more important) and then there is RECSOLU!!!


So RECSOLU is a recruiting solutions company (get it? RECSOLU?, it has a nice ring to it right?). It's a small start up offering RPO, an InternSuite and sourcing/recruiting efforts for Fortune 500 companies. I am the Data Research Intern and I must say I love my job. As the research intern, I am able to apply my statistically analysis and research skills I have learned throughout my undergraduate and graduate career. Wait there is more.... at no additional cost (Prof Helford joke), I am also the HR assistant! I have worked on several HR related projects such as creating the employee manual FROM SCRATCH, developed job descriptions for future interns (and hopefully for current employees), and I will be developing an employee performance review! I am hoping to work on some diversity sourcing and recruiting and the near future as well!

So again, why do I love this place? Well if you haven't figured it out from the previous paragraph, then I'll lay it out for ya. It's a small laid back start up company where I am able to apply to of my passions research and industrial organizational psychology! AWESOME!!!

Classes


So this semester I took Advanced Statistics, Data Analysis & SPSS, and Questionnaire Development. All of the classes were pretty freaking awesome. I had the opportunity to finally get a grasp on several types of regression (don't judge me - regression is a bit much!) as well as some more cool stuff such as Discriminate Functions, Factor Analysis and Canonical Correlations (sounds fancy right?). Of course brushed up on some items I know and love such as Chi Square & Correlation.  Data Analysis & SPSS was by far the coolest class. I had the opportunity to relearn SPSS from a programing/syntax point of view. Lastly, questionnaire development was actually pretty decent. We developed a survey for a company, conducted some pilots, administered the full survey and finally did some analysis and recommendations! Felt like a true consultant!!

SIOP - Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology Conference - San Diego

So, SIOP we meet again! I attended SIOP for the first time as an undergraduate and had a blast. This year was no different! I was able to network from the plane ride in to the plane ride out! I met a few students working on several interesting projects and of course some "famous" authors such as Mike Campion (OMG!!) & Paul Muchinsky!!!

I went to a few sessions on employment law, EEOC, and OFCCP (awesome I know right). As well as some sessions on diversity, selection/staffing, social networking and of course faking!!! Oh and for the research feens and nerds like myself, check out Bookends!! Its a desktop reference tool that collects information from google, galileo and other databases as well as pdf files for each reference in the database. Your able to tag each article multiple times if necessary to include them in your own organization folders as well as produce chronological tracking on articles. This software is awesome!!!! I highly recommend it. I found out about it on the train on the way to SIOP and purchased a students version today!!!

SIOP has always been a fun learning experience for me. I'd recommend it to any I/O Psych interest. Next year it will be in Houston, Texas and SIOP 2014 will be in Hawaii (what?!)!!!!.

I can't forget the fun in San Diego. I had the best tour guides ever!!!! I went down to La Jolla and Coronado Island. Definitely spent time on the beach, played in the water and a really cool cave! Oh and not to mention, I saw some seals!!!  Pacific Beach & Gaslamp District was pretty cool, I got a chance to enjoy San Diego's night life in two different ways! Lastly, I visited Old Town, a historic district. Toured a super scary and very real haunted house!!!!

 

Whats next?? Just in case I get busy this summer.

Thesis Work

I am half way done with my literature review!!!! Once that is complete I'll work on my methods and hope to propose this summer!!! We shall see what happens. 

Travel!

Well I am hoping to do some vacation in GA and NY this summer! I hope I can squeeze a lot of travel in between taking summer courses, working at RECSOLU and working on my thesis! I miss my GA friends and family soo much. Of course, I have heard it through the grape vine that quite a few people miss me too :). So I may pay some people a visit! 

Welp I think that is it for now! :* <3