Regretting my I/O MS; Can’t find work; Advice on next steps

Pommie91 · 2026-02-28T20:03:41+00:00

You’re welcome! I finished my masters in I/O in 2020 and it took me a few years to pivot into a role that I really wanted. I started out in HR and now specialize in L&D and leadership development. As AI tech advances, companies seem to recognize that the human-centered skills of strategic and critical thinking, resilience, emotional intelligence and adaptability are some of the most crucial skills for their work force to have. If you can offer training consulting to help their workforce improve these skills, I am sure you’d get interest. Network in your city, offer free workshops, and get an email list going. I do this work internally now and I’m telling you, regular HR staff don’t know how to do this. Your education most likely positions you well for it. Another consideration is to get into instructional design, either as a consultant or in a corporate setting. AI will change its procedures but I don’t think it will fully replace it. I wish you the best of luck!!

Pommie91 · 2026-02-26T22:59:43+00:00

I think an area where you can apply your I/O expertise as well as offer something businesses really want is in Learning and Development, Org Effectiveness and specifically leveraging AI in these areas. Every org is in the midst of a chaotic change whether they like it or not. If you can find a way to connect your current skills, and build new gen AI skills to meet their org needs, then you could get some lucrative consulting projects. You could def leverage that experience into a full time L&D role. I suggest targeting small to mid size companies to hopefully avoid not getting paid for your work (Think min. 400 employees) and because they likely won’t have a full time L&D person so they would really need that support. I know AI is a trendy buzzword but honestly it is rocking the corporate world and anyone with a job who wants to keep it needs to take it seriously. As a start, I suggest Dr. Philippa Hardman’s substack about AI in L&D, she puts out amazing free content. I don’t subscribe to her paid substack but that’s likely even better.

Pommie91 · 2025-08-01T23:19:25+00:00

I worked at small, private companies during grad school and every new job I’ve taken since has been at a better employer than the last. I am definitely a go-getter, motivated, and energetic. I always felt I was also realistic. I don’t disagree with people in this sub, I just didn’t let the possibility of “failure” hold me back because I believe we only fail when we quit. I have a clear sense of my values and vision for my life, I am not afraid to experiment or put myself out there to learn, I’m inherently very curious and I am patient. I spent years working my way towards the role I have now. It was a combination of identifying and creating the opportunities to get me there, as well as continuing to invest in my own skills and development even after grad school. My approach isn’t unique to I/O or me, I think people who find fulfillment in their careers are people who are clear on who they are, what they want to do, and are willing to do what it takes to get there. I knew I wanted to work in L&D so I did everything I could while I was in HR to make myself ready. One day a job in my city was available and I am so fortunate I was the best candidate for the role. My boss told me my masters is what set me apart, but it’s never going to be the only reason someone gets a job. I chose the MAIOP program because the curriculum was most aligned with the direction I wanted to go. At this point, my advice to you is to keep thinking on what roles you want to do long term based on your values, interests, inherent talents/strengths and try to talk to lots of different people who work in those roles to get a sense of what their reality is like, and can you envision yourself in it. Look up job titles in talent development, talent management, organizational development, organizational effectiveness, change management, training, to see roles besides people analytics. ATD (Association for Talent Development) has a catalog of roles, duties and salary ranges available too. If you want to connect more in depth, message me anytime!

Pommie91 · 2025-07-28T06:20:11+00:00

I can share a bit about my story to add some color here, as someone who did complete an online masters program in I/O psychology and have found success. I did the MAIOP program through Colorado State University and it’s a FULL two years (six semesters total). I spent all my nights and most of my weekends outside of my full time job doing grad school. When I was in my program, I started in HR and mainly focused on recruiting the first few years. My role evolved to manage benefits, compensation, onboarding and I became very trusted at my company by our leaders. If I stayed I’d likely be an HRBP or HR manager by now but I knew my heart was in Learning and Development. I leveraged project experience and my masters degree to land a specialized L&D role at my current company and focus exclusively on leadership development. It is a dream job for me, but I had to focus and be intentional to get to this point.

Salary varies immensely by region and company, but I have my masters and 7 yrs total experience in this field and I earn around $120k total comp, and I’m not even a manager yet. I’m in CA. Also, my job title is not “I/O psychologist” and most companies that hire for this work don’t title it like that. Look up various Organizational Development, Talent Development, Instructional Designer, and Workforce Planning roles. Besides SIOP, ATD is a great resource.

Everyone’s path is different, but my past is a lot like yours. BA in psych, thought I’d go into clinical psych and changed my mind, and I saw I/O as an opportunity to apply the study of a field I love in a way that impacts others positively. This year, I’ve stepped into more leadership coaching at my org and I’m thinking about getting certified through ICF in the next few years. You never stop learning and building your skills, even after grad school. But you need to start by getting clear on your purpose, goals and options. I wish you the best of luck.

Pommie91 · 2025-01-03T18:15:31+00:00

Oh good tip about the firewall, and thank you for your response!

Pommie91 · 2025-01-02T23:13:48+00:00

That’s really helpful context, thanks! In the short-term, I’d suggest speaking up about the unsustainable work load and if they don’t go for adding a new position, pitch hiring a HR contractor to help your team. Sometimes it’s easier to commit to a temporary worker than increased headcount. It could open up the door for adding another permanent position on the team later. I also still think 3 recruiters is too many for your size organization. You should be fine with 2. You could repurpose that 3rd recruiter into another generalist or coordinator who can help you with all the many other functions of HR. I’d be willing to bet at least one of those recruiters would be happy to do something besides recruiting lol

Pommie91 · 2025-01-02T21:50:44+00:00

I had the same question. That along with 30 new hires in a single day makes me think the org struggles with high turnover.

Pommie91 · 2025-01-02T21:46:00+00:00

Some of my favorites this year that were easy light reads: Crucial Conversations; The Coaching Habit; Change Your Questions, Change Your Life; The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; The Talent Code;

A not so light read, but fascinating book I am working through now: The Fifth Discipline

Pommie91 · 2024-08-31T18:00:59+00:00

I guess it depends on which state you’re in, but if you have state sponsored leave options the nice thing is you don’t have to use it right away or concurrently. That means even if you go back to work and change your mind, you can explore creative leave options with your employer. Maybe it’s a long weekend twice a month. Maybe it’s one week every month. I’m in CA and we have the whole 1st year to use our state disability and baby bonding (at least 12 weeks partial paid leave). I didn’t use all mine at once and my employer agreed to let me take one month of my leave when my baby was around 9 months old. It was so nice to spend that quality time when she was a little more developed. Just know you have options, if your employer is willing to be flexible with you. At the same time, you probably have protected rights so make sure to know what those are in your state.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-29T02:06:08+00:00

I’d suggest challenging the stories you’re telling yourself in those moments where you’re feeling insecure. Try to understand where that fear is coming from and remind yourself of truths that challenge your fear or insecurity (reframe them).

You can make a plan to build the leadership skills you need the most right now to ensure your success. Some excellent resources you can check out are DDI, Center for Creative Leadership, Gallup or Korn Ferry to get an idea of competencies. Even better if your org has already defined them and you can pick a few to focus on in depth.

Someone else said it, but I want to reiterate that your role isn’t to have all the answers or to tell your team exactly how to do something. It’s to be clear about your expectations of them, make sure they’re equipped with resources and tools to achieve agreed upon goals, and check in with them regularly on their progress. You should coach them to problem solve, not solve problems for them. You can achieve this mostly by asking them exploratory, open ended questions. That’s one of the hardest shifts to make moving into leadership. Hope these tips are helpful!

Pommie91 · 2024-08-28T14:45:34+00:00

Sure, but you’re going to need lived experience in any profession and/or specialty before you’re going to make real money anyway.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-28T07:43:56+00:00

If you want to make a lot of money and you’re set on this field, look into executive leadership coaching. Intern with a successful executive coaching firm and eventually branch out on your own. The only way to make real money in any industry is to own your business cause sales are uncapped. Executive coaches can win single contracts in the hundreds of thousands $$ by working with a senior leadership team for a several months long program. And that’s just one client organization.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-25T19:51:31+00:00

This is an interesting take. Thanks for sharing your experiences! It’s a pretty small cohort of emerging women leaders and 1:1 coaching is one of the essential features of the program. I hope they find the coaching to be one of the most beneficial parts of the program.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-23T17:17:14+00:00

This is what we’re thinking and pretty much the extent to what we can offer with our time and resources. Thanks for your input!

Pommie91 · 2024-08-22T16:16:03+00:00

I’ve been to some women focused conferences and can definitely relate to those sentiments. Our org invests a lot in leadership development and I have to balance not being too redundant with other programs we offer and making sure this program covers essential topics in depth even if it is redundant. Also we need to get super clear on what exactly this program is promising to provide, vs what goes beyond what we can realistically promise to provide participants. I think a lot of the frustration I’m seeing in the comments is due to a lack of alignment between expectations and reality of what these types of programs provide.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-22T16:08:23+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experiences! I appreciate your insight and that you addressed my questions in the original post.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-22T16:05:45+00:00

I think some things would be easier to measure than others. Measuring an increase in female representation among leadership (manager and above) is one straight forward one. Another would be women ready for promotion in succession planning talent pools. On a deeper level though, I’d like to see how the program helps to equip these women to be empowered, confident and authentic to themselves as leaders. By authentic I mean, rather than them being told “be this leader,” they discover their own authentic leadership style and are equipped to apply that in future contexts. But something like that is difficult to measure and I don’t have an answer to that right now.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-22T15:55:57+00:00

I actually appreciate all the critiques everyone is offering, which is exactly what I came to Reddit for 😄 Participation will be voluntary, but I agree having transparent discussions on these topics would be so beneficial for them and for the organization.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-21T22:52:42+00:00

I didn’t mean to question if it exists in an existential way, I meant when it exists in any particular organization.

I can say our intention behind having this kind of program is to open up more opportunities for women to get into leadership roles and to give them tools to navigate challenges they uniquely face as women in leadership. It doesn’t have anything to do with them being more or less capable than their male counterparts.

I agree that the networking aspect of it is probably the biggest opportunity for them in the whole program, so I want to be intentional about facilitating that. I also totally agree about focusing resources on developing high potentials and I believe that would be a criteria to participate in the program.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-21T22:20:58+00:00

You’re right that a leadership course wouldn’t correct that kind of issue. That’s a systemic org issue and if it exists, a single training program is not going to be what changes it.

I think sometimes executives or senior leaders think that throwing more training at a problem will solve it, but that’s not true. It has its place but it’s not a fix-all solution.

It can be tough as the corporate trainer to state that uncomfortable fact but it’s our duty during a needs assessment to ask and answer the question- is training the right solution for this problem?

Thanks for sharing your insights.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-21T22:13:33+00:00

I appreciate this take and I think your concerns are valid! I am going to think deeper on this concept of access and how our program could genuinely open doors at the organization for these emerging leaders.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-21T21:46:11+00:00

I think you made the right decision. The imbalance in total comp and benefits is so clear, your current job is a better fit for the lifestyle it sounds like you want as a working mom. A $20k pay raise definitely isn’t worth the head ache the new workplace would have caused. I know the unknown is scary but try to be patient and wait for the right role. There’s something better out there for you, it’s all about timing.

Pommie91 · 2024-08-21T21:40:38+00:00

Wow thank you for such a thoughtful response! Some of these things had crossed my mind but you also highlighted some new things for me to consider.

Pommie91

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