Preparing for a Career

Abstract

This chapter uses survey data from industrial-organizational (I-O) master’s graduates and their employers to identify essential competencies for success as an I-O practitioner. In addition to core I-O knowledge and skills, I-O graduates and their employers rated enabling competencies of oral communication, business acumen and consulting skills, and project management as most critical. Ethics and business/technical writing likewise were highly rated. By work sector, the top competencies identified by graduates were job analysis (in the government sector), data analysis (in the education sector), project management (in the nonprofit sector), and consulting skills (in the private sector and consulting). It is recommended that students seek I-O master’s programs that develop enabling competencies in addition to domain-specific I-O competencies.