[META] I think we need a sticky on why you might NOT want to be in I/O.

We've gotten an uptick in posts lately from people who can't find work, or who regret their choice to go into I/O. In some cases, their problems seem to stem from some misconceptions that could have been avoided with greater honesty about the limitations of the field. (My theory is that we're feeling the echo of all of the media attention that I/O received for the first time when it was a "growing and hot" field in the late '00s and early '10s.) Note that this is a very US- and Master's-centric thought process simply because most of the "regret" posts seem to come from US grads with terminal Master's degrees. That said...

Don't go into I/O Psychology if:

(1) You are most interested in HR. HR managers oftentimes don't recognize the I/O label or know enough to value your skill set, and the barriers to entry in HR are so low that you are competing against people with more recognizable degrees. You're better off going to work with your Bachelor's for 2-3 years and then deciding if you want a grad degree, like a MBA or Master's in HRM, or a professional certification from HRCI or SHRM.

(2) You are unable or unwilling to live near a major metro area. SIOP salary surveys make it pretty clear that most of the respondents, and the best pay, is around very big cities, such as New York, Chicago, DC, and LA. This is because internal I/O jobs are mostly found in large corporate headquarters or public-sector agencies, and external/consulting jobs are mostly located close to those same kinds of clients. If your life circumstances and values make that kind of location impossible, I/O isn't right for you. Some people in smaller regional hubs have gotten lucky, and remote work is increasingly possible, but it's not likely to come together at the beginning of your career.

(3) You aren't interested in learning about industrial-side topics, research methods, statistics, and (increasingly) computer programming. These are the knowledge bodies and skills that add value and get you jobs. Students who are mostly interested in organizational-side topics, like attitudes and teamwork, and/or would rather not engage with technical material, are going to have trouble competing against other I/Os, let alone demonstrating their value relative to people with HR-related degrees.

(4) Your grades, GRE scores, or other personal circumstances prevent you from getting accepted to a strong I/O graduate program (or relocating to attend one). Demand for I/O has resulted in a great deal of program expansion, especially at the Master's level, and many of these programs are extremely weak. They don't teach the skills noted in (3) above, and many times the faculty aren't qualified to teach I/O courses. Do not confuse undergraduate institutional prestige for the quality of a graduate program! Some "elite" and highly-respected universities have very weak I/O (or I/O-adjacent) graduate programs.

(5) You're looking for "safe" or guaranteed employment. No such thing exists, let alone in I/O. Your job prospects are a lot better than those in other areas of Psychology, but true I/O jobs can also be hard to find for all of the reasons noted above. I/O work also declines hard during recessions and other economic slowdowns, and you need to be able to live with the possibility of layoffs or other setbacks.

Thoughts?