Dominika;

What is your concentration of study and what degree are you currently working on? (UIC was your undergraduate school as well?)

Olga: My undergraduate degree is in Biology from Loyola Univerisity Chicago. I am currently pursuing my Master's Degree in Psychology, although I will not leave UIC after that and will continue toward getting a Ph.D. My concentration area is Social Psychology. Specifically, I am interested in small group performance.

Dominika: Is TA position at UIC your first job with Psych degree?

Olga: I technically don't have any psyc degrees yet, but I have had a job after my undergraduate education for one year before starting graduate school. Being a psychology TA is my second job.

Dominika: What do you love the most about psychology?

Olga: What I love most about psychology is that it is a peculiar blend of science on the one hand (mathetics, statistics) and creativity one the other. What I like most about Social Psychology is that it actually looks at why "normal" people do sometimes strange things.

Dominika: What kind of difficulties did you face before you got where you are now?

Olga: When I first applied to graduate programs in psychology, I was not accepted to the Ph.D. programs. I decided to take a year off, improve my qualifications (better GRE scores), and reapply. My second attempt was successful. Here I am today...

Dominika: Professor Greenberg, where did you go to college and what degree/s did you obtain?
Professor Greenberg: Undergraduate - Brooklyn College, BS in Psychology. I studied much philosophy as well. Graduate - University of Wichita (Now Wichita State University) - MA in Experimental Psychology. I did a rat avoidance learning study for my master's thesis. Kansas State University - PhD. Majored in Comparative Psychology.
Me: What do you love most about your degree? Prof G.: Being a professor is not only a stress free job, it is intellectually stimulating. I am always exposed to new ideas and new students. The students are always the same age and this keeps a person thinking and feeling young. Me: What were some other jobs you did before coming to UIC?
Prof G.: I taught at Hunter College in NY after getting my PhD. Then was at Wichita State University for 40+ years before retiring and coming to UIC.
Me: What were some of the difficulties you faced while obtaining your degree? Prof G.: There were few difficulties for me other than occasional financial things. I was highly motivated to achieve and had the full support of my family.

GET INTO ACTION

Today I spent the whole day searching for a job. As I am approaching my December graduation, I am getting really stressed out about not having a job lined up. I have talked to my internship supervisor about a position, however, I ran into a problem that made me hold off on the offer until I think about it. The problem is that our downtown office just got relocated to Crestwood. Sure, traffic is much better, but I just moved to a new house in Buffalo Grove and that makes Crestwood 45 miles away from my new house... It's a long drive for a job; lots of miles and gas...In the mean time I am searching many other jobs. I am pretty desperate by now; our economy does not look promising. This seriously must be the worst time to graduate...A friend of mine works in the Knowledge Learning Center for children and they require a 4-year degree in either early education or psychology, so I applied to like four different position at four different locations...I am really hoping to get a response about the Assistant Director position, wish me luck...On top of that I applied to Glenview Police Department as a Police Dispatcher; it is part time only for now but the pay is pretty good, so we will see. Therefore, I have completed five different job applications as my assignment this week.

In addition, I will post my two previous interviews I had last two weeks ago that I havent written about before (but completed a while ago). The first one was with Professor Gary Greenberg, my Psychology 262 instructor from last semester. The second one is from a graduate student, Olga Greenberg, who is studying to receive Master Degree in Psychology at UIC and who was my TA last semester in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (330).

Gary Greenberg:

Cont.

I have also intrviewed two more people- my psychology TA, Olga, and my other previous Professor- Gary Greenberg. I enjoyed to talking to both of them. I have completed my planning wall. I have made one of the walls in my home office as the planning wall and taped the "Next 5 Year" plan on it. My next step is to find a job. I have been filling out few applications here and there and I am hoping something will turn up soon. I am still considering working where I do my internship, however, we have relocated the office and it is very far for me to drive up there everyday so I might pass on that offer.

Today I have interviewed Professor Jim Larson, Ph.D. I took his class last semester (PSCH 330) and I really liked it. It was an Industrial and Organizational Psychology class and that’s how I became interested in that field. I connected with the Professor right away, and I really liked his way of teaching. He was always very passionate about teaching that course and that made it more interesting. To my surprise, today I learned that he does not have a degree in IO Psychology, as I expected. He has a degree in Social Psychology, but the area of his research overlaps with IO Psychology, so he teaches that course as well. Professor Larson graduated from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. Before he came to teach at UIC, he taught at Colombia College for five years. He also teaches PSCH 242, 312, 313, 330, and 343. What he loves about his job is the freedom, having control over the style of his teaching and some flexibility. He likes it that it is not the same thing over and over again; his job has a lot of variety. He was fortune enough not to struggle too much in graduate school. He wasn’t married so he had a lot of time to devote into studying. He was also employed as a research assistant so he was able to combine his research from school and work into one so he actually got paid for it. I enjoyed talking to him and he made me more optimistic about graduate school, because up until this point all I heard were scary stories J.

For this week’s assignment, I interviewed two of my role models- Professor Gary Noll and Terry Belian. I did my interviews via email and below are the summaries of our conversations. I tried to keep my interviews brief and short, as I know everyone is busy. I only asked four questions, such as;1. What school/s did you go to and what degree did you obtain?2. What do you love the most about your degree?3. What kid of a job do you do and what are some of the other jobs you did and some of the duties you were responsible for?4. What kind of difficulties did you face while obtaining your degree and getting to where you are now?
First I interviewed Professor Noll that teaches at UIC. He told me that he went to Pennsylvania State University, both for his undergraduate and graduate degrees. In undergraduate he studied Science and got his BA. He then obtained his Ph. D. in Psychology at the same school. What he loves the most about his Ph. D. is flexibility. He thinks it is the most fascinating content in the whole world and gives him so much freedom. He loves to help people and that’s what he loves the most. Some of the other jobs he worked at, besides teaching at UIC, were teaching assistant and academic counselor at Pennsylvania State, psychological consultant at South Dakota Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate Clinic, Professor of Psychology at University of South Dakota, and bunch of positions at DuPage County Health Department. He also published a lot of writings and gave several presentations, as well as was on the board of Hospice Volunteers of DuPage, The Children’s Center, and the Illinois Citizens for Better Care. As for the difficulties, he said that it was no fun to be poor in grad school. Grad school was also very stressful, and he had to work very hard for very long hours, however, he liked the fact that he was able to help some very seriously mentally ill people and creating a better work environment that was healthy for his staff. Right now he teaches at UIC and he finds that very rewarding, however, some students are difficult.
Next I interviewed Terry Belian. I baby-sit for his kids all the time and really enjoy working for his family, as they are really great people. Terry was actually out of town and very rushed so he was very brief with his email but whenever I have more questions, I can always come back to him. Terry went to Loyola University for his undergrad and graduate studies. For his undergrad, he studied Psychology and obtained his BA in it; for graduate school, he obtained his Master Degree in Industrial Relations. This is exactly what I want to do in the future, I want to obtain my Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology that is very closely related to what Terry does, so he is a great source for me. In college Terry worked for HR department for Loyola University. After college he worked for Morton International Company also in Human Resources. Right now he works for Conseco Insurance company also in human resources. He is responsible for recruiting, hiring and firing of staff, creating a better work environment for his staff, and being responsible for the employee benefits. I can closely relate to Terry because I am currently an intern at Aflac Insurance Company and my duties are very similar, except that I also do tons of marketing for the company and lots of database. Terry likes his job a lot but hates to commute every morning downtown from Northfield. He says that graduate school was very stressful, he worked very hard and was often very tired.
As for my additional duty this week I was supposed to ask my internship supervisor, Darren, about getting a position with the company when I graduate. I have asked him and he said that he wants to meet with me this Tuesday to work out the details, but he has a position for me that I might be interested in. He told me that I am on the right track to meeting good people in life that can help me with my career and sometimes it is about the people that you know, not about just the education, to find a really good job. I cant wait to work out all the details with his this Tuesday when I am there.