Virtual Open House Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology Transcript

Afra Ahmad: We’re going to be starting in just a few minutes, so if you want to start

introducing yourselves in the chat, we’d love to read more about you. You’re welcome to

share your name, where you’re tuning in from, your work, or any questions that you have

for us. Let us know in the chat.

Afra Ahmad: And we like cameras on, so Miles, you already get bonus points. Thanks for

having your camera on.

Afra Ahmad: Great way to get started.

Afra Ahmad: Hi, Amber!

Amber Myers: Hey there!

Afra Ahmad: Good to see you. Thank you so much for being our guest speaker tonight.

Amber Myers: Absolutely! It’s good to see you, too.

Afra Ahmad: We’ll turn it over to you around, I think it’ll be, like, 7.40ish.

Amber Myers: Okay.

Afra Ahmad: Okay?

Amber Myers: Sounds good.

Afra Ahmad: Alright.

Afra Ahmad: Hey, Justin.

Kevin Stagl: Sorry for my broken, typing in that, but you don’t have to have a perfect

statement, so just…

Kevin Stagl: Let’s put some info in the chat.

Kevin Stagl: No spell checker or grammar required this time.

Afra Ahmad: Maryland, South Carolina…

Afra Ahmad: Burke, Virginia, you’re right down the street, William.

Afra Ahmad: From Mason.

Kevin Stagl: Welcome to Amber Myers, I haven’t seen you in a while.

Amber Myers: Yes, hi!

Kevin Stagl: How are you?

Kevin Stagl: Justin’s here, too! Look at that! Two, two people early. Welcome, both of you.

Thank you for both speaking tonight. That’s awesome.

Kevin Stagl: Send an update, both of you. I haven’t heard from either of you in a little while,

so I’m still here.

Amber Myers: Okay.

Afra Ahmad: Peyton, there’s 8 in the waiting room. I don’t know, do you see them? They’ve

been in the waiting room for a while.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, got it.

George Mason Online Admissions: There we go.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

Kevin Stagl: I have new resources, Amber. Send me an email.

Amber Myers: Okay, sounds good. Thank you.

Afra Ahmad: I feel like I’m recognizing some names, maybe some folks have already applied.

Afra Ahmad: Or I’m anticipating senior application.

Kevin Stagl: That’s a great point, Dr. Ahmad. If everybody adds to the chat, Where?

Kevin Stagl: Did you… first learn, of the IOMPS program.

Kevin Stagl: So, how did you come in contact with us?

Kevin Stagl: We’re interested to know what works and what doesn’t.

Kevin Stagl: Who, who’s the email from? Emma Rose?

Emmarose Price: I don’t really remember, if I’m being honest. I just remember I got an email

that was talking about this meeting.

Emmarose Price: And it looked interesting. And I’d heard about the program from, like, last

year. I was, at the meeting…

Emmarose Price: like, the information meeting from last year, but, like, I’m still an

undergrad, so I haven’t applied. But I forget who the meeting was, or who the email was

originally from.

Kevin Stagl: Me. No, I’m just kidding. I don’t know. But, it was likely from our partner’s

RisePoint.

Kevin Stagl: But, we are interested. If you, if you, if you ever come across that email, please

send it to us, or share it, during office hours.

Afra Ahmad: It could be because she attended an open house last year, and so she’s on their

mailing listserv. Come back.

Afra Ahmad: Since she hadn’t joined.

Kevin Stagl: Possibly, yeah, definitely.

Afra Ahmad: Alright, has the waiting room slowed down a little bit?

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I don’t have anybody in the waiting room right

now.

Afra Ahmad: Awesome. Let’s go ahead and get started.

George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome.

Afra Ahmad: And I just want to make sure that it is being recorded for folks to be able to

tune back into later.

Afra Ahmad: Can you confirm that? Awesome.

George Mason Online Admissions: We are good.

Afra Ahmad: All right, well, welcome, everyone! Thank you all so much for joining us this

evening. Tonight we are having the open house for people coming into the spring of 2026,

or as someone mentioned, maybe you’re not ready to start in January, but you’re interested

in hearing more about us for a future term. But this is the open house for George Mason

University’s Master of Professional Studies in Applied Industrial and Organizational

Psychology.

Afra Ahmad: So maybe you know a little bit about I.O, maybe you don’t, but I hope by the

end of tonight’s session, you learn more about our program, and what I.O. is, and how we

can sort of help your academic and professional goals.

Afra Ahmad: So we… we do have a lot to cover tonight. If you have questions, please, please,

please do put them in the chat. We have, Dr. Stagel, who’s monitoring the chat, as well as our

admissions reps and stuff, so please put them in the chat, and we’ll pause here and there to

make sure we’re addressing all of them, but we do want to make sure that we get through

all this information for you all to have.

Afra Ahmad: For the future, alright?

Afra Ahmad: So, with that, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Afrosaid Ahmad. I am

the program director. I’m a longtime Mason Patriot. I went to undergrad and did my

master’s and PhD in I.O.

Afra Ahmad: My research interests are in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I’m really

excited to tell you more about our program, our students, and we have alumni that we’re

featuring tonight as well.

Afra Ahmad: So stay tuned for all that good stuff, and I’ll turn it over to Dr. Stable.

Afra Ahmad: You’re on mute.

Kevin Stagl: Back to the room, I’m taking a screenshot of all of you that are attending, so we

can track who’s pre-applied and who hasn’t. But I am Kevin Stagle, the Assistant Director

and an assistant professor here at George Mason University. I will be your first instructor.

Kevin Stagl: So, I have been in I.O. for about 30 years now. Started as, an intern at UCF,

actually as an intern at assessment before UCF, but went on to UCF and, got my, earned my

PhD there with the great Eduardo Salas, who you’re gonna, here’s research you’re gonna

read while you’re in this program.

Kevin Stagl: former PSYOP president. And, then went on to a series of, consultancies and

defense incubators, R&D incubators for defense agencies, and

Kevin Stagl: Ultimately, after about 25, 26 years, came here to Mason, and so I am…

Kevin Stagl: starting in the private sector and spending quite a bit of time in R&D for the

government, and now here in academia, and I’d like to bring all of that practical expertise to

you during this program. So, I look forward to meeting each of you during the first course,

and perhaps the

Kevin Stagl: further courses downstream. I also lead some courses downstream, so looking

forward to connecting with each of you. Welcome.

Afra Ahmad: Alright, thank you.

Afra Ahmad: So, for those of you that may know about us, we are George Mason University

in Northern Virginia. We did begin in 1956 as the Northern Virginia branch of UVA. We

became our own institution in 1972, and we’re the largest public university in Virginia. We

are classified by the Carnegie system as an R1 doctoral research university, which is

Afra Ahmad: the highest rating possible, and that’s important because we’re going to be

talking about something called the scientist-practitioner model in I.O. So we have scientists

here, researchers here, conducting top-tier research, and as Dr. Stagel mentioned, he talked

about his advisor, but, you know, when you take courses with us, you’re going to recognize

many of the Mason faculty that are teaching or have developed your classes.

Afra Ahmad: We do have three campuses in Northern Virginia, and then a campus in South

Korea, and several online programs, and I noticed someone who mentioned they might be

interested in MSW and is checking out I.O, so I know MSW has an online program, and I’m

glad you’re here tonight to check out the MPS program.

Afra Ahmad: Our program, was founded in 1972, the I.O. program, and we have faculty

members who have been prominent in both academia and practice, and several of our

faculty members have held positions as president

Afra Ahmad: of our professional organization. Fun fact, one of the faculty… current faculty

members is running for president right now for the Society for Industrial and

Organizational Psychology. So, if he gets elected, that would make the sixth faculty member,

serving in that role.

Afra Ahmad: Several of our graduates have gone on to work in universities and top

organizations. I noticed someone mentioning here tonight they were from Booz Allen.

We’ve had several graduates at Booz Allen and some other reputable, organizations.

Afra Ahmad: And so, our faculty has

Afra Ahmad: Several full-time members, 10 full-time members, and a large body of adjunct

instructors as well, who are working in the fields and coming back and sharing their

expertise with you all. So we are the largest I.O. program in the nation.

Afra Ahmad: And so, in terms of the MPS program, now the PhD-MA program began in

1972, we launched in 2019, right before the pandemic. And like all of our programs, but

more so, we have that emphasis on the scientist-practitioner model. We are trying to

prepare you, for an applied career. Now, the interesting thing is that several of our students,

they come from

Afra Ahmad: Diverse educational backgrounds, meaning they just graduated last semester

to graduated 30 years ago, and several of our students also are in different levels.

Afra Ahmad: you know, in different positions, in different organizations, they come in from

healthcare, IT, entry-level positions to more senior-level positions, and what I notice is that

our students are really trying to leverage I.O. knowledge and skill sets to either be better at

their current job, or make a career change, or find other ways to apply the I.O. skills and

competencies that you’ll get out of the program. So we do have alumni here tonight who’ll

talk about what that

Afra Ahmad: looks like and means for them. But, just something to, you know, think about.

Afra Ahmad: In terms of coursework, you’ll be taking classes for a year and a half, spring,

summer, and fall. Three, you know, the… we do take… have classes offered all three

semesters, and won’t be like undergrad, where it’s just summer and fall. We do follow an 8-

week modular schedule, and what that means is when you take a class in the fall and spring,

you’ll take two classes each term, for eight weeks long, so one class at a time. So eight weeks

for the

Afra Ahmad: you know, Fall Session 1, and then 8 weeks for Fall Session 2. In the summer,

they’re slightly compressed a little bit into seven weeks, and every single class that you take

will have applied projects and assessment. There’ll be things that, if you were to go into

Afra Ahmad: selection, you would be doing a validation study or job analysis project, those

things that you would be doing, for those types of tasks and roles, you’ll be doing in the

classes with us. And in, in our practicum course, you’re actually going to be completing your

own applied research project.

Afra Ahmad: Some things that make our program unique, we do have faculty that are

experts and innovators. They’ve written books, they’ve written scholarly articles, they’ve

published in both the scholarly space as well as the applied space. They present

Afra Ahmad: Widely in conferences, and get competitive grants, and have partnerships.

Afra Ahmad: And we are competitively priced for a respectable master’s degree program.

We have done an analysis and done a comparative analysis of that. We do have the online

format to accommodate your busy working schedules and work-life balance. So, you know,

everything, when you enroll in a class, you’ll… you have asynchronous access to the entire 8

weeks.

Afra Ahmad: And then you’ll be tuning in. Of course, we want you to take it a week at a time.

You won’t be able to do more than that. But, you know, you’ll have access.

Afra Ahmad: to office hours, which are, you know, they consist of many guest lectures, they

have, guest speakers, and I will say that here at Mason, while they’re optional, there is a

norm where most students are attending office hours because they find so much value in

the information that they learn. They get to connect with the professors, learn new content,

information, ask questions.

Afra Ahmad: Engage with their peers, so they are, you know, participating in those ways.

Afra Ahmad: We do have some financial aid programs and access to career services and

other, things that we’ll be sharing with you all, and it’s good to know that Mason’s I.O.

program is ranked number 5. And so, if you look at all the top rankings for, you know, when

you’re comparing I.O. programs across the country, Mason doesn’t land in the top 5.

Kevin Stagl: And for the… for the record, the PhD program’s top 5.

Kevin Stagl: the master’s programs, MPS programs particularly, online programs, are

unranked. There really are very few competitors. There perhaps is one at another elite

institution, but in reality, our scale is such that

Kevin Stagl: We kind of own this market, and we kind of set the pace. And so, there are 25

faculty members here to support you.

Kevin Stagl: at least 5 administrators, and no one else can boast any kind of scale like that.

So, we are all here, and these faculty, these SIAT fellows that I’m… these are your

instructors. They’re not just people in the PhD program. They teach in our program.

Kevin Stagl: you’re going to get access to them. You will often, as you matriculate the

program, get access to multiple instructors at the same time who teach multiple sections.

You’ll be invited to multiple concurrent office meetings during the same week.

Kevin Stagl: And so, we’re very proud of our program, so please offer.

Afra Ahmad: So, in terms of our curriculum, we do offer, you know, 10 classes that you’ll all

be taking for a total of 30 credits.

Afra Ahmad: And you’ll notice on the left side, those are your required courses. So, you start

off the program with an introduction to the science and practice of IO psychology, taught by

Dr. Stagel. Now, I would say this is one of the most… the most important courses in the

program, because you’re getting acclimated to grad school, you’re getting acclimated to

online learning, you’re getting acclimated to I.O. terminology, the field, and all the jargon we

use.

Afra Ahmad: And it’s really setting you up for success for the later courses.

Afra Ahmad: And then you dive into Foundations of Org Psych, and then your first applied

data analysis class. Now, do not let that scare you. The alums can share that they’re all very

much doable and very exciting, and it’s amazing how much they learn and grow and

accomplish in a short amount of time.

Afra Ahmad: And then, Foundations of Industrial Psych, and then your second data analysis

class, then Employee Selection, Research Methods, and Practicum.

Afra Ahmad: Now, you have an option to take two electives.

Afra Ahmad: And so, it is very difficult to choose from all those amazing electives, because

you have an option to take leadership in the workplace, motivation, well-being, teamwork,

organizational change and development, performance management, and workplace

training. We do solicit your feedback, so by cohort, we do collect data on the electives that

you’re interested in, and so we take that information, and I will staff and schedule classes

based on that. So the cohort coming up, if they ranked

Afra Ahmad: org change and development top, you know, number one, that’s the one that’s

definitely going to be offered. And then, you know, I’d go down the list. Of course, every

elective may not be offered every term, but I will say students end up with their top three,

for sure, and so they get very pleased by that.

Afra Ahmad: A lot of times people have questions about the practicum. When they hear the

word practicum, they ask themselves, well.

Afra Ahmad: I already work. Do I have to quit my job and go get an internship? And the

answer is no. You’re actually going to leverage what you’re doing in the workplace to

complete your practicum project. So, as I mentioned earlier, the field of I.O. is built on the

scientist-practitioner model. So, here in the practicum course.

Afra Ahmad: You… it’s actually a two-part course where you take the research methods for

the first 8 weeks, and then you take the practicum for the second 8 weeks.

Afra Ahmad: In that research methods course, you are identifying workplace challenge or

problem or question that you’re interested in. You’re diving in to a literature review. Then

you’re looking at how to collect data. You start, you know, drafting and creating surveys.

You actually build out the surveys in Qualtrics.

Afra Ahmad: You figure out how you would analyze the data once your data is collected. You

have a full research proposal that you’re putting together. Then you, collect data, and a lot of

times folks are asking their colleagues and peers, so again, this is where the practicum

comes in. They’re leveraging their networks and their workspaces to collect data, and then

they conduct a preliminary analysis on the data.

Afra Ahmad: write up a results section. Now, not only do you end this practicum experience

with a full academic paper that you’ve drafted, you also draft a white paper. One of the

things that’s very important in the industry and field is to be able to have these applied

communication clientele skills.

Afra Ahmad: So, can you communicate all this technical stuff you’re going to be learning

about with all these advanced stats classes and I.O. jargon back to a non-technical audience?

Because many of you work in spaces that are not filled with I.O. psychologists.

Afra Ahmad: you’ll have stakeholders that you need to communicate this information back

to. So you work on a white paper and applied presentation that you wrap the class up with.

So this is, you know, a two-course proj… like, project and process, and the best news is you

don’t have to do it on your own. You work in small teams, and so when you join the

program, you start leveraging your network and your peers.

Afra Ahmad: To really maximize that experience.

Afra Ahmad: The other thing I wanted to mention is, as I noted, that we have several

electives that are offered, and sometimes students ask me, what if I want to take more

electives? What does that look like? Well, there’s a couple ways you can do that. One is you

can actually stack on a certificate to your degree, so what that means is you can graduate

with a master’s degree and a graduate certificate in human capital and HR Management.

Afra Ahmad: And so, if you look at the requirements, so in terms of the core courses, half of

them are our psychology courses. Now, this certificate is offered in partnership with the

Costello College of Business here at George Mason University. So those MBA courses are

housed with them, but half of those core courses are with us, and then you can choose one

of the elective courses, and again.

Afra Ahmad: We have half of those offerings are ours, and so if you want to take more than

two electives, you can say, alright, the two electives I pick are

Afra Ahmad: training and performance management took care of my core, and I just need to

take one more after I… and I can walk away with my master’s degree and certificate. So

that’s one way that you can sort of take more classes with us.

Afra Ahmad: I’m gonna pause right there. I know I’ve been talking for a while. Do we have

any questions?

Afra Ahmad: Thoughts, comments?

Kevin Stagl: Yeah, there’s some questions in here.

Kevin Stagl: from the top here, I am currently… I am comparing master’s… can you confirm

whether the alumni from your program, more often culture, building, leadership, and

communication roles, or data-driven data analytics roles? I have something teed up for that.

There are the major employers of your peers, although there are

Kevin Stagl: 700 of your peers, and they all work, most of them, the vast, vast majority. And

we encourage them, and we help them seek employment, and secure it, and

Kevin Stagl: It’s… it’s a… it’s a vast spectrum of work.

Kevin Stagl: And so some people do not work in highly quantitative positions, but

Kevin Stagl: The world of work is definitely, arcing in that direction towards data-driven

decision-making, and so we are fully going to prepare you for that, those demands and

requirements. But those are, some of the, 46 of the

Kevin Stagl: employers of your peers. So, .

Stephanie Rabelo: I don’t.

Kevin Stagl: Good job.

Stephanie Rabelo: Sorry, I don’t see that, the 46, and what I see projected is the career

outcomes.

Kevin Stagl: Okay, they’re in the chat.

Stephanie Rabelo: Oh, okay.

Kevin Stagl: Click your chat.

Stephanie Rabelo: Oh, thank you.

Kevin Stagl: The next question is, you’re welcome. The next question is, aside from the

practicum at the end of the program, what opportunities are there for research?

Afra Ahmad: All right.

Kevin Stagl: Go ahead.

Afra Ahmad: I was gonna say, I did notice… so thank you for answering that first question,

and…

Afra Ahmad: Stephanie, I will say that, our students, they enter positions covering all of

those areas, right? So you have data analytics, communications, HR, and I will say that one

place that you can check out is our GMU IO newsletter. The newsletter at the end has a good

news section where we share where students are getting hired. It would be great for you to

sort of peruse and see where the

Afra Ahmad: MPS students are getting hired, and that data has been collected for the last 5-6

years.

Afra Ahmad: In terms of research, it’s sort of foreshadowing what some of our students can

do. We have an alum here tonight who has mentioned in the chat that he dived into

academia, so we’ll come back to some of those questions and the Q&A, okay?

Afra Ahmad: Yeah, awesome.

Stephanie Rabelo: Thank you.

Afra Ahmad: You’re welcome. So, in terms of career outcomes, yes, they go into… like, to

piggyback off of what Stephanie was saying, you have a lot of opportunities. You don’t…

when you’re looking at job ads.

Afra Ahmad: And Dr. Staplan can speak to this as well, you are not just searching up

industrial organizational psychologists, there is a variety of words that you’re going to be

looking up. And so, that’s the neat thing about the field of I.O, is that you can get your hands

into, sort of, whatever area you’re most interested in. If you’re really data-driven, yes, there

are data analytics-related positions that require, you know, more of the stats training and

competencies, but if you’re like, I want to stay away from that and do more of the

Afra Ahmad: human capital side, or whatever side, there’s… you are also able to do that, so

it’s really neat to be able to see that, and in Dr. Stagel’s first class, he goes over it pretty

exhaustively, like O-Net, and all the different titles, and all the different spaces and places

that you would be able to

Afra Ahmad: sort of use your I.O. knowledge and competencies to land a job, okay?

Kevin Stagl: And just for the record, there is a comment that I have to amplify here by,

Kevin Stagl: Major Jacob Johnson, one of your elite peers at UConn, studying to earn his PhD.

Just a trendsetter, a trailblazer. I don’t have the proper adjectives right now to describe his

work, but,

Kevin Stagl: Some of your peers are, at the very top of academic programs and PhD

programs right now. So you have many different paths that you could possibly pursue.

They’re not all applied consulting jobs.

Kevin Stagl: And, that’s a path, there are different options we can help you consider and plan

for, and, and execute. So, I’m gonna talk to you in a moment, so I’ll shut up about that, but

we’re, just amazed that

Kevin Stagl: Of all the different opportunities that people secure.

Kevin Stagl: Where can we access more information about the fellowships?

Afra Ahmad: I think, what Dr. Stagel was alluding to were PSYOP fellow is a status where

senior folks in the field, apply for and get. So, that is the fellowship status that is for senior

IO psychologists. But if you are talking about, perhaps, funding opportunities, I do have a

slide that’s coming up more about that, if that’s

Afra Ahmad: What that question’s related to.

Kevin Stagl: Couple more. How do you anticipate the growth of AI will impact the job

market demand for I.O. skill sets and services?

Afra Ahmad: These are some good questions. All right, I’m gonna let you… I’m gonna let you

answer some of these in the chat while I get through some of the slides, and then when it’s

the free Q&A, I think, we can definitely come back to some of these.

Afra Ahmad: So professional development opportunities. I know there was a question

earlier about research, and I’ll get to that in a second, but there’s a lot of different

professional development opportunities. So, when you’re here with us at Mason, you are

diving into coursework and building your knowledge and competencies. Several of our

students, especially those who are interested in getting more out of their degree and

program, are taking advantage of those office hours. They’re engaging with their peers and

faculty.

Afra Ahmad: for career support. So, if you’re joining office hours, you’re asking questions,

you might even ask them to review your resume. You might connect with peers who will be

on the hiring end. It’s very good to network while you’re here in the program, because you

might be looking for a job or a job switch, and those are the folks you want to connect with

in person, in the office hours, and so forth.

Afra Ahmad: We also have the MPS program-wide fireside chat, so what that allows is for

you to connect with program leadership, so Dr. Stagel or myself will host this for all cohorts.

We’ll invite internal and external speakers about different topics.

Afra Ahmad: But sort of the advantage for that is that you don’t just connect with your

cohort, the people you might see in this room tonight. You’ll connect with people across

cohorts, and that’s really neat because, again, one of the goals is to build your network while

you’re in the program. In the IELT learning series, so…

Afra Ahmad: Some of you mentioned an interest in research. This is… the learning series is

sort of like the weekly collicia or brown bag that we have that’s open to PhD, MA, and MPS

students, as well as alumni during the academic year in spring and fall.

Afra Ahmad: And I would say about 80% of the learning series programming is focused on

research. We invite prominent scholars in the field to come in and share research projects

and cutting-edge research with you all, and so that would be one place to learn more about

that. In addition, we have the first learning series of the academic year in the fall faculty

here at George Mason University.

Afra Ahmad: They share more about their research labs, and they’ll share any opportunities

that they might have in their research labs. So, in the MPS program, we do have a small

handful of students who are interested in getting more involved in research, who have

reached out to the faculty, full-time, tenure-track faculty here, and joined their research

labs, and taken advantage of that opportunity to connect with the PhD and MA students.

Afra Ahmad: And research going on.

Afra Ahmad: We have university career service experts who review your resume, cover

letter, practice interviews.

Afra Ahmad: get you access to virtual career fairs as well as in-person career fairs in the

area. And, there’s in-person engagement, so we just had our fall picnic last weekend. It was

scheduled earlier in the semester, but we got rained out, so it was rescheduled for last

weekend, but we had about, 10 MPS students that came to that. We have a spring happy

hour, and then winter and spring, you know, obviously graduates are flying in and coming

and celebrating

Afra Ahmad: their graduations. We do have a huge number that show up there. And then the

PSYOP conference, the location varies. This upcoming year, it’s in New Orleans, but we have

30 to 40 MPSers that are joining, the PSYOP conference, so a lot of in-person interactions

and engagement.

Afra Ahmad: You’ll also get announcements. Whenever recruiters email us, we’re able to

send out internships, announcements, and job opportunities. Add me on LinkedIn, I’m

constantly sharing those on LinkedIn as well. And, you know, consulting competitions, any

neat opportunities that the field allows for, we are sharing that with you all. So those are all

the different ways to build

Afra Ahmad: Some professional development while you’re with us.

Afra Ahmad: In terms of maybe a question that was asked earlier about fellowships, what I

think it’s alluding to is more scholarship or grant or financial support, and so we do have

two opportunities for that. Well, one is that students of ours, they have a couple of ways that

they fund their tuition with us. One is, they’re self-paying for it, they’re applying for financial

aid.

Afra Ahmad: They might be getting reimbursement from their employers, or using their GI

Bill, and then some funding… internal funding opportunities we have is where, we give a

one-time $2,500 tuition award to two students each semester, and the other one is for your

professional development. You get $500 to cover the cost for a conference or workshop.

And again, the goal is really we want you to enhance your expertise

Afra Ahmad: In the field, and so those applications and information is typically sent out via

email and made available in our community page that we have.

Afra Ahmad: So, I’m going to pause before turning it over to the guest speakers and take a

look at, I want to see you all, or some of you who are, here tonight and sharing your screen.

It’s great to see you all, if you’re able to turn on your cameras.

Afra Ahmad: Let me go down. I know that Dr. Stagel might be answering some of the

questions, but I will see…

Afra Ahmad: if there are any that I can address.

Kevin Stagl: Just, as she’s doing that, to back up one slide, we have a scholarship and a travel

fund.

Kevin Stagl: When you’re researching what master’s programs offer.

Kevin Stagl: Write that down and ask that question.

Kevin Stagl: Scholarship, and a travel fund. Those are brand new, just rolling them out right

now, and we’re looking forward to even furthering your networking and learning outside

the program.

Kevin Stagl: So… There’s many questions offered at the bottom.

Afra Ahmad: No, I’m taking a look at them. So I think we’ve addressed a good number of

them. So in terms of the AI, as it’s been mentioned, there’s a lot that PSYOP’s putting out

there. We have faculty who are… faculty experts that are studying this topic in different

spaces as it relates to talent, goals, assessment, and so forth. It’s a lot. I mean, I will say that

Afra Ahmad: If you’re asking for what we, you know, what maybe I personally see or what

we see, I think that one thing here at George Mason University, we truly do believe in the

value of building your foundational knowledge. We recognize that AI is here and is not

going anywhere, but it is imperative that you get a strong and good education, because if

you do not have a strong education.

Afra Ahmad: background in the field, you will not be able to utilize AI as a tool

Afra Ahmad: to help maximize performance in the workspace. And so, our primary goal

here is to give you a solid foundation in the field, and that way, because we all know AI has

its flaws, and we are learning as students are trying to utilize AI

Afra Ahmad: that they’re, you know, they may cite articles that don’t exist, or articles from

poor journals. So our…

Afra Ahmad: our sort of program motto is do not use AI as your… in your learning

experience with us here. Learn what it can do as a tool, but do not build your foundational

knowledge and skills with us.

Afra Ahmad: And that way you can recognize, because Dr. Stagel and I can look at journal

articles and say, that one sounds fishy, doesn’t exist, but again, because of the foundations

we’ve had in our training, and that’s what we hope to do for you all, is provide that training,

and that way you can utilize it in the future as a tool, but not as a core competency. In terms

of, you know, writing sort of the research questions.

Afra Ahmad: as I mentioned, career roles, a variety, all of those ones that are mentioned, our

students are either already in those types of roles, consulting, assessment, program design,

or general leadership roles, or they’re obtaining those positions, and that can all be noticed.

When you are checking out our newsletter, if somebody could put the link to that in the

chat, when you’re checking out our newsletter, there’s two places you can take a look to get

a feel for our students.

Afra Ahmad: One is every newsletter, we do welcome our current cohort, and in that

welcome, we have their name, the type of positions they currently have, the type of

organizations they’re in, and then at the end, we have the Good News Corner, where people

are obtaining these different roles. So it’s, it’s really neat to see. And, you know, there’s not…

Afra Ahmad: the… our program doesn’t necessarily cater to one industry. We have… you’ll

notice in there that we have healthcare, military, biotech, academia, we have folks from all

different industries in our program.

Afra Ahmad: In terms of…

Afra Ahmad: program connections for internships and employments. Something you’ll learn

about when you’re in our program is that there are local chapters for I.O. in different parts

of the country, and it’s really good. Once you get to, especially the PSYOP conference, you

can make connections with people from all over the nation, but there are local chapters that

can allow you to make connections for internships and employment, and remember, you

have access to a network of 500-plus

Afra Ahmad: peers. Not everyone’s in the TMV area. They’re from all over the states. And so,

get connected, get to know cohorts across.

Afra Ahmad: The, you know, senior cohorts. We have now 20 cohorts in the program, so in

the spring, we’ll be welcoming cohort number 21. That’s a lot of students to get connected

to.

Afra Ahmad: Let me see… any… thanks, Chelsea, for putting that in the chat.

Afra Ahmad: All right, are there any other burning questions for Dr. Stagel and I?

Kevin Stagl: That’s great, everyone’s very, very curious. If you come up with questions after

we’re done this evening, and you want to know, email us, and we, email RisePoint, email us,

and we will definitely follow up, if we haven’t answered anything this evening.

Afra Ahmad: Dr. Sagal, do you want to speak a minute about PhD prospects? I think that’s a

great response, but just tell them a little bit about that.

Kevin Stagl: Yeah, I’m not… Dr. Johnson, not yet. Almost. Major Johnson’s gonna talk to you

about that very soon. He is, like, moments from getting a PhD. They might hand it to him

tonight. And… and so, he is on the way to, being one of your instructors, maybe here at

Mason. And so,

Kevin Stagl: I will just say that the program was originally designed to be an 18-month to

20-month

Kevin Stagl: Spin up to, to a practitioner-scientist, career.

Kevin Stagl: And along the way, we have found that with additional investment and

planning, and I meant… I mean substantial investment and planning, Major Johnson was

Kevin Stagl: involved heavily in his own research the entire time.

Kevin Stagl: And reading the entire time, and was doing that before he came to graduate

school, and during graduate school, and is still doing it today. If you’re one of those people,

and you can’t get enough of this, and you have to make a difference, and you have to

contribute to the science, there is a path for you. Seven of your peers have done this, and

you can do it too.

Afra Ahmad: Absolutely.

Afra Ahmad: All right, with that, Peyton, can I turn it over to you?

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah.

Afra Ahmad: So, for this part of the programming, we are actually… Dr. Stagel and I are

going to step out and leave you with these three fantastic alumni who are going to share

more about their journeys

Afra Ahmad: And their careers, and you guys can ask any, you know, candid questions, to

them, but again, you have folks that are in the U.S. government, an HR manager, a PhD

candidate, so they volunteered their time to speak to you all tonight about their experience

in the MPS program, and how it sort of led them to be where they are today. And so again,

Justin, Jacob, Amber, thank you all so much for joining.

Afra Ahmad: We really appreciate you speaking to the applicants tonight, and any other

last-minute questions before…

Afra Ahmad: We let you all converse with them.

Kevin Stagl: See you in the spring, everyone.

Afra Ahmad: All right, take care. Peyton, do you want to pull up your slides, or do you want

me to leave this up, and I can,

Afra Ahmad: Just exit, mute, and exit.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, you can, you can, just leave it. I have the questions

pulled up.

Afra Ahmad: Awesome. Alright, have a good night, everyone. Take care.

Justin Scott: Hey, are we still being recorded?

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, we are.

Justin Scott: Okay.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. All right, everybody, so we have Justin Scott, Jacob

Johnson, and Amber Myers here with us to answer a couple of questions. Let me… hold on,

my questions got taken down, give me one second… okay.

George Mason Online Admissions: So, first question I have is, how has your degree in the

George Mason Online Admissions: I.O. program helped you advance your career or obtain a

job opportunity?

Amber Myers: Before we dive into the questions, could we give, like, a little, like, just an

introduction, just so they know, like, our background a little bit?

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, so we have Justin Scott. He

was a part of Cohort, 15, now working as a management analyst for the U.S. Government,

Accountability Office. We have Jacob Johnson, part of Cohort 6. He is a PhD candidate at the

University of Connecticut, staff officer and training… or, excuse me, for Training and

Education Command.

George Mason Online Admissions: And then we have Amber Myers, a part of Cohort 15, who

is now a HR manager at… HR manager, excuse me, at CGI Federal.

George Mason Online Admissions: And would you like me to repeat the question?

Amber Myers: Sure, yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, so first question is, how has your degree in the I.O.

program helped you advance your career or obtain a job opportunity?

Amber Myers: Well, since I already went off mute already, I’ll go ahead and tackle this one.

So I feel like this degree has been somewhat of a game changer for me. I was already

working in HR when I started the program, but I wanted to switch from that, I was…

Amber Myers: operational, technical.

Amber Myers: you know, side of the role to, like, more specifically strategic, one that really

influences how we think about the people within the organization, and their performance,

and also the well-being of our people within the organization. And so, I feel like

Amber Myers: being in this program and obtaining this degree, it just helped me, or gave me

the tools and the language to back up my work with data and theory, which changed how I

showed up in conversations with, with my leadership and… with my leadership that I

support.

Amber Myers: And so, since graduating, I’ve been promoted, I’ve been invited to, partner at

national conferences, I have been invited to speak at different workshops, and…

Amber Myers: you know, asked to shape, you know, certain parts of my company in regards

to, like, well-being and leadership strategies, so I feel like it’s given me a level of credibility

within my organization, and confidence that’s been able to open doors for me, not only

within my company, but also external to it as well.

George Mason Online Admissions: It’s awesome.

George Mason Online Admissions: And then, so next question. In what specific ways has the

training and the program been useful to the work you do in your role?

Justin Scott: So, I’ll start. So, I’m gonna talk a little bit about question one, and it’s gonna.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah.

Justin Scott: lead into question two. So, with the I.O. program, I actually got a new job. I… I…

Justin Scott: do program evaluations now, so prior to that, I’ve been an HR practitioner for a

while, and with the skills I learned in the program, specifically the stat skills and the

research method skills, I was able to transition to a

Justin Scott: a role in another social science area, which is program evaluation, so that’s

been really helpful, because even though my current job is not I.O. specific.

Justin Scott: I know enough about research, I know enough about the literature, I know

enough about statistics to be able to look at studies, to be able to talk to stakeholders and

talk to leadership about,

Justin Scott: different… different things, and also, like, understand studies. So, as you go

through your program, you’re gonna… when you get to your stats class, you’ll learn about,

like, statistical significance, and about, like, the… the,

Justin Scott: the power… I forget what this is another part of it, but, like, the power for, like,

a sample size, and, that’s been really, really helpful to me.

Jacob Johnson: Sorry, can you repeat the questions? Because I’m getting distracted over

here.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, would you like me to repeat both of them?

Jacob Johnson: Yeah, please, sorry.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, so the first question was, how has your degree in

the I.O. program helped you advance your career or obtain a job opportunity?

Jacob Johnson: Yeah, so, obviously I was a little bit of a… of a different, I sort of knew that I

had a different goal, or maybe a minority goal in mind, with going into academia from the

start. So, based on my Marine Corps experience over the years.

Jacob Johnson: I was really interested in context and leadership, and so, really, this was a

way for me, after 12 years, I guess I was… it was 10 years and change on active duty at the

point that I started the program.

Jacob Johnson: you know, I knew this was my way to sort of knock the rust off academically

and get some exposure to the field that I wanted to be in, which…

Jacob Johnson: worked out great for a number of reasons, which we’ll get into, I suppose, a

little bit more in a minute here, but, well, actually, I’ll just talk about it now, because they’re

one and the same. So, one of the questions posted was about research opportunities, and

there’s tons of them, but it requires initiative on your part, right? So, everybody’s busy, and

so, you know.

Jacob Johnson: Nobody’s gonna, like, seek you out among the faculty and be like, hey, why

don’t you do some research with me on the side? But if you go to them and say, hey, I want

some more research opportunities, whether that’s just for exposure.

Jacob Johnson: you think it’ll be useful in a… in a job, or you, like, see that as a potential

career opportunity, to go into academia, there… there are a number of faculty that, that

are… they’re always looking for students like that. And… and so for my case, it was Steve’s…

I was interested in leadership, right? So I went to Steve Zagaro.

Jacob Johnson: And said, hey, you know, I only have so much time, but I’m really… I want to

be an academic, and getting some exposure to… not that what you do in class isn’t real

research.

Jacob Johnson: Is there are real skills that you develop, but, you know, I wanted to see what

it’s really like behind the hood, right? Or under the hood, rather. And he was like, yeah,

come on, you’re gonna… it’s not sexy stuff, but, you know, you’re gonna do some literature

reviews and, you know, help out, in various ways.

Jacob Johnson: with some of his PhD students, and I did, and it was super valuable, and I,

you know, put forth some good effort, even though I didn’t… still didn’t know much. And it…

that’s honestly the biggest reason why I’m here, because Steve has worked with my advisor

in the past, and so when I was actually applying to PhD programs.

Jacob Johnson: Steve reached out to me, my current advisor, and said, hey, this guy’s, you

know.

Jacob Johnson: he hustled for me in the lab, and pretty good student, so you should consider

him. And, you know, here I am. So, it is… this program was instrumental in a lot of ways, you

know, the actual content that you learn, but then also… I think the most special part about it

is, you know, and Dr. Stagel alluded to this, there’s a whole bunch of, like, I mean, these are,

like, really accomplished academics.

Jacob Johnson: Who are still in touch with the real world as well, and they are willing…

they’re teaching your classes, and they’re willing to help you out, you know, if you want to

go above and beyond.

Jacob Johnson: So… I think I had something else to say, but it eludes me now, so I’ll stop.

Justin Scott: Yeah, and I also want to add to the research part, too, because I think Stephanie

asked about research opportunities. So, like… like Jacob said.

Justin Scott: I think a lot of that goes back to your own initiative, so I work in a lab now, even

as an alum, I work at a lab, I work with Dr. Rupp, so she does the, like, staffing, employee

selection stuff, which is something I have a lot of interest in, and

Justin Scott: what I was doing in my job as an HR practitioner, and I just reached out to her

and said, hey, I’m interested in research, I have no interest in doing a PhD right now, so…

Justin Scott: But I do want to actually, you know, work on my stats skills, be involved with,

like, things that are on the forefront of changes in the field. So, she was like, yeah, sure. And

I’ve been working with her, I think that’s been a real good experience.

Justin Scott: I’m working with her now on a couple projects, and I think it’s been helpful. I

know Dr.

Justin Scott: I forgot what his last name. Rashid. He posts a lot of stuff in the, the,

Justin Scott: email list, but I think, you know, if you… if you see a professor that has a

particular subject you’re interested in, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to them to say, hey, I’m

interested in AI or whatever, performance management, and see if they have some… some

opportunities for you.

Jacob Johnson: And just, like, a note from, like, the academia side, it probably doesn’t… most

of you here, it probably doesn’t mean so much to be like, oh, these people are, like, you

know, well-known professors, like, yada, okay. I’m telling you, as I live in it every day, and I

read all these papers, and these journals that they publish in, and the quality of the journal,

you know, matters to us nerds.

Jacob Johnson: And I see these names with frequency, right? And it depends on what topic

you’re interested in, but these are, like, you know, you are truly learning from, as far as, you

know, the academic side of things, like, these are true experts in the field, and they are

teaching, you know, your classes, and it’s a… in that sense, again, one of the really special

opportunities about Mason.

George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. And Jacob, did you want me to repeat that

second question for you?

Jacob Johnson: Sure, I’ve been talking too much anyway.

George Mason Online Admissions: Well, just in case. In what specific ways has the training

and the program been useful to the work you do in your role?

Jacob Johnson: Yeah, I think I answered some of that. The only other thing I had to add,

though, is that, you know, the stats classes, like, they… especially… I mean, for most people,

there’s the rare exception, I’m sure, who has some experience, you know, did some

advanced stats in undergrad or whatever, and still remembers some of it.

Jacob Johnson: But, like, I… that wasn’t me, I was a history major, and… and so I, like,

learned R in the process of, you know, going through, which is a stats program, an extremely

capable one. In fact, I still use it for most of my work, my academic work now, so… But, you

know, it’s hard. It sucks going through it as you’re learning… you’re learning stats, but

you’re also learning a new software, which…

Jacob Johnson: for, you know, less technically inclined people, I mean, it’s a lot. Those are…

that’s a tough eight weeks, but then you come out of it, and, you know, I walked into a PhD

program, I was like, oh yeah, at least I have some baseline knowledge of, you know, how to

do some of this stuff. And so that was… that was really helpful to getting me off on the right

foot.

Jacob Johnson: For the next step, and I’m sure, you know, Justin and Amber can speak to this

more, but it’s things you can apply in the real world, too.

Amber Myers: Yeah, I, I can build off of that. My experience was a bit different when it came

to statistics. I… I got my undergrad at Mason, and I was, my undergrad was in marketing,

but I veered far away from marketing. But in that course, I did have to take some stats

classes and whatnot.

Amber Myers: But…

Amber Myers: you know, I got my undergrad in, like, 2015, and so it was, like, a pretty large

gap, you know, when I went into this grad program, so I completely forgot stats. And so,

going into it is pretty, intimidating for me, but…

Amber Myers: I was very surprised. I really liked it. It was probably one of my favorite

courses, and I actually found it fairly…

Amber Myers: it’s structured very well, where I felt like it… I could, easily get, you know,

assistance, and help from the professors. There were a lot of resources, there were YouTube

videos I could, like, you know, review.

Amber Myers: But I thought it kind of fun. I like that stuff. I like the coding aspect of it. I feel

like it’s like putting a puzzle together. So, for those that feel intimidated by that, I feel like

you get a lot of support as you go through that course, and it’s… they’re skills that you can

carry, you know.

Amber Myers: into your work. I think I saw someone in the chat mentioning something

about being an HR business partner, and wondering if, like, what we do in this coursework,

can apply to, like, people analytics, and I definitely say yes to that, because there’s a lot of,

data analytics and analyzing that we’re doing in our courses here, so most definitely.

Justin Scott: Yeah, and I have a comment about the people analytics.

Justin Scott: I forgot who made that comment about that, but I think if you’re looking at

people analytics, you have to be very specific and look at the job, because

Justin Scott: some people analytics jobs, and jobs that I’ve had in people analytics before, it’s

not really stats-heavy in the sense of what we learn. Like, you’re not really doing, like,

regression models, you’re not looking at, like, models to predict, like, future things. Some…

Justin Scott: jobs, they may want, like, ratios, like, you know, how many people left this year,

or they may want more visualization experience, so you just have to be…

Justin Scott: If you’re applying to a job, or if you’re looking at

Justin Scott: Trying to transition to that field, just be very clear about what angle you’re

looking at it from, because

Justin Scott: All of them may not require, like, a real, real heavy

Justin Scott: stats as far as what we’re learning. And, like, in the…

Justin Scott: and I’m generalizing, but, like, in the government, like, when they typically talk

about, like, human resource information systems or people analytics, they’re usually talking

about

Justin Scott: Like, more like ratios, and then also building visualizations and dashboards.

You know, if you want to do, like, heavy stat stuff, you may need to go into, like, more I.O.

specific roles, or more.

Justin Scott: research-heavy roles, or maybe, like, something like people science, people…

Justin Scott: yeah, people science, like, I think Capital One uses that term. So, just something

to be aware of.

George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome.

George Mason Online Admissions: Next question is, what has been the most memorable

experience in the program?

Justin Scott: Mmm… there were a couple. So, I think the practicum research method

experience, that was one of the most memorable

Justin Scott: for me, because I think, like, I had a really, really good team, and when you get

to the practicum, you get… you’re pretty much running your own research project, and I

liked it because we…

Justin Scott: I think we have 4 people. Most teams have 3, but we have 4 people. And, you

know, we made it work, like, 3 people… two people were based in the DMV, one was based

in…

Justin Scott: the West Coast.

Justin Scott: another person was in Dubai, and we, you know, we figured out a way to make

it work, and, you know, we all handled it like professionals, and, also the fact that we

Justin Scott: We’re able to…

Justin Scott: focus on things that we actually had interest in, I think that made it… made it

really fulfilling for me. So, you know, one person picked a topic, I handled most of the data

analytics, somebody else did a lot of the writing and the background information, so I think

that’s a good opportunity for

Justin Scott: You to focus on whatever your particular interests are when you get to that

part of the program.

Jacob Johnson: I don’t have a specific one per se, but, it was really the research experience,

right? So, for me, you know, you learned a lot, but the things that I really took out of it, and

again, this is… because this is sort of what I had in mind.

Jacob Johnson: just coming into the program, but the ex… the fact that I got to work, like, as

somebody who’s interested in leadership, who was… got to work and learned a little bit

from Steve Zakaro was, like, you know, it was the coolest thing. And, you know, you… you

learn… a lot of the stuff is, like, practical, you know, for… for… it was…

Jacob Johnson: practical for me in terms of… or instrumental, rather, for me to get to where I

wanted to go, but it was also just, you know, super interesting to, you know, get to see

behind the curtain.

Amber Myers: I think for me, when it comes to, like, the most memorable,

Amber Myers: One, I think, is, like, the relationships that I built, with, you know, some of the

professors in the program, specifically Dr. Kirkendall, so, she’s, like, over the motivation and

well-being, course within this grad program.

Amber Myers: And that’s a specific area that I’m interested in, employee well-being,

organizational well-being, within my organization. So being able to build that relationship

with her and, you know, possibly be able to partner with her in the future. I think also a

memorable experience. Earlier in this presentation, they were mentioning how,

Amber Myers: You know, students within the program have the opportunity to get, you

know, scholarships or grants to go to, like, conferences or travel.

Amber Myers: And I applied for one of those grants, and I was able to go to the PSYOP

conference last year, you know, that was fully covered by Mason, which was a very

memorable experience. I got to meet some folks, you know, within the, within my cohort, so

that was very exciting, and then also just being able to experience the PSYOP conference

was, was really exciting as well, so I feel like

Amber Myers: that was a pretty memorable experience, and then I also…

Amber Myers: just realizing that I could combine my professional and my personal passions

in one space, and what I mean by that is, like, yes, I’m an HR manager, and I’m very focused

on employee well-being, but I’m also a registered yoga teacher.

Amber Myers: And, you know, during the practicum, my practicum was focused on,

employee well-being and, and ethics, and then taking the motivation course, and

Amber Myers: doing certain research work, I was able to explore how yoga ethics can

inform leadership behaviors, and I, you know, created my own professional framework out

of that. So just using what I learned in this program to kind of build on that.

Amber Myers: and allow it to grow internally within my organization, but also externally. So

I feel like that was something very unique and personal to me that I was able to do, within

this program.

Amber Myers: Awesome.

George Mason Online Admissions: And then the last final question is, is there anything you

would like to have known as a prospective student, or add about your experience as a

student?

Amber Myers: I can…

Amber Myers: start, kind of building off of, like, what I said on the latter end of my response.

Amber Myers: I feel like don’t be afraid to let your unique perspective or journey, like, or…

no, don’t… how do I word this? Don’t be afraid to let your unique perspective guide your

journey.

Amber Myers: So I feel like everybody comes into this program from different professional

backgrounds, or different, you know, end goals. You know, like Jacob, how you mentioned,

you know, his end goal is a PhD, you know, whereas some people, you know, want to be a

practitioner in this space.

Amber Myers: And I feel like it’s that diversity that, makes this program so rich, and I think

it makes it valuable. And so, for me, it wasn’t…

Amber Myers: that this degree was just, like, a credential for me. It was about shaping my

voice as a practitioner and, connecting the dots between the research, like the science, and

the real-world impact to make myself seem more credible in the work that I do.

Amber Myers: I also want to highlight that anyone, which I feel like most people will

probably be doing, anyone balancing work and school, it’s doable. It’s difficult, but it is

doable. And I did take about, like, a year and a half break, so I was, like, in the program for,

like, a year, then I took, like, a year and a half break, and I came back to finish the rest of my

course.

Amber Myers: But, while difficult, my journey has been so worth it, and I find it… it was very

unique, and,

Amber Myers: It’s helped me a lot, you know, on my journey and my career.

Jacob Johnson: I don’t know if I have a specific thing,

Jacob Johnson: But just to sort of echo or build on something Amber said at the end there

about, you know, the challenges and… but it being worth it, I mean, you know, I had a… I had

a…

Jacob Johnson: kid.

Jacob Johnson: going into it, it was, like, one, and then I had my second one, like, 6 months

into the program, so I was like…

Jacob Johnson: I don’t recommend that, first of all, but… but, you know, it’s chaos, but, you

know, the… you… if you dedicate the time and effort to it, and…

Jacob Johnson: you get so much back from the faculty, and the whole, you know, all the staff

of the program as well. And so, you know, I know a couple people who took breaks. One of

my practicum teammate took a break for 6 months, and then got back into it, and finished,

and, you know, went on to get a

Jacob Johnson: I forget exactly what she’s doing, but an IO-related job, you know, is, you

know, moving up in the world, right? So, it’s,

Jacob Johnson: Yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: Justin, did you want to add, or…

Justin Scott: Yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: Sorry, your hand up.

Justin Scott: For me, I think…

Justin Scott: Oh, what would I say? Knowing what to focus on, and how much energy and

time to put into

Justin Scott: what? Because it’s easy to go down rabbit holes, but sometimes you can go

down rabbit holes doing your research, and it’s like, this isn’t even relevant. I think one of

the greatest skills

Justin Scott: To learn early on is how to…

Justin Scott: digest a journal article. If you do that, that will make your life a whole lot easier.

And especially early on in the program, like, you may start reading journal articles, and you

may want to get into

Justin Scott: the…

Justin Scott: like, the results section, or even the methods section, but you… more than

likely, you won’t have the technical skill set to really grasp that. I think

Justin Scott: Learn how to digest the abstract.

Justin Scott: and just realize, okay, that’s really what you need to know for the time being,

and being comfortable with knowing you’re not a technical expert, and realizing, hey, you’re

going to learn these skills as you go along through the program. I think just grasping that,

that’ll…

Justin Scott: that would have made my job a lot… my process a lot easier, my learning

process a lot easier, and… and that’s something I try to tell people when they…

Justin Scott: join the program, just… just… Don’t go down a rabbit hole trying to read your

own articles initially.

George Mason Online Admissions: Phone.

George Mason Online Admissions: Well, that’s all the questions we have. I did drop my email

in the chat, so if anyone did want to get started on an application or had any specific

application questions, admissions questions, please feel free to email me. Happy to answer

any questions, that you might have.

George Mason Online Admissions: But that looks like it’s it. I think Dr. Ahmad is still on, I’m

not sure.

George Mason Online Admissions: If she wanted to…

Jacob Johnson: Can I… while you’re… while you’re figuring that out, can I just make a… I

took a couple notes of some of the previous questions that were not directly…

Jacob Johnson: related to these last ones, but I just want to say a couple things. So, first of all,

like, the AI questions are really good, and this is a little bit of, like, the academic perspective,

but I think it applies, pretty well. So, like, AI generally, like, great tools, right? But it’s a tool,

and it is…

Jacob Johnson: only helpful to the extent that you actually know what you’re talking about,

right? So it can help you a lot, but if you don’t know, you know, what’s going on, you know,

in the…

Jacob Johnson: in terms of content or methods, like, whatever it is, you know, under the

hood, right, then it’s just gonna get you in trouble. So what it’s good for, like, one of the

things is coding, right? Like, you can… but again, you need to be able to verify it. So I say,

hey, I wrote up this code.

Jacob Johnson: like, it’s not working, help me figure out where I went astray, right? Great for

that. And especially, be careful which large language model you use, but Claude in particular

is pretty good. I know there’s other ones as well. Somebody mentioned grading too, right?

And for those of you who are teaching or plan to teach, like, the, you know, the thing is, like,

you gotta figure out a way to.

Jacob Johnson: Do… to do evaluations where they can’t use

Jacob Johnson: artificial intelligence. So, like, what I’m doing with my students, because I’m

teaching this semester, is, like, having them do a simulated meeting for their final project.

So, like, yeah, they might use AI to, like, create some of the products that inform the meeting,

but, like, they have to stand up and talk to another human being and be able to explain

themselves, and answer questions, right? So, some of those things,

Jacob Johnson: is good, too. And then the last thing AI is really good for is, like, is

counterfactuals, right? Or, you know, saying, hey, I wrote this, this is what I’m thinking, tell

me why that doesn’t make sense, or how someone would poke holes in it, right? Those kind

of things are really good.

Jacob Johnson: And, but again, as long as you actually know what you’re talking about

underneath it. There’s another question about, like, is, and I know Dr. Stagel largely

answered this, but it’s talking about, you know, is there a certain industry kind of

orientation to the program? And I would say no. I, you know, and obviously, he’s more of an

expert on this, but,

Jacob Johnson: you know, if you know what you’re talking about, you understand the

fundamentals, I think, you know, I don’t remember if it was Justin or Amber who was

talking about this before, but they basically made that same point, right? If you… if you get

the fundamentals, then you can apply it. It’s pretty much industry agnostic.

Jacob Johnson: And the last thing was just, and we’ve talked about this before, but, like, the

key thing that separates Mason is the people, right? And particularly the faculty, who, as

we’ve talked about, are, like, just outstanding researchers, and they will take

Jacob Johnson: Much of their time and devote it to you if you’re willing to show them that

you’re going to give it back, and that’s what really sets this place apart.

Justin Scott: Yeah, and I definitely agree with Jacob on that, and I…

Justin Scott: I think that’s another part… another… the faculty… quality of the faculty and

their willingness to help us through our journey is… has made the program for me really,

really, really, really good. And I actually applied to another MPS program.

Justin Scott: got denied by that program, then found out about Mason, like, 3 hours after I

got denied, and got accepted by Mason, and I’m actually happy that I got accepted by Mason.

Like, I like the way they have the program structured, because

Justin Scott: even though they condense a 16-week course into 8 weeks, at least you’re only

focusing on one topic. And you can just sit there, focus on that one topic, do your

assignments. They structure it really well, where it’s like, pretty much you start the week

out, do reading.

Justin Scott: do a discussion post in the middle of the week, have a deliverable at the end of

the week. So it’s pretty…

Amber Myers: kind of learned the flow for how it works, but I definitely think the faculty is

what.

Justin Scott: Really cause the program… causes the program to shine.

Amber Myers: I see a question in the chat saying, like, who would you say the NPS program

is not good for? I think it’s dependent on your end goal. It’s hard for me to really answer

that. Is this really dependent on

Amber Myers: what your end goal is, the amount of time you’re able to dedicate, you know,

to the program, because I feel like with this being online, you’re not having to physically

show up in a, you know, in a classroom, you have to be very…

Amber Myers: you know, organized and, motivated, you know, to… to do the work. And it’s

pretty rigorous, you know, each course is, like, 8 weeks, so it’s a lot shorter than, like, you

know, the normal course, but you are also doing one course at a time, like Justin just

mentioned. So you have that, you know, just that focal course. So…

Amber Myers: I know I’m not, like, explicitly answering your question, but I think it’s really

subjective. Like, it just really depends on your end goal here, and what your motivations are.

Justin Scott: Yeah, I… and I think two things come to mind. If your goal is to pursue a PhD,

because this is designed to be a terminal program, so, you know, you gain skills and you can.

Justin Scott: go down the PhD track, but this is not really designed to lead you to be a… be

a… go on a doctorate track. Also, I think if you’re somebody who…

Justin Scott: is not comfortable doing research, and then giving evidence-based

recommendations, because that’s what the program’s training is for, is to be practitioners

and give organizations, or whoever we work for.

Justin Scott: evidence-based suggestions. If you’re just gonna be like, oh, I walked out today,

and I feel like employees should do this because this is the new trending thing. That’s not

really what we’re here for. We’re here to develop evidence-based recommendations, do the

research, and…

Justin Scott: lead employers or organizations down the right path based off evidence. You

know, if you’re just trying to follow what’s trending in industry, or what you saw on TV

today, or what

Justin Scott: you know, what somebody on a podcast said, this is not… I don’t think this is

going to be a good program for you, because it really makes you think about evidence

theory.

Justin Scott: Research, and using that to come up with, with, recommendations and

solutions.

Jacob Johnson: If you’re lazy.

Jacob Johnson: No, I’m kidding, I joke. I think the only thing I’d add to that is great points for

both of you, is that just be honest with yourself in terms of how much time and bandwidth

you actually have. Because if you’re working full-time, and say you have kids, and you’re

taking care of a, you know, a parent who’s not well, right, like.

Jacob Johnson: you’re gonna… it’s gonna be, you know, hard to, like, really devote the time

to get out of it what you can, right? So, I think that’s really the only thing, because, you

know, there’s so many different roles in the I.O. world, and some of them you can be, you

know, in the back office and not talking to people very much, just, you know, doing analyses

and…

Jacob Johnson: doing background work. Some of them you could be, you know, if you’re an

extrovert, you could be, you know.

Jacob Johnson: you know, schmoozing it with the CEOs and making recommendations all

the time, right? So there’s… there’s just such a spectrum of opportunities that, you know, it’s

one of the things that makes the field cool. But yeah, there’s really… other than, like, if you

just really don’t have time, or you don’t want to work, then, yeah, that’s the only things that

I could say would really make it not a good match.

Justin Scott: Yeah, and also, if… well, I came from an HR background, recognizing that

Justin Scott: once you’re going through the IR track, you’re becoming a social scientist, and

so you’re…

Justin Scott: just like economists, just like anthropologists, just like… what else are social

scientists? Social scientists, or political scientists, you know, you’re using science to study

human behaviors, and in our case, we’re studying human behaviors in the workplace, so…

Justin Scott: the way you think about the world is going to be different than, like, someone

who pursues an MBA, or someone who’s doing something that’s not

Justin Scott: a social science-focused arena. So, if you’re…

Justin Scott: If you’re going to not be comfortable, like, changing the way your perspective is

on the world, or, like, how you communicate and how you

Justin Scott: view the world, I would say this program might not be the right one for you,

too. If you’re, like, focused on, hey, I just want to do an MBA track, that’s two totally different

things.

Justin Scott: I mean, I think you can use those… the skills we learn can help you in the

business world to consult, but it’s…

Justin Scott: Looking at the world two different… in two different ways.

George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome.

George Mason Online Admissions: Any final words from our guest speakers?

George Mason Online Admissions: Before we wrap up?

Jacob Johnson: Thanks for, thanks for having us, thanks for being here. You know, we’ve

beat this horse to death by now, but it’s a great investment in your future, so, strongly, if

you’re thinking about it, like, you really can’t get a better place than Mason for an NPS

program.

Amber Myers: I stuck on what Jacob said.

George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much, and thank

everybody for attending, and again, if you have any admissions questions, want to get

started on an application, all my information is in the chat.

Justin Scott: Hey, somebody had a question about literary suggestions.

Jacob Johnson: Yeah, I was about to jump on that one, too. I’m really interested in what,

Samantha, what you actually mean by that.

Justin Scott: Can you elaborate on that one?

samantha pringle: Sorry, I also think I spelled that incorrectly, too. Sorry, I was trying to,

like, for… I was trying to, like, type it in real quick before the session ended. But I guess just,

well, I’m, like, real introductory to…

samantha pringle: IO Psych in general, so I’ve just been trying to find, reading materials that

kind of gives me a better idea of,

samantha pringle: I, I guess what, what the foundations, what they encompass, and

samantha pringle: yeah, kind of… I guess reading materials that are kind of, like, if you like

IOS, like, you’ll definitely like this type thing, I guess.

Justin Scott: I would say check out PSYOT at S-I-O-P dot org, I think that’s the Society for

Industrial Organizational Psychology. They’re the premier organization for

Justin Scott: for IELT psychology stuff in the U.S. and maybe the world? But I know at least

in the U.S.

Justin Scott: them, and I think if you’re gonna research stuff, I would try to find… Depending

on how…

Justin Scott: experience you are with, like, reading journal articles and research. Try to find

something that’s geared towards, like, the layperson, because you can go down rabbit holes

with

Justin Scott: journal articles, but if you don’t understand, like, research methods, and if you

don’t understand statistical methods, it may just cause… it may just confuse you. So, I think

PSYOP does a good job of

Justin Scott: Having, like, some layperson Stuff, just to get you exposed to,

Justin Scott: what I think you’re… you’re trying to get at, which is, like, introductory stuff,

just to see if this is something that may resonate with you. Is that right?

samantha pringle: Yeah, yeah.

Amber Myers: I agree.

samantha pringle: Thank you.

Justin Scott: Yeah, I would say check out PSYOP.

Jacob Johnson: Yeah, I have an article in mind about something, I think in industrial

organizational psychology that talks about, like, the scientist-practitioner model, and

Jacob Johnson: But I can’t… I can’t remember the specific article, so that’s why I’m looking

off-screen, looking at my other screen, seeing if I can find it. I can’t find it right now, but,

some of those journals, like Industrial Organizational Psychology, or Psychologist, I forget

what it’s called,

Jacob Johnson: are sort of an in-between. I mean, they publish some, like, real academic

work, too, but they do some, some work that’s a little more, like, sort of…

Jacob Johnson: oriented towards practitioners in the field, right? So it’s, it’s,

Jacob Johnson: a little more accessible, so you might want to check out some articles like

that, as well. In fact, this one that I was just trying to download was from Deborah Rupp,

so… she’s first author on this, so…

Jacob Johnson: Anyway, yeah, sorry, I had something in mind, but it’s a good question, and

I’ll keep looking and see if I can find something for you.

samantha pringle: Okay, thank you so much.

Justin Scott: Yeah, and… also, like, they’ll say I.O. Psychology is a scientist practitioner.

Justin Scott: field. So, what that’s getting at is you’re not just looking at

Justin Scott: science in an academic institution. Like, you’re actually looking at how to apply

this in the real world, and that’s what separates IO Psychology from some other

Justin Scott: scientific fields. So… And for this… for the MPS program, it’s designed for you to

be a…

Justin Scott: scientist, but also a practitioner in the real world. Whereas, like, you know, if

you’re pursuing a PhD program, it may… and I’m generalizing, it may just be… be focused on

you working in academia, so…

Justin Scott: reading stuff on how you actually can apply our psychology in the… in what

they call applied settings, or…

Justin Scott: you know, in the workplace, that may be helpful, too. And…

Justin Scott: also helping you decide whether or not you want to go the MA route, which

Mason has, which is more geared towards research, or pursue this, which is more geared

towards you actually working in the

Justin Scott: Working in an applied setting, or in the workplace.

Amber Myers: I also… I wanted to just add in, Niles, mentioned, like, the first textbook. I

saved all the textbooks, so I feel like they are helpful, but yes, Psychology Applied to Work, I

think, was, like, the first textbook that we used, so this is introductory, so if you want to

Amber Myers: purchased the… I think I got a used one from, like, Amazon. That was fairly

cheaper than, you know, the norm or going to the bookstore. Sorry, Mason Bookstore. But,

Amber Myers: But if you want to go down that route, I recommend, you know, getting that

book as well, because that’s helpful.

Justin Scott: And I put something in the chat on sign… like, the scientist partitioner model.

I… this is just some random article I found, like.

Justin Scott: after 5 seconds of Googling, so, you know, do your own… validate it yourself to

see if it’s relevant. But, this kind of gets into some details about

Justin Scott: A little bit better explanation of what the scientist-practitioner model is,

especially for master’s students.

George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. I think we got through all the questions. I don’t

see anything that we haven’t answered.

George Mason Online Admissions: Perfect. So… Thanks, everybody, for attending. Thank you

again to Justin, Jacob, and Amber. We appreciate it.

George Mason Online Admissions: So, you all have a great night!

Amber Myers: Thank you, you too.

Jacob Johnson: Thanks, nice to meet you guys.

Stephanie Rabelo: Thank you guys again, have a good night.