Your future | Work and Organisational Psychology (2024)

Employed | An FPN Podcast

Work and Organisational Psychology in the world

• Graduated: 2021
• First and current job: PhD student at ROA (Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University).

After completing the WOP Master's degree, I started my current job as a PhD student at ROA (Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University). For me, the WOP Master was a balanced mix of theoretical knowledge and practice-oriented application. The mix of theoretical knowledge in human resources, organisational behaviour, and organisational psychology and practical training that can be implemented in organisations prepared me very well for my future career. Most importantly, the different courses helped me to understand and critically evaluate research methods. As a result, I felt well prepared to start a career in academia and had the confidence to apply for PhD positions.

• Graduated: 2020
• First & current job: Associate Executive Search, at Kienbaum

Being curious about how psychology can be applied at work I chose the Master ‘Work and Organisational Psychology’. Here, learning about the influence of the work environment on employee performance, health and well-being and topics such as talent acquisition learning and development. The master provided the opportunity to conduct an external internship, thereby gaining my first work experience in the field of personnel consultancy.

Ultimately, this and the master have showed me how broad the application of psychology in organisations can be. Now, working in an HR consultancy (Kienbaum) allows me to keep this broad perspective on organizational psychology. Thereby, helping people make the next step in their career.

• Graduated: 2016
• First job: Recruitment Consultant at an IT Startup
• Current job: Working on a couple of projects looking to improve the wellbeing and psychological health of students and young people

After having graduated in 2016, I moved on to the UK and started my first job as recruitment consultant at an IT Startup.

I ended up working as a psychologist for the Royal Navy before I returned to Austria in 2020.

Since then, I have been working on a couple of projects looking to improve the wellbeing and psychological health of students and young people.

I enjoy lecturing, teaching and being a social entrepreneur.

The Work and Organisational Psychology master’s degree has opened up a world of endless opportunities to me and although it has only been a couple of years since I obtained my degree, I already feel very fortunate, having had the chance to do so. It's an excellent programme.

• Graduated: 2018
• First job: Senior Talent Acquisition at HappyFresh Indonesia
• Current job: Country Talent Acquisition at Xiaomi Indonesia

It was an incredible journey through all the ups and downs. I couldn't be more grateful after graduating from WOP, and completing such a meaningful learning journey. Flying 7000 miles from my home country, Indonesia, was a new and exciting experience as I had never visited Europe before. The Problem-Based Learning method really taught me that in every context, we should be well prepared, have our thought structured in our mind before explaining it, and proactively prepare ourselves with the available materials. Which turns out, the same things now apply in my career! I am continuously feeling the growth in the field after finishing my master's and applying what I’ve learned.

• Graduated: 2018
• First job: Organisational Development and Learning Specialist at an online printing platform (start-up).
• Current job: Lecturer candidate in one of Ministries of the Republic of Indonesia.

My study journey was a wonderful experience, especially how the curriculum is curated and delivered by the lectures. It taught me well how to be more scientific and data driven by giving the students vast study materials that allow us, the students to view from different angles before coming to a conclusion. Thus, we have become an open-minded person that always welcomes new ideas and feedback. This mindset has been an advantage not only in my professional endeavour but also how I see my surroundings as a person, that by listening more we would understand better.

• Graduated: 2018
• First job: Consultant
• Current job: project manager

Shortly after graduating with a master’s degree in Work and Organisational Psychology in 2018, I joined a leading consultancy in the CEE and Nordics region. My role as a consultant was to support the public sector in becoming more efficient and dynamic by collecting and analysing data, drawing conclusions, and compiling reports – in a way, I conducted research projects and wrote theses all year round. As I got to work on projects in a wide range of subject fields, I learned that I am most passionate about education. As of 2022, I am a project manager at a start-up company that helps students build positive learning habits, applying the knowledge about psychology and human performance. I can confidently say that the WOP programme provided with a strong basis for the specific skills needed in both roles, as well as general competencies needed to excel at teamwork and problem-solving.

• Graduated: 2017
• First job: Consultant
• Current job: PhD student at Eindhoven University

After finishing my master’s degree in Work and Organisational Psychology at Maastricht University, I worked in a consultancy company in Munich for two years. The projects I mostly worked in were related to change processes, organisation-, and employee development. Spending two years as a consultant, I was longing for a new challenge that led to my current position: I am following a PhD track at Eindhoven University of Technology. My research is focusing on the Dutch police, and I am investigating how resilience is influencing employees work experience.

The WOP-master programme gave me many opportunities and I am especially grateful for the supervision of Prof. dr. Ute Hülsheger during my master thesis on how mindfulness influences employee wellbeing.

• Graduated: 2019
• First and current job: Recruitment Consultant at Derks & Derks (Amersfoort, The Netherlands)

With some regularity I think back to my master’s in Work and Organisational Psychology in my daily life, as I see many of the treated theoretical themes in my current job and/or organisation. After obtaining my master's degree, I started as a Recruitment Consultant in an HR agency. The search for talents, developing talents and ensuring that these talents remain within the organisation are central to this. I also regularly refer to the literature from my master when it concerns, for example, themes such as inclusion or diversity. It remains interesting! In addition, I stay within the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP) to gain a better understanding of the role and added value of the A&O psychologist and to put it on the map.

• Graduated: 2018
• First job: Human Capital Operations and Recruitment at Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences (i3L)

After graduating from WOP master’s programme, I got my first job back in Indonesia as a Human Capital Operations and Recruitment. It was my first job but thanking WOP programme which balances theoretical knowledge as well as opportunities for practical application, I instantly get a grasp on the daily tasks of an HR practitioner. I provide some insight to my team by what I have learnt in mu master’s programme, such as to leverage current employees and cultivate application experiences. Back in that time, our main obstacle was to hire new faculty members as we face rather high turnover rates, I came up with the idea to approach the candidates through social media, as the institution was newly established, and we prefer young life scientists with international exposure. The content of our Instagram page was mainly interview with our own faculty member and it covers not only their credentials but also their life-changing experiences, aspirations, and interests. It was inspired by the practical training courses I had back in WOP, where our task was interviewing subject matters expert about their work as an organisational psychologists and present our interview result in an interactive session.

Studying in UM with classmates from various nationalities has given me the skills and confident to work with people in different background at my workplace. I also thank the Problem Based Learning approach, as I was trained to collaborate with my co-workers as well as work independently, think critically to solve work-related problems, and get used to public speaking.

I am currently a full-time mother who takes care of my 7-month-old baby. I still enjoy participating in some research work in my spare time. I am also taking my time to explore my upcoming career plan in academia and hopefully, in the next five years, I could get the opportunity to pursue a PhD training—fingers crossed.

• Graduated: 2018
• First job: Analyst at Accenture Australia
• Current job: Workforce Analytics, Workforce Strategy and Strategic Workforce Planning at Deloitte

After finishing my M.Sc. in Organisational Psychology, I accepted an offer with Accenture Australia. Accenture Australia is a Management consulting firm which delivers a range of professional services across almost all industries and geographies. I started in their Talent & Organisation practice (Now I think it's called Human Potential), in 2018 and worked in a variety of roles (e.g. change analyst, change lead, business analyst), predominantly supporting large organisational transformations (e.g. SAP implementations, Culture Change), across the Resources sector.

After 2.5 years, I moved from Accenture to Deloitte's Human Capital practice, specialising in Workforce Analytics, Workforce Strategy and Strategic Workforce Planning. At Deloitte, I focus on supporting public sector clients understand their workforce better, and manage their workforce investments

The M.Sc. in I/O Psychology gave me a strong understanding of why we work and how we can work better. It gave me an insight into the end-to-end HR cycle and how I could add value to business as an organisational psychologist. Through the programme (and Maastricht University's other programs) I was able to gain real-world experience at multiple employers (including Accenture, ING, Conclusion and more) which set me up well for my first job.

• Graduated: 2019
• First job: Learning and Development intern at Roche
• Current job: HR & Communications Specialist at Electrolux

After completing my master’s, I relocated to Basel, Switzerland where I had accepted a 12-month internship offer at Roche. I was working in the learning and development team in the pharma technical operations department, and my tasks ranged from creating competency maps, coordinating, and managing leadership training and coaching programmes to recruiting 3 candidates for a 2-year rotational development program. I currently work in HR and communications for a large multinational home goods manufacturer in Stockholm, Sweden.

My time at UM and the masters was intense in terms of workload, yet very giving in terms of social life. Maastricht is a fabulous student town, and I immediately fell right into place. As for the master’s course, I think I would have really enjoyed a more practical part of it such as a placement, instead of only the theoretical. The PBL structure was new for me but offered a highly engaging and contextualised problem solving approach to the reading material.

• Graduated: 2020
• First job: Organizational Psychologist for a private practice
• Current job: PhD in Management at ArizonaStateUniversity

UM’s WOP programme provides us with theoriesand empirical studies, encourages us to apply themknowledge by working with peers,and offers hands-on research experience during our thesis project.Knowing Iwanted to pursue a career in academia, upon graduation, I started working as anOrganizational Psychologist for a private practice, where I structured recruitmentprocesses, consultedwith companies to improve their productivity, and hostedWOP workshops on topics such as sleep anddigital body language. Following thispractical experience, I started a PhD in Management at ArizonaStateUniversity, where I am involved in different research projects and constantlylearning from peoplewith diverse backgrounds to contribute to the field.

• Graduated: 2019
• First job: Traineeship at PwC
• Current job: Senior Consultant at PwC

I was always interested in HR topics like Team work, Work life balance, Change Management and HR Digital Transformation that an Organisation goes through and how it affects the rest of the workforce and workforce strategy. My master’s in Work and Organisational Psychology at Maastricht University helped me build insights on various factors that builds a good overall workforce strategy. It not only had theoretical and research components to it but also focused on various practicalities a successful HR professional might need to succeed in industry.

The components on the master’s that resonated most with me the Problem Based Learning system which helps you build your analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills which is extremely crucial as a consultant.