2023 SIOP Consortia: Thank You to Our Presenters and Attendees!

Consortia Committee: Amber L. Burkhart, Manuel F. Gonzalez, Alexandra Harris-Watson, Lauren R. Locklear, Nchopia Nwokoma, Brandon S. Riggs, Beth Adams, Jan L. Harbaugh, I-Heng (Ray) Wu, & Nadine Tresa Maliakkal

It was exciting to welcome over 140 consortia registrants to this year’s Master’s, Doctoral, Early Career Faculty, and Early Career Practitioner Consortia. The SIOP Consortia provided virtual and in-person programming this year. Again, I am impressed with the Consortia Committee’s commitment in developing programming that benefits the professional development of members at various stages across our membership base. We are also thankful for the 60+ presenters who gave their time and energy to make this a successful event.  Over 90% of consortia attendees who responded to the post-event survey said that the event was a good use of their time and helped them feel more connected to the SIOP community! We are so happy to see this positive impact and happy to provide a summary of what was offered and invite you to consider this as part of your SIOP conference experience next year. 

Master’s Consortium

2023 marked another successful Master’s Consortium! This year’s Master’s Consortium was completely virtual, with ~40 participants joining four 2-hour sessions in the 2 weeks prior to the SIOP conference. Post-event feedback was positive, with attendees rating their satisfaction with the event overall at 4.1 out of 5. When asked what about the consortium was most valuable, one student responded, “The advice which could immediately be applied. Everyone was also very friendly and open to helping the master’s students!”

This year’s consortium consisted of six keynote speakers representing many of the top avenues pursued by master’s I-O students postgraduation: internal consulting, external consulting, assessments, and government.

• Tara Schlacter (Learning Business Partner with Cardinal Health): Consulting: Building Your Brand While Growing Your Skillset
• Nathan Cornwell (Senior Consultant with Hogan Assessments): Living Like an Octopus: The Many Tentacles of a Business Psychologist
• Jenn Reaves (Product Development Manager) and Ryan Hendricks (Program Manager, both with the Office of Personnel Management): Agile Development, The Federal Government, and I-O Psychology
• Tiffany Pires (Senior Consultant with Perceptyx): The Journey of an External I-O Consultant
• Christina Dougherty (Director of Engagement & Assessments with HCA Healthcare): My Career Path and Lessons Learned in Healthcare 

Several additional presentations were developed and delivered by Chair Brandon Riggs and Cochair Beth Adams. The consortium kicked off with a speed networking activity, and then Brandon presented an introduction to business acumen and how to ensure your work aligns with the company’s mission and goals. In another session, Beth presented best practices and considerations for interviewing for one’s first postgraduate role.

SIOP is pleased to participate in the launch of new I-O careers, and the Master’s Consortium is one of the great ways SIOP can help support soon-to-be grads as they prepare to enter the workforce. From all the members of the Consortia Committee, thanks for participating, and we wish you all the best in the future!

Lee Hakel Doctoral Consortium

The Lee Hakel Doctoral Consortium celebrated another successful year, with 29 doctoral students from over 20 programs participating in a series of in-person professional development sessions. Students interacted with panelists from academic and applied backgrounds to discuss how to build a successful career in I-O psychology.

The first half of the day kicked off with a session focusing on the dissertation process, featuring Yi-Ren Wang and Charlene Zhang, whose dissertations were both recognized by SIOP. Both speakers discussed how to thrive during the dissertation process. For the second session of the day, attendees broke out into two panel sessions focused on navigating the job market, based on whether they wanted to work in academia (panelists: Mark Ehrhart, Keaton Fletcher, Anna Gödöllei, and Michael Wilmot) or in industry (panelists: John Capman, Desmond Leung, Toni Locklear, and Leah Tecle). Attendees gained insight on how to best situate themselves as job applicants and how to navigate application and interview processes for either career path. 

The second half of the day then launched with a series of roundtable discussions on a variety of topics relating to maintaining productivity and well-being as an I-O psychologist. Attendees were able to speak with expert academics and practitioners on the topics of well-being (led by Erin Eatough-Cooley and Matt Howard), balancing a career in academia and practice (led by Marcus Dickson and Elliott Larson), starting off strong in a PhD-level job (led by Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi and Bo Zhang), crafting a professional identity (led by Victoria Mattingly and Enrica Ruggs), and navigating service as an I-O psychologist (led by Evan Sinar and Isaac Sabat). Attendees, together with those of the Early Career Faculty Consortium, then refreshed with snacks and beverages before wrapping up the day with a bootcamp session on peer reviewing research manuscripts, which was led by Lillian Eby and the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Psychology (Wendy Casper, Bryan Edwards, Allison Gabriel, Alicia Grandey, Jasmine Hu, Jenny Hoobler, Jonas Lang, Scott Morris, Fred Oswald, Christopher Porter, and Kristen Shockley).

After an eventful Doctoral Consortium in 2023, we’re excited for what next year’s consortium will have in store for SIOP’s late-stage doctoral students! Anyone interested in participating should keep an eye out for an announcement toward the end of 2023 with details on how to participate. Thanks to the attendees, panelists, and everyone who made this year’s Doctoral Consortium a success!

Early Career Faculty Consortium

We are pleased to share that the 2023 Early Career Faculty Consortium was a success! The ECFC hosted 28 early career academics from various universities and departments. Participants interacted with esteemed midcareer and senior scholars in academic positions across I-O psychology and organizational behavior.

The fully in-person consortium kicked off the day with the panel Teaching Undergraduate and Graduate Courses, led by David Costanza (George Washington University), Gloria Gonzàlez (Claremont Graduate University), Maura Mills (University of Alabama), and Isaac Sabat (Texas A&M University).

Then, participants attended Surviving and Thriving Through the Promotion and Tenure Process from recently tenured faculty, including Charles Calderwood (Virginia Tech), Kristen Jennings Black (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), Sabrina Volpone (University of Colorado Boulder), and Don Zhang (Louisiana State University). 

In the final panel session, panelists presented Research and Pipeline Tips & Tricks. Panelists included Mark Ehrhart (University of Central Florida), Archana Tedone (University of Baltimore), Roni Reiter-Palmon (University of Nebraska Omaha), and Cort Rudolph (Saint Louis University).

To finish off the day, the editorial board of Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP) led a reviewer bootcamp. Participants were invited to prepare a practice review of a paper in advance of the session. During the session, participants were paired with one of JAP’s editors or action editors (Wendy Casper, Lillian Eby, Bryan Edwards, Allison Gabriel, Alicia Grandey, Jasmine Hu, Jenny Hoobler, Jonas Lang, Scott Morris, Fred Oswald, Christopher Porter, Kristen Shockley). Discussion focused on high-level themes of the paper, how to structure reviews, and best practices for constructive and developmental peer reviews. 

Feedback from the consortium was overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of participants being extremely satisfied with the panels and reviewer bootcamp. Participants suggested that the most valuable part of the consortium was “hearing about practical teaching and research tactics…that I can implement to enhance my craft,” and “individual conversations with panelists.” The participants also provided excellent suggestions to improve the 2024 Early Career Faculty Consortium. 

The ECFC Consortia Cochairs Lauren Locklear and Alex Harris-Watson send a heartfelt thank you to the junior faculty for participating—we wish you all the best in the future! And to the wonderful panelists, thank you all so much for dedicating your time and helping make the consortium a success!

Early Career Practitioner Consortium

After the success of returning in person in 2022, the 2023 Early Career Practitioner Consortium (ECPC) was once again an in-person event and was attended by more than 30 practitioners. This year’s ECPC emphasized the importance of building agility as practitioner to effectively grow and develop in an applied career. The consortia included a full program of I-O experts who shared their career trajectories, career blunders, and ways to further develop as I-O practitioners.

In a preconference virtual event the ECPC participants had the chance to meet their fellow ECPC participants, learn more about the 2023 theme of practice agility, how to prepare for the in-person event, as well as build self-awareness with a debrief on the Hogan Personality Inventory.  As part of their preconsortium assignment, participants completed the Hogan Personality Inventory. Then in the preconference virtual event, Jessie McClure from Hogan Assessments met with the group to discuss how personality predicts performance in the workplace and facilitated a group debrief of assessment results. Her presentation helped frame a positive perspective of self-awareness and self-development as the program moved to skills needed to be successful practitioners.

ECPC participants were able to hear from distinguished I-O professionals Allan Church, Nancy Tippins, Jodi Himelright, Stacey Levine, and Lizzette Lima, who all shared experiences from their illustrious careers and gave insights into how some critical experiences shaped where they are today, including how the ability to remain agile and learn from different challenges impacted their success. Although no one expert’s path was the same, they shared perspectives for developing a career brand and approaching new opportunities in relation to one’s career goals.

The group was also able to hear from ECPC Cochair Jan Harbaugh, managing consultant at SHL, to learn more about how assessments can be powerful tools not only in their work as practitioners but also in their own personal development as an I-O professional.

Britany Marcus-Blank, Dara Drescher, Mike Litano, Rawn Santiago, and Sertice Grice served as mentors for the day. In a panel discussion, these mentors shared their personal career experiences and discussed skills not taught in graduate school but critical to success. They also shared the importance of remaining curious and agile, operating with purpose, forming connections, and balancing depth of experience with breadth.

Attendees spent much of the time joining breakout groups with the mentors and presenters. They had the chance to ask their top-of-mind questions, linking the day’s content to their own paths. This time also allowed attendees to practice applying skills needed to become successful practitioners, along with forming connections with each other.  

ECPC participants walked away with a better understanding of practice agility, what it looks like in action, and how to grow it in their own careers. The experience helped them to feel more connected to SIOP and eager to be more involved in the SIOP community. We are excited about the positive impact of the 2023 ECPC, and we are looking forward to ECPC 2024!