Additional Information
Most job and occupational analysts have extensive education in industrial
and organizational psychology. That's a program offered in most university
psychology departments.
"On our staff, everybody has a bachelor's degree, about 95 percent have
a master's and a few have PhDs," says analyst Jay Tartell.
"Industrial and organizational psychology is a specific discipline within
the larger field of psychology which teaches people about how work is performed,
how people interact. [It] teaches them the statistics they need to know and
how organizations are put together."
"Various backgrounds are appropriate for it, but something at the university
level is a must," says analyst Clara Hamory. "We do conduct research, so we
have to understand some rudimentary statistics, how you develop survey instruments,
how you try and get at the information that's important, both qualitative
and quantitative.
"That would involve programs like sociology, economics, industrial and
organizational psychology and other branches of psychology."