Human Factors psychology grad. Where are the jobs at?

[dmacfour]

This might come of as sort of rantish.

 

I lost sleep last night thinking about the last three months. I've sent out dozens of applications a week, sometimes dozens a day. I wasn't expecting employers to be throwing offers at me, but I sure wasn't expecting to get absolutely no interest. Two businesses contacted me via email asking for a portfolio, and rejected me after realizing that I have no professional experience (what did they expect?). maybe a dozen others have sent me rejection emails that seemed automated. At this point I'm feeling lost and frustrated. At least if I was rejected after a phone interview, I could figure out what went wrong. I haven't even been given the chance. I've been applying to internships with the same results.

 

Are there any other degree holders on this forum who've had similar problems? What did you do to gain employment? 

Edited March 13, 2014 by dmacfour

[KW58D]

Being an applicant for this next cycle, I must admit this is scary. Right now I'm torn between I/O and HF, I knew the job market was better for I/O, but I'm surprised you're having so much trouble. I'm sorry to hear about your situation and wish you well. Keep at it, I'm sure something will come up. Do you have a masters, or a Ph.D?

[I/O The Derry-O]

dmacfour,

 

Although I am not in the same position as you, I can certainly empathize. I worked for over a year with the New York State Dept. of Labor and my role was to assist job seekers with securing employment. The frustrations that you expressed are experienced by many job seekers - despite level of experience. The job search process has become impersonal. Applicants are spending hours submitting online applications and only receiving those generic automated e-mails you referred to in return. This is an unfortunate product of the economy. Many positions have an oversized candidate pool so in an effort to be more efficient in identifying who is qualified within that pool and who is not, employers have shortcuts. Employers are scanning resumes and applications for key industry terms and the minimum qualifications - sometimes spending only a few seconds per resume/application before deciding whether or not a candidate will proceed to the next phase of the selection process.

 

My best piece of advice to you given the information that you provided, would be to have your resume reviewed by someone who knows resumes. You can get a free resume critique and job search assistance from one of your state's career centers or perhaps your alma mater's career center. If job seekers are not getting any interviews, it is usually due to 1 of 2 reasons. Either, the job seeker does not meet the minimum qualifications for the position or his/her resume does not highlight their qualifications well enough to allow the employer to see that he/she is qualified. If you receive opinions from multiple people about the resume and it is safe to say that this is not a limitation in the job search, then at least, you can look to other means to make yourself a more competitive candidate.

[iopsych]

It depends on your skill set. I know one HF grad that completed his dissertation on gaming and learning, he took a job with an online gaming company. Most of the HF grads that I know work either at a consulting firm that contracts with the military or for the govt. in a military type facility doing applied research. Have you looked at places like AIR, ARI, NAWCTSD, etc.? 

[dmacfour]

It depends on your skill set. I know one HF grad that completed his dissertation on gaming and learning, he took a job with an online gaming company. Most of the HF grads that I know work either at a consulting firm that contracts with the military or for the govt. in a military type facility doing applied research. Have you looked at places like AIR, ARI, NAWCTSD, etc.? 

 

Funny thing, I applied to AIR about an hour ago. 

 

I want to get a job in gaming, web, or mobile UX, but can't demonstrate that through a thesis. I ended up doing a comp exam instead of a thesis, due to problems I had with my adviser's character. I wasn't far into research for a thesis proposal anyways, and couldn't justify spending extra money for school (I was only partially funded). I would have been in school for 4-5 semesters instead of 3.

 

I have no doubts about my research abilities, and will have authorship on a couple of papers, but I don't have a publication in an area I want to work. What I do have is a lot of domain knowledge in gaming and web development.

Edited March 15, 2014 by dmacfour

[harrisonfjord]

Funny thing, I applied to AIR about an hour ago. 

 

I want to get a job in gaming, web, or mobile UX, but can't demonstrate that through a thesis. I ended up doing a comp exam instead of a thesis, due to problems I had with my adviser's character. I wasn't far into research for a thesis proposal anyways, and couldn't justify spending extra money for school (I was only partially funded). I would have been in school for 4-5 semesters instead of 3.

 

I have no doubts about my research abilities, and will have authorship on a couple of papers, but I don't have a publication in an area I want to work. What I do have is a lot of domain knowledge in gaming and web development.

 

I am not an HF grad, so I can't say I know your situation, but I am in a multidisciplinary program right now and a Human Factors PhD is my ultimate goal. I see some of the recent graduates struggling with the same problems and I am good friends with a lot of HF PhD students. I'm sorry to hear you are going through this right now. 

 

Just throwing this out there (I know it may not apply to your situation or be helpful!), there are a bunch of software programs you can learn for free like Maya (it's a free 3 year subscription for students/recent grads and you could possibly build a portfolio with some of these free trials). From my limited experience (and by consulting with other Human Factors PhD students who have the same concerns) UX employers appreciate it when you have a pretty good handle on some modeling and simulation software. A lot of my PhD friends complain that they were never told these things and only found out by searching through job postings and many unfruitful interviews.

 

Here's the link for Maya: http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/buy?src=OMSE&mktvar002=581403

 

As iopsych says, I would definitely look into applying with NAWCTSD. How do you feel about relocating/are you able to relocate? I attended UCF in undergrad (Orlando, FL) and there's a plethora of companies in "research park" that hire HF grads for applied research positions (Some are temporary contracts but at least your foot would be in the door!) I also suggest checking out jobs on LinkedIn if you haven't already. Most of my recently hired friends looked at the descriptions and starting learning code, software, etc. based on specific trends they were seeing in UX job postings. If they weren't able to get the jobs they want, they at least impressed some companies with their initiative and eventually got their foot in the door. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Florida_Research_Park#Partnerships (I know its a wikipedia page, but it lists some of the big name companies there)

 

I'm sorry if this information isn't new or wasn't helpful. I just thought I would share what I've picked up from other UX researchers. Like I said, I am not a recent grad, only a hopeful grad and this is the advice/information I have picked up through networking. I can understand how frustrating this situation would be and it is my biggest fear. If you have any questions at all about Orlando or Research Park, feel free to message me. I'm a FL native and Orlando is one of the biggest the Modeling, Simulation and Training scenes.

Edited May 12, 2014 by harrisonfjord

[clinicalpsychphd20]

I am still in my PhD program so I don't know how helpful I could be, but one thing that I wanted to say is to try to work through your network and see if you know ANYONE at the places you are applying to work for. Knowing someone can be very helpful in at least making sure someone sees your application.