Hi, I’m a senior in high school and have recently been accepted to all my colleges so now I’m trying to make my decision on which I should go.
I’ve always been interested in Psychology, but I know that it’s not a great major because it’s hard to find a job in this field. So I’ve been looking into different fields that could be related to Psychology. Human Resources is something that I found that I might be interested in. There are two different schools that I’m looking into and they both have different majors related to this field. I’m not sure which is the right path.
One of the schools has a Psychology major with a specialization in Industrial/Organizational Psychology that you can choose in your junior year I believe. If I do go with this then I will get my bachelor’s in I/O Psychology then get my masters in Human Resources from another graduate school that is connected with this I/O program.
Coincidentally, the school that is connected to the I/O program is one of my other choices for my undergraduate studies. This school does not have an Industrial/Organizational Psychology program. If I go here than I plan on majoring in Human Resources Management with a minor in Psychology. After this, I would get my masters in Human Resources Management or maybe anything else that might be a better choice, I’m not sure yet.
Those are my choices and I would appreciate it if you guys could let me know which is the better decision or even if there is any other path to take.
I think either path to graduate school in HR would be a good choice. I have a masters in HR with an English major/psychology minor. I was interested in industrial psychology like you are and enjoyed those courses and thought they were helpful in my grad school studies. I will say that I felt behind a lot of my masters classmates when it came to some basic business concepts. I remember that I’d never really used excel spreadsheets, etc., and struggled a little bit with that as compared to my classmates that had the business undergrad and had already been exposed to that.
So, I think the psychology undergrad major would be great, but you might want to make sure you get in a few business courses just so that you’re exposed to the general business concepts that you’ll need in the masters program. Starting out with the HR undergrad degree would definitely give you that exposure and would also let you see if you like HR, but one disadvantage of doing that is it is very specialized and might not leave you with as many other options if you decide HR isn’t for you after all.
I might just go with the HR major, but I’m kind of confused as to when major classes begin. I know that as a first-year you take core curriculum classes like math, writing, etc., but when will I take any class whatsoever according to my major. Would I be able to take any class that has to do with HR my freshman or sophomore year in order for me to know whether I like it or not so that I have time to change my major by junior year? @Emmycat
I’m not really sure about that, aiishaas, but maybe you can tell by looking at the course offerings at the colleges you’re considering and reading the prerequisites for those courses. My memory - but it’s been almost 25 years so take it with a grain of salt! - is that I took courses in my major even during the first two years, but I would guess that each college and each major might be different.
One good thing about HR is that there are so many different areas within it - compensation, benefits, labor relations, training, testing, hiring/firing, etc., that there’s a good chance that one of the areas will appeal to you if the overall idea of HR appeals. The work environment can also vary hugely from a large employer like a University or large company where there will be multiple HR departments, versus a small employer where one person might be expected to handle everything HR-related. I don’t actually work in HR now - I got a joint HR/law degree and work in law rather than HR, but my friends from my master’s program have a wide variety of careers.
Hope that helps a little! Once you get to a college, the career counseling office will probably be able to offer lots of advice and assistance as well.