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What are the main industries where I-O psychologists work ?

How is I-O psychology different from clinical or counseling psychology in real jobs? What kinds of problems do companies usually hire I-O psychologists to solve?

careeradvice professionaldevelopment counseling-psychology humanresources clinicalpsychology leadershipdevelopment careerpaths industrial-psychology iopsychology talentdevelopment employeeengagement hranalytics
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Lisa’s Answer

Hi Amany! I-O psychologists often work as external consultants or in Human Resources departments in organizations. While clinical and counseling psychologists typical deal with issues related to mental health, I-O psychologists deal with topics such as: employee engagement, performance management, motivation, leadership, work-life balance, turnover, retention, etc.
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Kirsten’s Answer

Hi Amany! I majored in psychology, got my master's in organizational psychology, and worked in the space for 15 years. The way I describe the difference between I/O and counseling is that I/O focuses on how individuals and teams work together in a workplace setting. The counseling side is more focused on issues related to mental health. Typically, I have seen counseling psychology jobs be school counselors, psychologists, researchers, medical settings. For I/O psychology, typically people go into HR roles (recruitment, benefits, etc.), learning and development roles (training, facilitation, coaching, performance management, team development, culture, employee engagement), consulting roles (change management, human capital consulting), or research roles (university level research, academic organizations, associations).

As for problems companies hire IO psychologists for varies depending on the company but here are some of the one I have seen most frequently:
- organizational changes (structure changes, new systems etc.)
- they have a gap in a skillset or capability and need training to support it
- teams are struggling to work together
- trying to shift a culture
- new leaders who need to grow in leadership skills
- don't have a strategic plan and need help designing and implementing systems to support it

These are just a few of them that I have experienced in my time. Hope this helps!
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Drew’s Answer

In my company, which is in the HR Tech field, we have roles perfect for people with IO Psychology backgrounds. You will find many opportunities on HR teams that focus on talent development and employee engagement. Your skills in analyzing survey data and helping others understand it through presentations or training are highly valued by many organizations.
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Beth’s Answer

Hi Amany,

All of the answers here so far are great and really spot-on. I will just pile on to say that I received my I/O MS degree and was subsequently hired to join a consulting firm in the Washington DC area. Management consulting firms really appreciate I/Oers because we can be assigned to such a variety of projects that help solve so many different client challenges.

I have been part of client projects that support a lot of the topics others have already mentioned in this thread, but my "bread and butter" became learning & development ("talent development"). I had an L&D course as part of my graduate studies and really enjoyed it, and found my path to focusing on L&D and facilitation with my company I've been with now for 14 years. L&D is an I/O career path that isn't talked about much, but it's a fun one if you enjoy instructional design, facilitation, training design, program management. So, in my case, I'm using my MS in I/O to design courses that will help our professionals build stronger leadership skills, so that they can then apply those skills on their client projects, professional and personal lives.
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