Stories about People

Claire Swyny

After completing my TEE in 1994, I decided to study an undergraduate psychology degree at Curtin. At this point in time I was still unsure about which stream of psychology I wanted to enter, although I did have some interest in clinical or child psychology. In fact, at this stage, I had pretty much no idea of what organisational psychology involved. By my third year, I had a better sense of the different types of psychology and the organisational stream was looking quite appealing. As such, I based my Honours thesis on an organisational topic. This whet my appetite for the area and led me to undertake my Master of Psychology (Organisational).

During the summer break between my Honours and Masters I decided to look for some practical work experience to build upon my understanding of the role of an Organisational Psychologist. After touching base with some people at Chandler and Macleod and completing some psychometric testing and interviews, I began a two-month stint of work experience. I was very fortunate in that Chandler and Macleod had an opening for a part-time Test Administrator at the end of my practical experience and I worked in this role for around 12 to 18 months. My role mainly consisted of test administration, scoring, data entry and the co-ordination of test bookings. Although this was not directly a psych role, the experience I gained was invaluable in terms of developing my confidence, my knowledge of different psychometric tests and my understanding of what it's like to work in an office environment.

My next move in the company was into the position of Recruitment Consultant. I job shared in this position for 6-12 months and was mainly involved in doing candidate searches, screening, interviewing and other recruitment activities. Looking back, I feel that working as a Recruiter gave me a greater appreciation of the need to take into account a range of factors, such as test data, experience and the work environment, when looking at job applicants and considering who is the best "fit" for a particular role.

For just over 12 months, I have been working as a Provisionally Registered Psychologist at Chandler and Macleod. I have had some fantastic opportunities to work in various areas of organisational psychology and to apply some of the skills that I developed at university. Some examples of the type of work I have been involved in include, writing psychological appraisals, recruitment, training (needs analysis and accredited programs) and organisational development (e.g. surveys). No day is the same as the next in my job and I love the diversity and challenge that my career offers me. Now that I have finished my Masters, I will be securing my full registration and working towards my specialist title. I look forward to developing my skills and expertise further and I feel that the Masters course at Curtin has provided me with a solid foundation to build upon.

Claire Swyny