How I knew Psychocology was for me

Growing up, I always wondered why people do the things they do and it always mad me even more confused when people would say “Because people are people”. Especially when it came to being bullied or boys picking on me. I refused to believe that it was because “They liked me” or because “They were jealous of me”. So when I began to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I knew for sure that I wanted it to relate to Psychology.

As years went by however, I decided that I wanted to do something that would help people in a different way. Something that was not  one hundred percent interpersonal, but pretty close. That’s when I discovered mystery shopping.

For those who don’t know, Mystery Shopping is when a random person goes to a store (specifically a place of business), looks around the store to see if employees are maintaining professionalism and quality in the stores they work in. I LOVED IT. And I loved the idea of being able to take micromanagement out of the workplace, to see how employees truly act when their bosses are not watching them. I did mystery shopping work for Caffe Bene (A Korean version of Starbucks, who had recently decided to bring their business to America) and Lush Cosmetics (A environmentally conscious cosmetics company).

I had allot of very interesting experiences, and loved how I was able to give evaluations on the employees performances and help the companies improve themselves from the inside out. Which made me develop an intense interest in market research.

Which them made me realize what kind of Psychology I wanted to get into. Industrial Organizational Psychology. Industrial Organizational Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior in the workplace and applies psychological theories and principles to organization.

What do you need to become one?

• A Bachelors degree
• A Masters degree in Psychology
• A Certification in Human Resources
• A Doctorate in Psychology

I do plan on going into further detail in another upcoming blog post as this is just a preview into my plans for the future. For more information, go to Bureau Labor of Statistics.