By Callum Van Dyk, MSc Occupational Psychology
I can guarantee you everyone finds it difficult to decide which postgraduate course is right for them! I was fortunate enough to know I wanted to study Occupational Psychology (OP), but I still found it incredibly difficult to decide where I should study. Therefore, to make things a little easier on you, I thought I’d share my top four favourite things about the OP course at Sheffield, showing you why it is a great place to study.
- Vast Variety of Opportunities
Throughout my time at Sheffield, I’ve received countless messages from academic staff highlighting the diverse range of opportunities available within the management school. However, being an OP student, you have even greater access to opportunities specific to your course. To date, I’ve been involved in designing an assessment centre, stewarding an international conference, and working part-time for psychological consultancies on a variety of projects. The key message is that you can be as involved as you want and there is something for everyone.
- Small, Multicultural Cohort of Students
Previous OP Cohorts have typically been made up of around 20 students from Britain, Europe, and Asia. Hence, when studying at Sheffield, you will be interacting with a close group of people varying in age and nationality. I have found this experience to be invaluable as not only have I made friends from multiple countries around the world, I have also gained an immense appreciation of different cultural perspectives that have been shared in classroom discussions.
- Guest Speakers
An appealing aspect of the OP course at Sheffield is its wide network of alumni and notable academics. Over the past two months, we’ve had multiple guest speakers visit us to discuss contemporary issues in OP, their career paths, and the work they perform daily. These sessions have been crucial in gaining insight into the life of an occupational psychologist and have helped me to frame my career path. After each session, the guest speakers have been more than willing to individually advise us and have always provided us with a means of contacting them later. It is this type of friendly, supportive and informal atmosphere that draws people into the field.
- Applied Nature of the Course
By far the best thing about the OP course at Sheffield is its applied nature. Most OP courses primarily focus on the academic side of OP, whereas our course has multiple elements designed to develop your ability to use research and knowledge to solve real world issues. Numerous assignments have focused on hypothetical scenarios where we have to design solutions and support them with evidence, mapping what would be expected of a psychological consultant. The support I’ve received helping me to complete these assignments has really taken away my fear of applied work and has built my confidence in my consulting ability. Overall, preparing me to enter the world of work!