| Abstract: | McKeachie (1972) commented that our graduate departments should continue to turn out psychologists despite the tightness of the job market. He asserted that we have a responsibility to train them with openness of expectations and for accession of transferable skills to work on the many human problems which are found outside academia. That Comment had particular relevance for me, and I would like to offer a specific instance of his general point. I completed much of the course work and internship requirements for a PhD in clinical psychology, and then finished the degree with a major emphasis in industrial psychology and a minor in statistics. Because I wanted to live in Idaho's unspoiled environment, I accepted a job as a management consultant with the accounting firm of Ernst & Ernst. In order to survive in the Ernst & Ernst environment, and with generous support from the partner in charge of that office, I was assisted at considerable cost to the firm in acquiring sufficient course work in accounting to qualify for the CPA exam (which I failed miserably). After three and one-half years, I began a diversified private consulting practice. All of my work is psychological, but one current project seems tailored to my checkered past. I am acting as an associate director of a community mental health center which includes supervision over the design and installation of management information, and of general and cost accounting systems. Today, I acted as an interpreter in a discussion between the director of the clinic and two accountants who, though experts in health care costs and systems, were unaware of mental health concepts and problems. The success of my work in this area rests on the three-legged stool of accounting and clinical and industrial psychology. Most of my assignments are like that, and I am having the time of my life. This is what I believe McKeachie meant by finding "new functions in society." McKeachie is correct. There are dozens of human problems to be solved, at least in the nontraditional setting in which I find myself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
