Want to Work with Me?

NOTE: To all those interested in working in this lab: this is a space that is open to all individuals, and we respect and appreciate the diversity that everyone brings.

Potential Undergraduate RA's

For UF students seeking to go to graduate school and/or a research career, it is important to attain research experience. For faculty such as me who are running numerous studies, it is important to have undergraduate RA's who can assist me in this research. This makes for a potential win-win scenario. What makes this a positive experience for both you and me is a strong personal and professional fit. As such, below is a description of what I expect from an undergraduate RA, what types of individuals would work best with me, and what type of research I am currently doing:

  1. Expectations: In my lab, undergraduate RA's provide the muscle behind many of my research projects. This includes data collection, data entry, data coding, and literature reviews. For students who are able to stay in my lab for more than a year, you may have the opportunity to move to more complex tasks such as study conceptualization, data analysis, and manuscript writing. RA's should be prepared to do much of the behind-the-scenes tasks before having opportunities to take more leadership roles. If you are not receiving class credit for being an RA, we will work together to determine how many hours per week you would like to put in and how many hours of work I have available. You may be expected to meet for either weekly or biweekly research team meetings and will likely report directly to one of my doctoral students. The lab works on a project by project basis, RA's will be placed on individual projects. As such, I only take on RA's if I, or one of my doctoral students, need work completed for specific projects.
  2. Who works best with me: 
    • Sincere interest in one of my primary or secondary areas of research (essential)
    • Dependability and conscientiousness (essential)
    • Interest in going to graduate school in counseling psychology and/or industrial organizational psychology
    • At least basic knowledge of statistics and SPSS    
    • GPA of 3.5 or above   
    • Positive attitude and sense of humor
  3. Research currently underway: Most of my research is completed using survey methodology. As such, this best lends itself to   students interested in going into counseling and industrial/organizational graduate programs. For students wanting to go into social, personality, experimental, or cognitive psychology, where much of this research uses experiments, this would not be a great fit for you or me. Please see my Research Interests page for more detailed description of these. It is critical that you have interest in one of my research areas. 

If you are a good fit: After reading this information, if you feel like you are a good fit, please email me and tell me: a) who you are (i.e. name, major, year, GPA, etc.), b) what research of mine you are interested in, and c) what your past research experience and expertise is (if any). I will get back to you if there are current openings in my lab and, if so, will likely arrange to talk more with you in person.

Potential Doctoral Students

For students seeking admission to the UF doctoral program in Counseling Psychology, it is important that you fit well with one of the core faculty in the program. This person will serve as your advisor and you will be a member of his or her research team. In my mind, this relationship is one of the most critical (if not the most critical) components of your graduate school career. If you feel you are a good fit for the UF program in general, and upon reading my research interests you feel you might be a good fit to work with me, the following information will hopefully help you get a sense of what I would be looking for in a potential advisee and also what it would be like to be my advisee:

  1. The general program, including myself, is very research focused. If you are interested in potentially seeking a career as a faculty member or researcher, I would probably be a good person for you to work with. Additionally, as I am a new assistant professor working toward tenure, my main focus will be on publishing and receiving grants. As a potential member of my research team, you would be an integral part of this process. For students who have a strong desire to be involved in these types of activities, and genuinely enjoy them, this would be a great fit. For students who are absolutely sure they want to go a more clinical or practice oriented track, I would not be the best fit.
  2. It is important that as an advisee of mine you are conscientious, sharp, and dependable. Clearly, these are traits that all advisors would like in their students. In working with me, especially at this early point in my career, these may even be more important.
  3. Both of my former mentors (David Blustein and Robert Lent) are prominent researchers in the study of careers, work, and working, and I also consider this my greatest area of general interest. As such, I would likely be the best mentor to someone who had some interest in vocational research. Clearly, research in this general area is vast, and you can see on my research interests page what my more specialized areas of inquiry are. Although I would certainly not expect students to have their research interests completely firm at this point in their careers (on a general or specific level), students will likely have the best experience with me if they have some degree of interest in vocational psychology or are open to delving into this area.
  4. Most of my current research utilizes survey methodology, and thus a high level of experience in collecting and working with data is important. Skills and abilities in using SPSS, analyzing data, and converting analyses into reports are ideal. Although I would not expect a student to have all of these abilities, the greater expertise a student does have, the more quickly he or she will be able to integrate into lab projects. There is an interest component here too: If the thought of running survey-based studies and analyzing data does not seem all that interesting, working with me may not be the best fit.
  5. As a doctoral student in my lab, you will take on leadership responsibilities for studies we are conducting. These will include the studies you conduct for your thesis and dissertation as well as studies which our entire research team is conducting, which typically will be in line with my major research interests. It is likely that you will have an undergraduate or two reporting to you.
  6. Finally, an equally important component is personality fit. Although I am very passionate about research, on the whole I am a laid back person; I try to find a good work/life balance and see the humor in life.  I consider myself to be an open person and work best with students who are as well. I encourage students to process their experiences in my lab as well as process their relationship with me as an advisor, and place a high priority on making their experience as positive and productive as possible.

In summary, students who work best with me: 1) are genuinely interested in research and may go this direction for their career, 2) are conscientious, sharp, and dependable, 3) have interest, or are open to having interest, in doing research on vocational topics, 4) have experience working with survey data, 5) are ready to take on leadership responsibilities, and 6) have a good personality fit with me. If you are planning to apply to the UF doctoral Counseling Psychology program, and after reading this think you may be a good fit with me, feel free to email me if you have more questions. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing your application!