Erica Barto

Selection/Testing Specialist
Valero

Q: Were there any specific challenges or turning points in your career that influenced your path in I/O psychology?   

A: During my master’s program, I was drawn towards the Organizational side of I/O psychology. However, during my second year of the program, I found an internship focused heavily on the Industrial side, working as an Air Force contractor on projects related to personnel selection. I felt like it was out of my comfort zone and areas of interest but I decided to go for it. The internship turned into a full-time position where I gained knowledge in item writing, test validation, and using statistics on large databases. Since then, my career path has been focused on selection assessments and data analytics, a path I wasn’t even considering early in my career. 

Q: Are there specific types of projects or interventions that you find most rewarding in your work?   

A: The projects I enjoy most are using data to solve pain-points for others in my organization. For example, creating dashboards to summarize data and automate the analysis to save end-users’ time. Or analyzing employee survey data to suggest changes to processes and programs. Another passion of mine is teaching and training those less comfortable working with data. For the past two summers, I have co-taught a course during Intern Symposium focused on how to tell a story with data and focus your audience’s attention on the message you are trying to convey. 

Q: How do you stay updated on the latest trends and research in the field of I/O psychology?   

A: I usually attend the annual conference, SIOP. In between conferences, I enjoy attending webinars focused on assessment and selection related topics, many of which I find on LinkedIn. In addition, each week during our team meeting, a different person is asked to share something they learned with the team (industry trends, research, efficiency tips). I often search the SIOP website and I/O groups on LinkedIn for topics that would be interesting to share with team members of many different backgrounds.