Senior Research and Development Psychologist, The Chemistry Group

While taking my A-levels in Psychology, I was so moved by how the answer to nurturing questions lies in the elegance of carefully designed research study. Until, of course, you conduct the study and realise the answer is a lot more complicated than you assumed and find more questions than answers! This fascination with research led me to study Psychology at Queen’s in 2011-2014 as an undergraduate student and as a PhD student in 2014-2017. 

During my third year of undergraduate studies, School of Psychology launched a new initiative to offer placements to students as one of the optional semester modules. This opportunity provided a perfect opportunity to challenge myself in applying my psychology knowledge and skills in a workplace setting. 

When I was placed in Employers for Childcare, a social enterprise working to support childcare provision in Northern Ireland for parents and employers, I was tasked with building the understanding how we can improve one of the services they were offering. I was presented with the problem and was given the freedom to decide how I approach it. While it was terrifying to take on the ownership for the project, I received support from individuals across the organisation as well as a staff member from the School who helped me reflect on my progress and learnings. And somehow, I managed to pull this off! Completing the placement has boosted my confidence in my research abilities which led me to pursue a PhD in the School. 

Six years on from the time I’ve left the School, I couldn’t have had a more varied and exciting career, using my research and data skills across multiple settings. At first, I pursued an academic route, working as a postdoctoral researcher in universities in France and England, working with world-class psychologists, publishing papers, and designing and executing exciting research projects, addressing question such as “Why do people vote for extreme right political parties?”, “Can consumption of political humour influence people’s political preferences?”, and “What shapes people’s perception of what’s fair?”. 

Given the statistical expertise I developed during that time, I was keen to pursue a role which would allow me to apply my skills and knowledge in a different context. As a result, I accepted a position as a research specialist in a charity fighting educational inequality, Teach First, where I led on evaluating the impact of their work. Using government data and statistical models, my work provided vital evidence showing the positive impact of in-house programmes on reducing educational inequality. 

Finally, six months ago, I started a new position at a small management consultancy company, The Chemistry Group, working as a senior R&D (research and development) psychologist. In this role, I am focusing on improving measurement of a range of psychometrics tools to help businesses assess and support employees in their companies. My job is to ensure that our approach is informed by the best evidence and that the tools and methods we are using are reliable and valid. From time to time, I also help with delivering projects to clients which makes my day-to-day varied and exciting – you never know what sort of problems clients will come to you!

Reflecting on my experience working across various workplace settings, my psychology degree really did take me down a lot of exciting pathways. When I was a student, however, I struggled with deciding which route I want to go down. Being interested in so many sub-disciplines of psychology, I felt a lot of pressure to only pick one route and weigh out what may bring me the most fulfilment and success long-term. If you’re a student on a similar boat, I would say that if you focus on making the decisions according to what’s right for you at that moment and time, your career journey may bring you a sense of adventure you’ve never even imagined before; there are a lot more pathways out there than you realise. The research skills I’ve developed have proved very transferable whether I was conducting academic research, helping charities evaluate their programmes, or helping business make evidence-based decisions about their employees. 

I can be contacted via Twitter @karo_urb.

Profile submitted April 2023.