Today was another successful day. I had the opportunity to job shadow Jeff Bodenmiller, the City Manager of Springfield, Ohio. It was a great experience and I learned a lot about his job detail. Mr. Bodenmiller has his Masters degree in I/O Psych from Radford University in Virgina. I first met him during the introduction week for my last internship with the Civic and Urban Engagement Program of Springfield Ohio. It was there that I found out he had his Masters in I/O and I expressed to him my interest and we hit it off from there. He has a lot of responsibility as the city manager. With the style of government Springfield has, he serves as the chief executive to all the decisions being made throughout the city. He handles new businesses coming to town, new construction, the city's budget, and all the financial situations that the different branches have. Today we went around to the different projects that Springfield is in the midst of constructing, such as the new hospital, the white water rafting project in the river, and the new surgery center. I was amazed to see the progress that Springfield is making. Mr. Bodenmiller hopes to have most of the projects done in the next two to three years. He expressed to me that when I come back to visit my alma mater in ten years that I would not recognize it at all. We also talked about how he uses his I/O degree. He first got involved with the government when he started making job analyzes for the human resources department, something that is big in the I/O field. From there he worked hard and a position as the the head of human resources opened up which he applied and got the job. He then became assisstant city manager and went back to school to get his Masters degree in Public Administration, which was paid for by the goverment and after his boss retired he was made the new city manager of Springfield. It was cool to hear about the process he had to go through and how far his I/O degree has taken him. He expressed to me just how important the things he learned in graduate school come into effect each and everyday. It would be nice to become a city manager one day or do something where I am the head man but I know it will take a great deal of hard work and determination and the right doors need to open up. Most governements in big cities are not ran by City Managers, Mr. Bodenmiller expressed that detail to me as well, but there are plenty of positions where I could be in government with that degree. I know everything is going to work out for the best I just hope I make the right decisions along the way. Until next time folks!

My meeting with Professor Gradwohl

Today I had a meeting with Professor Gradwohl out of the buisness and sociology department here at Wittenberg. I wanted to run some questions by her about the IO field and the HR field to help me with the direction I will be going down for graduate school. I learned alot of valuable information and the personal interview with Profesor Gradwohl helped me out a great deal. She was a big advocate of the IO, in her opinion there is alot more opportunities for different types of jobs with a Masters degree or PhD in this field. I/O is short Industrial Organizational Psychology which is the study of people in the work place. People in the IO specialize in the developing tools for things like job placement and HR directors simply use and implement the tools. People in the HR typically have to work 9-5 and have alot more face time with people. Professor Gradwohl actaully turned me onto a few more graduate school programs as well. I thought I had it all planned out for which schools I wanted to go to, I might have to open the process back up but maybe not we will see! I want to thank Professor Gradwohl for all of her help and I will let you guys know what the next step in my process to being a successful adult is. Thanks and have a wonderful day.

What I will be blogging about

Hello fellow bloggers. This is actually my first time blogging on this website. The focus of my blogs will be my experience as a intern for WittPath Career Services. I will be interviewing professionals and discussing daily material on professional fields such as the human resources, job analysis, industrial organizational psychology, personality test, and anything else of that nature. I hope that many of you will follow me through my journey. Have a wonderful day!