{"id":1038,"date":"2014-12-29T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T17:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2016-01-28T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:28:12","slug":"changing-careers-from-sales-to-industrial-organizational-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgwww.capella.edu\/blogs\/cublog\/changing-careers-from-sales-to-industrial-organizational-psychology\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Changed Careers: From Sales to Psychology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Todd Hale is in the midst of a career and industry switch from sales to psychology. How did this husband and father of four navigate his way to Capella University as a student in the PhD in Industrial\/Organizational Psychology<\/a> program?<\/p>\n

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Q. Share a little bit about your career path to date.<\/h4>\n

A. I\u2019ve always been a fairly outgoing and extroverted person. I like meeting new people, and I\u2019m not shy in groups, so that made me a pretty natural fit for sales. I graduated from high school in 1987, and I had the intent of going to college right away. But I dropped out after meeting a girl\u2014we got married and started a family. To support my family, I jumped into the workforce\u2014first in retail and then in business-to-business sales of everything from office equipment to petrochemicals.<\/p>\n

\"Todd<\/a>
Todd Hale is earning his PhD in Industrial\/Organizational Psychology from Capella University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Q. What about your career made you think it was time to make a change?<\/h4>\n

A. Frankly, I had done some soul searching and thought I had more to offer the world and myself. Also, when my wife and I were talking to my middle school-age kids about the importance of higher education, I started feeling hypocritical telling them college was important when I never graduated myself.<\/p>\n

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Q. What was your main concern about about making the switch?<\/h4>\n

A. There was certainly fear. Fear of failure. I had a lot of internal conversations: What if I decide to make this investment and I don\u2019t finish? What kind of message would that send to my kids?<\/em> Can I continue working and get a degree at the same time?<\/em><\/p>\n

I started exploring nontraditional and distance education programs, and I asked myself: What degree program, what university, what accreditations, and how long will it take? Will my family get behind this?<\/em> How are we going to pay for it?<\/em> It took me about 6 months to put it together. I was determined, yet cautious and analytical. Now I only have two classes left, so failure is not an option!<\/p>\n

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Q. How did you decide on psychology as your new field of study?<\/h4>\n

A. I analyzed my strengths and which parts of my career I liked. I was good at picking up on clients\u2019 non-verbal cues and behaviors, which was helpful in sales. In psychology, we call that reading micro-expressions. It\u2019s like poker players reading the \u201ctells\u201d of the other players at the table. I was curious about many aspects of human behavior: Why do people say one thing and behave differently? Why do so many people exhibit signs of cognitive dissonance? Why do some workers seem so engaged and hardworking, while others seem to waste time on Facebook?<\/em> I wanted to research and understand these questions, and get paid to think about how people think. Psychology was a natural fit.<\/p>\n

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Q. What drew you to Capella?<\/h4>\n

A. I had five reasons for going with Capella:<\/p>\n