Alumni Spotlight: Claire Larson

Claire Larson (she/her)

• Major: PSY BA (Spring 2024)
• Position: Psychometrist
• Employer: Martin-McAllister Consulting Psychologists, Inc.

What is your work like? What are your duties?

As a psychometrist, my job is to administer various psychological tests to different candidates who come in every day. After administering the tests, I score the data from each assessment. Some of my various other duties include creating candidate folders for each day, compiling and synthesizing data, answering the phones and scheduling appointments, and making sure each testing room is ready for the candidates.

How would you say your psychology degree has helped you with your current job?

Taking Intro to Personality has really helped me with this job because it helped me develop my love for the personality side of psychology, but also because I am able to identify traits or characteristics in candidates that I may not have been able to without the course.

In what way has your major complemented your current job?

Being a psych major, I was required to take Intro to Data Analysis and Statistics as a prerequisite course. With the skills I learned from that class, along with other psych classes that focused on analyzing data and using various tools to help with that, I have been able to use Excel to compile and synthesize data from a larger data pool of clients at my company. I also completed a yearly research data project where I analyzed and scored various demographic data from all the candidates who came in for specific types of jobs.

How did you find your current position? 

I found this job on the Psych Scoop newsletter this past summer! Every month, when the newsletter would come out, I would immediately check the job listings at the bottom. My tip is to always check the Psych Scoop for job opportunities because you never know what gems you might find!!

What advice do you have for our current psych students and recent grads?

For current psych students, take lots of different psychology courses, even the ones you don't think you'll be super interested in just from reading the description. Some of my favorite courses ended up being random ones I signed up for just to try. For recent grads, don't be discouraged if it takes you a little while to find a job after graduating. It took me a few months to find this job and I am so happy and lucky to be where I ended up! Just keep applying and don't put too much pressure on yourself.

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