Megan Walsh

What are you doing today in your career?
I am the manager of the Data Science TV Panel Behavioral Methods team at Nielsen. Our team provides leadership and expertise across Nielsen to develop innovative, statistically sound, and cost-effective research methodologies in support of strategic business initiatives. OK that was a lot of business jargon. Real speak, I manage a team talented data scientists of differing backgrounds (sociology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physics, linguistics, etc.). We work together on different initiatives to effectively impact behavior. Our work is extremely variable - we design and conduct focus groups, design paper, phone, and web-based surveys, conduct UX research, analyze vast amounts of data (reaction time, accuracy, non-response bias, response rates and demographic distributions), and provide methodological knowledge and guidance for the overall organization.

What inspires you?
The stories and people who inspire me all have one thing in common - encountering some challenge and surviving. When I'm faced with a challenge, I'm simultaneously flooded with feelings of inadequacy and determination. "What if I fail?"... "But what if I succeed?" I've learned that sometimes your greatest successes are the results of some of your (then perceived) greatest failures. When faced with a challenge, "failure" is as inspirational of an  outcome, if not more, than "success." If I'm not at least a little scared of what's next, I'm not sure it's worth it!

What impact has your Psychology degree at UM had on your career or life?
When I was at U of M I did not foresee the importance of what I was learning and experiencing and how it would lay the groundwork for the challenges ahead of me. On a basic academic level, when I entered the hunt for graduate school and started my graduate studies it became clear that my education from the Psychology department at U of M far surpassed many of my peers. This allowed me to kick-start my own research and path. From an applied level, the theories about working memory and cognitive load underly my personal key strategies in communication and behavior at work and in my personal life. My exposure to personality theories and behavior granted me the knowledge on how to work effectively with people of varying backgrounds. More than that though, I still have the relationships I formed then, today. Faculty became mentors, and later friends. Graduate students I met then, went on to post-docs and faculty positions would later house me when I was exploring graduate programs or interviewing for jobs. These people truly helped me grow into the person I am today and I will be forever grateful.

What do you remember most about your time at UM?
This feels like an impossible question. I'm pretty sure I can still administer the Mini-Mental Exam (MME) by heart and I've apparently answered the phone in my sleep with the greeting I used when I was lab manager for Dr. Reuter-Lorenz's Cognitive and Affective Neuropsychology lab. I remember passing my first blue book and proudly walking over the M in the diag for the first time. I remember taking the Art History of Disney and going to Disney world to talk to Imagineers about cultivated vs "authentic" experiences. I remember sitting on the porch at the Co-ops (where I lived) talking about philosophy, politics, and how to face the hardest parts of ourselves. Those new friends and I grabbed our first drink at Ashley's together and have now celebrated at weddings, baby showers, and banded together in grief. But perhaps most formative, I remember crying in the diag helpless and frustrated after I saw my balding mom for the first time since she started chemo my freshman year. I grew up a lot that year. In the span of six months, I saw my mom's body and mind get distorted from surgery and chemo. She had this memory "haze" and that was when I realized what I wanted to study - cognition and behavior. I remember sitting in Dr. Reuter-Lorenz's office, talking about memory issues associated with chemo and how it felt like jumpstarted aging. After that, I started working with her, Dr. Cindy Lustig and Dr. John Jonides. They were teachers and mentors, but also provided unspoken invaluable support for me when I needed it most.

What advice would you give to aspiring Psychology students?
(1) Get involved in research in any way possible. If you're passionate about a topic, find who is working on it or using the same methods and get your hands on it. You'll never know if it's good fit until you try it. You'll also forge relationships with graduate students and professors that can provide guidance, write recommendations, and, if your lucky, become life-long friends.
(2) Take a lot of classes outside of Psychology (while still meeting your requirements). Take that comparative lit course you've been eyeing, or the art history class that you think might be useless. Get exposed to as many different subject matters and professors as possible. The challenge that faces you whether you go to graduate school or industry will be making sense of extreme complexity and connecting the dots. The chances you have at U of M today may be last you ever will to get this breadth and quality of education. Don't pass it up!
(3) Go to office hours. It doesn't matter if you are an expert on the subject, the one to finish last on the exams or hate the "obligatory" class. It's a great opportunity to learn more about the subject, the people behind the "professor" persona, and the opportunity to build an invaluable network.