Interview
Retranscription of our interview
Anaëlle: Hello Gwendoline can you tell me about your psychology studies: is it something that you wanted to do since the very first day ?
Gwendoline: Hello Anaëlle, so yes, as far as I can remember I liked psychology and I never really enjoyed the subjects we learnt in school like history, mathematics, and everythings else. So I wanted to see something else, I like to understand how the human think and act in a group, and why he acts like he does, so psychology was the right field for that.
Do you remember the moment you decided to study psychology ?
Anaëlle: Actually, I began thinking about doing some psychology studies when I was in high school, this isn’t something that my teachers were recommending to me, but at the end, this is still what I wanted, so it was stuck in my head….. And here I am now. Well, tell me about your internship: what did you learn there that you would have never learnt in class?
Gwendoline: Yeah, so I did my internship last year in the recruitement field, and I learnt to do an interview, and to select curriculum on the internet, to write a job post and …. We kinda learn these things in Master 2 but I didn’t learn it at this time so I have some advance this year, but it was interesting.
Why did you choose to study social psychology instead of cognitive or developmental psychology ?
Anaëlle: I think that those subject are also really interesting, but I’ve always been interested in group dynamic and how people can act with each others, stereotypes, all of these themes… I’ve always liked, even in my first year I already though that it was a magnificient subject, and I really loved it, so.. If there was a subject I had to be a specialist of, if I may say, it would be social psychology, so, once again, here i am. And, tell me, if psychology hadn’t worked out for you, what would you have done?
Gwendoline: I never really think about that, because, I like psychology. But I like traveling, so maybe I would have been a traveling agent or tourism agent. But I also like food, and eating, so maybe I could have been a critic for food restaurant and I would have enjoyed it, I really enjoy restaurants. Do you have some specific expectations about your two lasts years in University ?
Anaëlle: Well, I hope to learn more about my specialty and I also wish to learn more about the general subjects because I know that during the second year we are going to have classes about sociology too, and about things that are less theoretical and more practical so this is really what I’m expecting. Tell me, which psychologist is your role model?
Gwendoline: That’s a really hard question… I think I really enjoyed in the second year at the university when we learnt about conditionnement and we learnt about Pavlov and Skinner. I really enjoy Skinner, to adapt his theory to real life, to real example, it is very concrete, so it’s very interesting.
Anaëlle: So Skinner ? Behaviorism ?
Gwendoline: Yeah! So, you want to do some practical work, but do you want to continue in thesis or start working after your degree ?
Anaëlle: Well, I can’t say that i’m not interested in doing some researches because psychology is such a big subject, there are always some things that you can dig in. However, I would really like to stop studying for some times, and to have a work, yeah, just work and have a salary, that would be very nice. Just no exam, no homework to do, so… Perhaps next year I’m going to change my mind, but for now, I would really like to do the two years, and then work, and perhaps try to do a research, time will tell. Tell me, you, where do you wish to work next year ? Perhaps just something you dream of ?
Gwendoline: My dream is to go back to Canada, and to work there, because Canada has a really good point of view about psychologists, and very understanding. It’s easy to find work when you are a psychologist in Canada, because, you know, it is open-minded. But in France it’s kind of complicated, psychology is not very well-seen.Do you want to do your internship in Master 2 in another country or in France?
Anaëlle: Well, if I can, if I find a good add, or also if it is a bad add, I would really like to go in a foreign country to try something else, to work in another culture. Actually, I would really like to go to Germany, to work there… Because they have big firms there, international companies and I would be really interested into going there and work with them, and being able to speak in english, in german too, to work on my german skills. And yes, to try something else, another view, yes that would be very nice, I’d really like that.
Gwendoline: I hope you do, and so in what kind of organization do you want to work in Germany or in France after your degree ?
Anaëlle: That’s a good question because I would like to work in a lot of… Not a lot of companies, but I would like to do a lot of things, I would like to do recruiting, to help people to do some adults training, to teach adults, to train them about well-being at work, about.. Happiness, to see with them what skills they have, and they don’t know yet, to let them know what they can have about this. But also I would like to… I said recruiting already ?
Gwendoline: Yes.
Anaëlle: Okay, hahah, so yes, I would like to work with all the skills that I will learn in my studies… There is not a specific work that I would like to do. I want to try a lot of things!
Gwendoline: That’s nice. Thank you.
Anaëlle: Thank you!
Podcast by Anaëlle Colas and Gwendoline Javello