A Guide to Career Paths in Behavioral Science
When people ask me how I ended up working as a behavioral scientist in a tech company, I always say it was pure luck: when I was doing my Masters in Behavioral Science, not too many people knew about the subject and even fewer were offering jobs in this specialization. In my case, my company just happened to be looking for a behavioral scientist, and I was in the right place at the right time.
But things have changed over the last few years. With more and more people actively taking up behavioral science, there’s much more demand from both the public and private sectors, and graduates now have a number of different career paths to choose from.
The behavioral scientist in me is nudging me to add that having a multitude of options could also mean a paradox of choice for students. Still, it’s reassuring to know that this subject, which literally burst on the scene only a few years ago, has gained acceptance around the world, and students brave enough to study it now have a career to look forward to.
References
- https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Penn-Behavior-Change-for-Good-strategies-boost-vaccination-rates
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/memorandum-on-restoring-trust-in-government-through-scientific-integrity-and-evidence-based-policymaking/
- https://twitter.com/faisal_naru/status/1027162896340578304
- https://www.un.org/en/content/behaviouralscience/assets/pdf/UN%20Secretary-General’s%20Guidance%20on%20Behavioural%20Science.pdf
- https://irrationallabs.com/case-studies/tiktok-how-behavioral-science-reduced-the-spread-of-misinformation/
About the Author
Preeti Kotamarthi
Preeti Kotamarthi is the Behavioral Science Lead at Grab, the leading ride-hailing and mobile payments app in South East Asia. She has set up the behavioral practice at the company, helping product and design teams understand customer behavior and build better products. She completed her Masters in Behavioral Science from the London School of Economics and her MBA in Marketing from FMS Delhi. With more than 6 years of experience in the consumer products space, she has worked in a range of functions, from strategy and marketing to consulting for startups, including co-founding a startup in the rural space in India. Her main interest lies in popularizing behavioral design and making it a part of the product conceptualization process.
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