Rose Patterson
Research Fellow
New Zealand Initiative
Rose Patterson decided to complete a Master of Psychology degree after she was given advice that postgraduate study would help towards a career in research and evaluation.
This opened the door to work in public health for a crown entity where she ran national surveys, qualitative research projects, and even advertising focus groups.
“I found the Postgraduate Masters programme at Otago really honed my research skills and gave me a set of tools for thinking and approaching research problems. This gave me a really solid grounding to branch into any area of research and has provided me with a set of life skills, which are just as important.”
“Interpreting the way people think and behave through the lens of psychology is immensely valuable for navigating the workplace, and life in general!”
Rose now works as a Research Fellow for the New Zealand Initiative, a public policy think tank.
She says the communication skills she developed at Otago have been invaluable.
“A problem with university scholars at times, is that they sometimes speak in a coded language. The lecturers in the Department of Psychology put a huge emphasis on writing clearly and succinctly for a general audience.”
She notes that being able to translate complex research into easy-to-understand material for decision makers is critically important to ensure research makes a difference in the real world.
“Recently a high level politician thanked me for writing a report in a way that was easy to understand. That was a real highlight!”