Alumni Matthew Groebe shares the impact of Miami’s Social Psychology Graduate Program on his career path
Written by Megan Bowers, CAS communication intern
Matthew Groebe ‘13 made the decision to pursue a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Miami University after seeing the film Runaway Jury, based on the novel by John Grisham.
The film piqued his interest in jury consulting as a career path, and led him to look into graduate programs that would lead him in the right direction.
“Ever since I saw the film, I was fascinated with the process in which a group of otherwise unrelated people are forced to make sense out of complex information and reach some sort of group decision,” said Groebe.
He came across the work of Gary Stasser, a psychology professor at Miami, who happened to be working on small group decision making, which aligned perfectly with his goals. He hoped to learn how to do research around small group decision making and apply it to the legal system.
After poring through peer-reviewed articles, teaching undergrads, and discussing psychological theories for almost five years, Groebe graduated from Miami and landed a job as a trial consultant at a large law firm in North Carolina.
He credits finding this job to his involvement throughout graduate school, as well as networking. He attended professional trial consulting conferences, worked on the research committee for the American Society of Trial Consultants, and published research in the society’s journal.
“This was a fascinating job that allowed me to see use psychological principles and theory in an applied setting,” said Groebe.
The position allowed him to work in-house in many areas of the law, including finance, medical malpractice, product liability, wrongful death, and white collar criminal cases.
However, the position required a great deal of travel, and he and his wife eventually chose to move back to Cincinnati to be closer to family. In 2017, he got a job as the Consumer Research Manager for Mane, Inc., a flavor and fragrance company in Lebanon, Ohio.
At this company, he is able to engage with focus groups, online research, and in-home product tests in order to learn what their consumers think about food. He spends most of his time creating and conducting research plans to answer questions that everyone from the sales team to chemists are asking.
“While not realizing it at the time, my experience at Miami has been invaluable in preparing me for this job,” said Groebe.
He further explained that small group seminars, designing research studies, analyzing and summarizing data, juggling multiple responsibilities, and learning how to prioritize, are all skills that he gained through graduate school that can be applied to the work he does every day.
He encourages current social psychology doctoral candidates to keep their options open.
“You might find yourself someplace you never expected to be in five to ten years,” said Groebe. “Going into graduate school, I knew I wanted to do jury consulting. It turns out it wasn’t the perfect fit for me. Your first job doesn’t have to be your last; you learn what you like, and that informs your search for another job.”
