>> My name is Abagail Prady [assumed
spelling], and I am currently a PhD candidate
at the University of Iowa, and it's in
management and organizations department,
so I focus on human resources
and organizational behavior.
In the PhD program, it changes a lot.
Each semester is pretty different.
So in my first two years, my days were
basically full of reading academic articles,
trying to understand the research,
and I was really focused on classes.
And then, also, I had a few research
projects that I was involved with.
Now, I finished my comprehensive
exams, which means no more coursework,
but instead, I have teaching opportunities.
So I've had a couple classes I've been a TA for,
and I'm teaching my first
stand-alone course this semester,
which is absorbing a lot of my time currently.
I was working with students
in designing the course.
But I also have all my research
going on in the background,
and I'm just starting my dissertation.
So my days right now are mostly teaching,
dissertation, and other research projects.
One thing that I'm researching right now
is difficult workplace relationships,
and how people cope with difficult workplace
relationships, what the outcomes are,
positive and negative, and then looking
at traits of people who get involved
in difficult workplace relationships.
And the value there is that if we can
understand how people can effectively deal with
and have positive outcomes come out of
whatever challenges that they're facing
because often times in life it is the
difficult challenges that prompt us to evolve
and learn more and kind of
find our path and directions.
So trying to understand what makes some
people better at doing that than others,
we can help coach people on how to use
bad experiences for their own good.
So that's a bit of what I'm working on.