Daytona Beach Campus - College of Arts & Sciences

Department of Human Factors and Systems

Careers

career

Careers for graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Human Factors Psychology degree:

Careeers in the field of human factors and ergonomics (also known as human engineering) are exciting, challenging, and rewarding. Human factors professionals apply their scientific and engineering expertise to the many problems people encounter in the use of tools, equipment, and systems. Solutions to these problems often involve a combination of product design, user training, and refinement of procedures for using or maintaining the products. Among the areas of application are computer hardware and software, aerospace systems, communication, training, transportation, military systems, consumer products, and medical devices.

The work of the human factors engineer and a brief history of how the field began are stated concisely in the words of one of the outstanding human factors scientists and a pioneer in the field, Alphonse Chapanis:

"Human engineering got its big push during World War II, when it was found that many of the new and complicated weapons were useless because they exceeded the capacities of their human operators. This same kind of mismatching of people and machines is common today in modern industry, in the skies above us, and on our highways. It is this fact, together with the technological demands of space research and defense needs, that is the challenge for human factors engineers. Their job is to redesign present equipment and devise new equipment so that human errors, accidents, and frustrations can be reduced and efficiently increased."

According to a recent survey, the level of job satisfaction among human factors practitioners was found to be higher than among those working in other professional and technical fields. The same study found that human factors positions are notable for the variety of tasks involved, the employee's relative independence, and the amount of feedback he or she receives.

Employment Areas -- Whether you prefer an academic environment, private industry, government, or the military, employment opportunities in human factors are numerous and wide ranging.

Academic institutions -- Many human factors professionals work in state and private colleges and universities. Faculty positions range from research associate (often filled by graduate students) to full professor, both-part time and full-time.

Industry employment -- Human factors professionals work in a wide variety of industries. Jobs range from research positions to management of product development teams, with titles such as human factors engineer, ergonomist, safety scientist, technical specialist, and research scientist. A sampling of major industry employers may be found below.

Military-related research centers -- Several research laboratories across the services employ human factors professional. Examples include the Army's Human Engineering Laboratory, Naval Ocean Systems Center, Naval Training Systems Center, Air Force Armstrong Laboratory (medical research), and Air Force Human Resources Laboratory.

Government agencies -- Agency employers include the National Research Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Academy of Sciences, National Transportation Safety Board, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Human factors professionals also work in city and state agencies.

Independent research and consulting organizations -- Examples include American Institutes for Research, Anacapa Sciences, BBN Laboratories, Essex Corporation, and the MITRE Corporation.

Independent consulting -- Human factors professionals offer their services as consultants on a permanent or temporary basis, either full-time or part-time. Some consult part-time in addition to a permanent full-time job. Human factors consultants are often retained by trial lawyers to provide expert witness services in areas such as accidents, consumer product design, and safety.

Salaries

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society periodically conducts surveys to collect information about salary levels in all areas of human factors employment. The results indicate that salaries increase at about the level of inflation from year to year. Not surprisingly, professionals who have obtained a Ph.D. earn more than those with less education. In general, positions within industry are the highest paying, followed by academia and then government agencies. To obtain a copy of the 1997 Salary Survey, contact HFES at (+1) (310) 394-1811 or via the Web at http://hfes.org.

Some Human Factors Industry Employers . . .

Hundreds of product and service industries across the country employ one or more human factors professionals. Here is a sample of those companies:

Aviation/Aerospace

Automotive

Boeing

John Deere

Ford Aerospace

General Motors

General Dynamics

Nissan

Hughes

Ford

Lockheed Martin

Toyota

TRW

Northrop Grumman

Communications

Rockwell

AT&T

GTE

Computers

Lucent Technologies

Apple

NYNEX

Digital Equipment

US WEST

Hewlett-Packard

IBM

Insurance

INTEL

Travelers

XEROX

Liberty Mutual

Sun Microsystems

State Farm

Compaq

NCR

Power & Utilities

EG&G

General Electric

Some related career areas include:

architectural psychology, biomedical engineering, biophysics, biotechnology, engineering psychology, environmental engineering, industrial anthropology, industrial design, industrial engineering, industrial psychology, organizational psychology, safety engineering, and systems safety