11 | Studying Psychology and Leadership at Claremont McKenna - with Saloni Dhir

Saloni Dhir | Talent and Executive Search Associate, Schaffer & Combs

Saloni Dhir is a Shri Ram Moulsari graduate who went on to Claremont McKenna to study organisational psychology. She is currently working at an Executive Search company called Schaffer and Combs.

Arjun and Saloni discuss her early days at CMC, how she got interested in the field of leadership and organisational psychology and the future of education in these times.

Episode Takeaways

Early days at CMC

Claremont McKenna (CMC) is situated in a small town, very different from the hustle and bustle of Delhi. However, there is a tight knit college community and the college puts in a lot of effort to help you settle in with orientation leaders, mentor groups and even a camping trip during orientation week.

Academics at CMC

The academic environment was very out of the box with a lot of readings that helped you critically analyse what you were studying. Saloni knew she wanted to study psychology and took many advanced classes in her first year. She learnt a lot from her professors and by working on group projects with seniors and juniors in her class. Saloni did overload her classes in order to be able to study abroad at Oxford for an entire year but this changes from student to student and you do still have time to decide what you want to study.

Psychology has many sub departments but she found her initial classes in organisational psychology very interesting and she took courses studying leadership and human resources and also did her summer internships in the same field of interest. She did her thesis on leadership studies and CMC helped fund her research and provided a great environment for practical learning.

Career

Saloni works at Schaffer and Combs, an executive search company where she definitely applies what she focused on in college. She works on strategy consulting, CEO and COO searches for different companies and finds it engaging to talk to different people and work on evaluating them for positions. She believes that a good leader can work with people, has good communication skills and practices perseverance. Psychology and Economics became STEM majors in her junior year and the college curriculum changed and added more classes in research methods and statistics to make the major more quantitative. This gives her a STEM extension on her OPT that will also allow her to apply for her H1B visa.

Career Resources at CMC

CMC has a great centre for career development where students can show their resumes and they also provide grants for students to explore their interests before finding jobs. The CMC alumni network is also very useful and even though you will face many rejections in the job search process, do not lose hope.

The Future of Education

CMC has great professors and the small class sizes help as students have good relationships with their peers and professors that make the shift to virtual education easier. For people who've just graduated it’s important to connect with your networks, be active on LinkedIn and reach out to people who have been through the process, they’re always happy to help.

Experience at Edbrand

Saloni really enjoyed brainstorming ideas for essays and college lists and appreciated Edbrand’s support when she applied ED to CMC.