ABA Alumni Q&A

Thanks for agreeing to take part. We’re building an interview series on AppliedBehaviorAnalysisEdu.org that puts real voices from behavior analysis programs in front of the people trying to choose one.

They can find exam pass rates and starting salaries. What they cannot find is someone who has been through it saying how long certification really took, what the first year of supervising RBTs and writing authorizations was actually like, and what they would weigh differently if they were choosing a program again.

That is the part only you can answer.

You choose how you’re identified

The form asks how you’d like your name to appear before it asks you anything else. Full name, first name and last initial, first name only, or credentials and job title with no name at all. Pick whichever lets you answer honestly.

You’re answering for yourself here, not for your school or your employer, and the consent wording says so.

What we’re asking for

About 10 to 15 minutes. The questions are grouped by topic. The last group is optional, for anyone who has more to say, so answer what’s useful and skip anything that doesn’t apply. A short paragraph per group is plenty.

We’re after the honest version, not the polished one. If the honest answer to something is that it was harder than you expected, that’s the answer we want.

Filling out the form

Everything marked required needs an answer, and both consent boxes at the bottom need ticking. The Submit button stays greyed out until they are, so if it looks inactive, scroll down to the consent boxes.

There’s no save and resume. If you’d rather not do it in one sitting, draft your answers somewhere else first and paste them in. The full question list is below.

What happens after you submit

  1. You’ll get an email confirming we received your answers, with a copy of what you submitted for your records, and a reminder of how you asked to be identified.
  2. We read every response. We can’t publish all of them, so this isn’t a guarantee. If yours is going into the series, we’ll send you a direct link once it’s live.
  3. If we publish, your answers appear substantially as you’ve written them. If you want to change something, or you’d rather we didn’t publish after all, just reply to your confirmation email. That goes for after publication too.

We may fix the odd typo. We won’t change what you’ve said.

Want to draft your answers first?

See all questions

About you

  • Your name
  • How would you like to be identified when we publish this
  • Your email
  • Your credentials
  • Your current job title
  • School where you earned your degree
  • Year you graduated
  • Link to your LinkedIn or professional profile (optional)
  • Headshot (optional)
  • Which certifications do you currently hold
  • What kind of setting do you work in now

Where you are now

  1. What are you doing now? Tell us your setting, the population you serve, and whether your work is clinical, school-based, organizational, or something else.
  2. How directly did your program lead you there?

Certification

  1. How prepared did you feel for the BCBA exam (or your credentialing exam)?
  2. What actually helped you prepare, whether inside or outside the program?
  3. If it took more than one attempt and you’re comfortable sharing, what made the difference?
  4. How did your program’s approach to fieldwork and supervision affect your path to certification?

Your first year on the job

  1. In your first year of practice, what did you feel ready for?
  2. What did you have to learn on the job? Think of things like supervising RBTs, caseload and billable-hour expectations, insurance authorizations, or working with families and schools.

Looking back

  1. Which parts of the program mattered most to your career, and which mattered less than you expected?
  2. If you were choosing a program again today, what would you weigh differently?
  3. Knowing what you know now, what would you look for in a first employer?

If you have more to say (optional)

  1. What would you tell someone about to start who is nervous about whether they’re cut out for this work?
  2. What does a career in behavior analysis look like five or ten years in that isn’t obvious from the outside? Think of growth paths, specialization beyond early autism services, how funding and employer ownership shape the work, burnout, or what keeps people in the field.

The questionnaire

    How would you like to be identified when we publish this? (required)

    Which certifications do you currently hold? (required)

    What kind of setting do you work in now? (required)

    The questions

    The questions are grouped by topic. 4 groups are required and the last is optional, so answer what's useful and skip anything that doesn't apply. A short paragraph per group is plenty.

    Before you submit

    Both boxes below need to be ticked before the Submit button becomes active. If the button looks greyed out, that's why.

    Questions about any of this?

    Email us at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you. You can ask us to update or remove your Q&A at any time after it’s published.