GRADUATING COLLEGE MEN IN NEED OF VOCATIONAL ADVICE

Discussing the need of expert advice on vocation, due to the increase in commercial, manufacturing and business concerns, the Columbia University Quarterly comments editorially as follows:

"In the old days it was a simple matter to advise college students about their careers. Three professions--Law, Medicine, and the Church--lay clearly open before them, and they could freely choose according to their temper, inclination and necessities, moral and financial. In time came the engineering schools with their various sub-divisions, and of the normal and graduate schools preparing teachers for service in various grades of educational institutions.

"As society has become more and more complex, new and undreamt of opportunities for life work have opened up to college students. Some of these are already being professionalized, particularly those of a business character. Our schools of commerce and finance are preparing men for railroading, insurance and banking, and other lines of mercantile and business activities. Moreover, commercial and manufacturing concerns are reaching out in every direction for able college students of trained judgment and clear vision who, on learning the technique of the particular occupations, may be counted upon for leadership and direction. There is also the official public service, embracing a very large number of reasonably attractive positions, particularly in the consular, foreign trade, engineering, and technical branches. More serious attention is now being given to the standardization of salaries and grades and methods of promotion in order that young men and women may find careers within the service of the state. Those who do enter government employment and find the way blocked quite frequently go readily into private employment along similar lines. It would be possible to publish a long roll of eminent American business men who have received their first experience in the management of men and things in the service of the government.

"Finally, there is the unofficial public service. Here are opportunities for important positions as secretaries of chambers of commerce, civic associations, bureaus of municipal research, societies for the investigation and the promotion of public policies of many kinds, and other civic agencies which in our age are flourishing as never before in the history of democracy. Much of our political leadership and statesmanship is to be found, not in legislative bodies or official chambers, but in the unofficial societies which formulate policies, draft laws, and advocate their adoption. The City of Chicago has recently published a large and informing volume on the social and civic organizations maintained in that municipality. The School of Philanthropy in New York, within the last few months, has revealed by careful investigation the number and importance of the civic societies existing in the City of New York.

No Organization at Present.

"In all this, of course, there is nothing new. In Columbia University in the various faculties and schools there are men in touch with practically every type of work that is carried on in the outside world, from the construction of highways to the drafting of labor legislation. These members of the faculties in their individual capacities often advise students about the opportunities which come to their notice and serve outside agencies by bringing promising students into touch with them. But the work is not organized. There is no comprehensive survey of the thousand and one careers that are now open to young men and women. There is no organization in the University responsible for collecting this material, tabulating it, keeping it up-to-date, and maintaining the outside contact necessary for genuine information concerning various opportunities. What is lone is done in a haphazard manner. If a professor is generous with his time and thought, he can help scores of students every year; but if he is too preoccupied with his own academic duties, he may neglect this phase of his responsibilities altogether.

"It will be clear even to those only slightly familiar with the subject that the time is now ripe for the effective organization of machinery for maintaining contact with the opportunities for our graduates in the outside world and for informing students early in their college career concerning the nature of the careers open to them. In all this no criticism of the appointments office is meant. Every professor who has had occasion to use that office is well aware with what courtesy and efficiency it is now managed. But the task is too large to be discharged by any single officer. The matters which must be dealt with are so varied in their range and the number of men, organizations and institutions involved is so great that no one person can keep in touch with them.

Organized Co-operation Needed.

"The task before us is a co-operative one and calls for five things: (1) a careful survey of all opportunities attractive to college men and women and the keeping of that survey constantly up-to-date; (2) the organization of a few loyal alumni in each division of opportunities offered, in order that we may have immediate contact with those in the outside world who can give to our students that helpful advice and initial assistance which mean so much to young people at the outset of their careers; (3) the organization of a committee of professors representing the various lines of outside contact who can give advice and counsel to a chief officer in general direction; (4) the enlargement of the appointments office staff and the provision of additional funds, if necessary by some fee system, so that the large volume of business can be adequately handled at the University; and (5) designation of a certain number of professors as advisors to students concerning the possible careers with which they are familiar.

Training a Service to Democracy.

"This is not merely a matter of serving Columbia graduates and showing to them some of the loyalty which they are expected to manifest toward the University; it is also a matter of serving the public by placing in positions that call for responsible leadership college graduates who are competent to the task. This is not an age for rule of thumb methods and haphazard guessing about our life work. It is an age of scientific examination into facts and conditions and the deliberate, foresighted preparation of men and women for handling specific problems. The task of vocational guidance is at our door. Perhaps no greater work ever confronted a university than that of frankly and consciously organizing its machinery and methods for developing and molding the rich talent of its students and directing it into those branches of public and private service where sober judgment, trained thinking, moderation and capacity for intelligent leadership are essential. This is a service to the students incidentally and to democracy fundamentally."