Placement Bureau to Poll Seniors to Get Facts on Job Preparedness

As a prod for the many procrastinating Seniors who wait until their last few weeks at the College before recognizing the problem of finding a vocation or finding a wedge into their chosen field, next week the year-old Office of Student Placement will poll the 928 students scheduled to graduate in February and June.

Answers to the questionnaire, which will ask the student if he has yet chosen a vocation, if he intends to take postgraduate work, or what other plans he may have, will prove to be of "mutual advantage" to the office and to the undergraduate, explained Director John W. Teele. The placement bureau will know to what extent it should carry tentatively scheduled policies and the results also will will help the student by providing facts and figures to prospective employers.

Alumni May Counsel

If enough men show interest, plans will go ahead for establishing a group of alumni counsellors, to whom undergraduates may be sent for information about a specific field. Possibilities in that direction may have already been made evident by an interview between a business-minded Senior and the president of the Gillette Company.

On the other hand, letters from industrial concerns have been pouring into the office in the quest for information about the coming graduation. Some companies want to know how many chemists or physicists will be available. Other organizations, such as banks and insurance outfits, want liberal arts graduated to enroll in their training courses. Still others want only Business School alumni.

General Electric, for example, requests the number of the graduating class, with an eye for men with executive tendencies to train for administrative positions. The company offers a special training coursing in business, stressing accountancy; but G.E. hastens to mention that liberal arts men advance as quickly as business administration majors. Samplings from the office files show a variety of industrials interested in Harvard graduates, including the Monsanto Chemical Corporation, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, and the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, makers of Scotch Tape.

Designed as a guidance center and placement bureau for dissociated students, the Student Placement office operates in Weld Hall in an advisory capacity. While they are not always able to find a job for every undergraduate who applied for aid, the office hope to orient the individual through interviews, contacts, and vocational files