MATCHING THE SCIENCE-TRAINED WORKER WITH HIS JOB1 TOM COFFER Coffer Personnel, Chicago, Illinois
THE
UNITED STATESSupreme Court held, in the case of Adams us. Tanner, some years ago, that "The services rendered in acting as the paid agent of another to find a position in which to earn an honest living is useful, commendable, and in great demand . ." That decision stands as a quaint commentary on a period when employment agencies had need to protest their usefulness in a rapidly expanding industrial society; when they were struggling for public approbation, meanwhile operating on a promiscuous basis as brokers of mere jobs. The applicant's need of a job-any job-was, in those days, the primary consideration. His qualifications for anyparticularjohwerelargelymatters of accident. The theory then prevailing was that if you sent enough people out after whatever jobs were currently available a certain percentage of these people were bound to click. . This type of operation did not tend to develop an attitude of responsibility. Its success was sought in shoresighted opportunism, resulting in scandalous waste of talent. It failed to command the respect of discriminating employem in proportion as it failed t o attract the type of applicant who was qualified for, and who sought, an opening in a specialized field where his training and his talents would command adequate remuneration, as well as the personal satisfaction that comes with the following of one's vocation. As employment agencies multiplied, the resulting competition compelled the development of a more intelligent outlook. It became apparent that there were fresh fields t o conquer as ever-increasing numbers of students were graduated annually from technical schools and colleges. There was a place in industry for every science-trained graduate, but the individual's chance of finding the spot , where his training might be used to the maximum advantage of both himself and his employer was remote unless he could market his services through an agency, which knew the ropes, so to speak, better than he could ever hope to learn them. Each graduate needed, in addition to his own training, the benefit of somebody else's experience to insure that his training would not be misapplied. Here was an opportunity for employment people to rise above a condition in which they were mere * "hewers of wood and drawers of water." Progressive agencies began to seek higher altitude by applying scientific methods to placement work. The initial step was to set up, withim their organizations, separate de-
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partments for different classes of workers, and to arrange that each department head would concentrate on the particular field assigned to him. Agencies organized on this basis quickly arrived on speaking terms with the greatest industrial organizations of the country. I n l i e with such development, I had the experience, some years back, of pioneering a new department in one of the then foremost agenciesin the city of Chicago. We had been getting frequent inquiries from industry for chemical engineers and people with kindred training, and, frankly, we were forced t o recognize that we were incompetent to deal with such inquiries on a general basis. So, it was decided to open a new department which would direct its energies toward the placement of people in the chemical field. I was placed in charge but soon discovered that I was operating under irritating handicaps through having, all too frequently, to defer to the interest of the general organization. The work became daily more absorbing to me, and I came to the conclusion that specialization could not thrive on half measures. I decided to free myself of the restrictions which were a necessary part of the larger organization and to open an office which would be independent of all interests but those of the chemical field. The results of my efforts have been gratifying, almost beyond exaggeration. Apart from domestic business, inquiries currently being dealt with come from ,Canada, Mexico, South America, China, Australia, England, and the continent of Europe. Inquiries from some of the more remote outposts of civilization come to my officeas a result of advertising placed in Chemical and Engineering News. I feel that Forrest Anderson might now reverse the opinion which he once expressed in an article on "Helping the Graduate to a Job," in which he averred that the strictly professional employment agency had not been of grwt help t o those seeking work in the chemical field. My own officehas established a record of achievement that is out of proportion to our modest financial success. Apropos of this, I am under a debt of gratitude to Forrest Anderson himself who contributed in no small measure to that success by way of experienced advice and friendly encouragement. I believe Mr. Anderson did this because of his vigilant interest in every development that pertains to the welfare and progress of sciencetrained people arid of chemical people in particular. "There is a tide in the affairs of men," said Shakespeare, "which, taken a t the flood, leads on to fortune . " May I take the liberty of suggesting for serious consideration, that any man seeking the most
' Presented before the Division of Chemical Education at the 113th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chioago, April 19-23. 1948. 571
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nearly ideal employment opportunity in the chemical field may wind up as a man who missed the tide if he fails to investigate the possibilities made available through today's specialized placement bureau. It is because we are specialists in this field that our services are so valuable to men and women who are themselves specialists. We specialize in the business of knowing what goes on in educational as well as in industrial fields, in order that we may have constant and ready access to the highest caliber material in technical personnel demanded to meet the varying needs of industry. We specialize, too, in methods of matching the man to the particular job for vhich his own peculiar background and training has best prepared him. We maintain contact with every industry where trained chemists are in demand, and we eliminate for the applicant the trial-and-error method-or rather, lack of method-of job-seeking, whereby he usually takes a position, more or less blindly, only to find that he was acting on partial information and had therefore committed himself to an unsatisfactory propositon. So, he resigns and takes another chance elsewhere, with probably the same result. Before he knows it he has earned himself the unenviable and often unwarranted reputation of being unreliable, and we all know what it means to "give a dog a bad name." Such a man may not finally be able to secure the job he r a n t s and, ironically, for which he is equipped, even if he should stumble across it. While one man blunders along in this fashion, another may be away out ahead because he had the foresight to recognize his own limitations and to place himself in the hands of a competent counselor who could offer him: The choice of a greater number of openings than he could possibly fhd himself Experienced advice on different business and industrial organizations, their policies and their histories. Protection of applicant's identity during preliminary negotiations v The privilege of investigating any opening on file, without prior obligation Immeasurable saving of applicant's valuable time, which might be wasted in the desultory pursuit of barren leads For the applicant we survey the job, and for the employer we qualify the applicant. This is important to both. No employer can have confidence in people who habitually waste his time. It is not characteristic of an employer to invite the introduction into his business of the "glorious uncertainty" that properly belongs to the race track, and the thiig he is most likely to seek to protect himself against is the hazard of having the efficiency of his organization impaired by the frequent necessity of dispensing with the services of misfits. He greatly values prudence in hiring, so that firing may be kept a t a minimum. No applicant should be diffident in giving us all the facts we seek when we act as his agent, because we do him a real favor when we carefully qualify
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
him before introducing him to a prospective employer. Another aspect of this matter of getting the right start in the right job is the question of remuneration. We know what the prevailing scales are for different classes of chemical workers in the various industries, and our advice in this connection may be the deciding factor for some applicants who have no clear idea as to what their services may be worth. Some ask more than it is reasonable to expect any employer to pay. We know existing conditions and can sometimes steer such a man toward a position where he will take less to begin with than he himself had in mind. I have known it to happen many times, that such an applicant, relying on our advice, and taking the long view, ultimately commanded earnings far in excess of his original aim. The reverse of this picture is the case of the applicant who neither has sufficient confidence in himself nor any realization of the market value of his talents. By painstaking analysis me can open up rich possibilities for such a man and, by presenting him properly to an employer, v e can win for him a position to which his qualifications entitle him but which his own diffidence might have lost Ym if he had not had the benefit of our experienced advice. It is, I think, fitting at this time to give you a little insight into the results yielded by this highly individualized treatment of the chemical placement problem, by recounting to you, briefly, a few case histories which come to mind. Many amusing things arise in the conduct of our business. We sent a very well qualified man who mas refused the position because the man doing the hiring had attended school with the applicant's former employer. In his refusal to hire this man, the employer told me that anybody who could v-ork for that man for three years could not he much good. In presenting another man to the research director of an organization, me had given his age, nationality, standing, personality, qualification, experience, etc., which all fitted in perfectly. We then came to the school from which he had received his Master's degree. He was immediately disqualified although this was an accredited school. The employer informed me that "They never did know how to teach chemistry in that particular school." Some time ago we had a call from the president of a verv fine oreanization who invited me out to ins~ecthis piant and iffice. They had been using consulting laboratories, but felt the need of a chemical laboratory of their own. They are manufacturers of containers for the food industry. The president of this company did not know whether he wanted a chemist, a hacteriologist, or a half dozen chemical engineers. After learning what the problems were, I suggested a very fine packaging engineer, whose doctor's degree had been taken in metallurgy. They took my advice, hired him and set up a laboratory which today consists of two chemical engineers, two chemists, one mechanical engineer, and five well-trained laboratory assistants. Then I had the fellow who had trained for the ministry and had preached the gospel for two years before
OCTOBER, 1948
going into the army as a chaplain. After three years of service, he decided to give up the ministry and go into chemistry, went to college for two additional years, obtained his B.S. degree and came in to see me about a job. The first man I sent him to told me that he was a nice fellow who would fit into the job, but that they had a lot of roughnecks around the place that cussed and they couldn't bring in a man that wouldmake them feel uncomfortable. The next man I sent him to said, "We would like to have that fellow, hut we are sometimes obliged to do things in this business that are not strictly according to Hoyle, and it would hardly he the thing to ask a minister to enter into something that wasn't just exactly right." Another employer said, "We are afraid he might start preaching the .gospel around here. We are all of different faiths, and so we had better not take him!' The applicant was very discouraged, but still understood the resons for not being able to get on. We finally placed h i as curator in one of the better colleges. We placed a young man recently who graduated in June, 1947, and who had majored in zoology and minored in chemistry. He had made many fruitless a& tempts to find a posibion where his training would apply.
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He visited one employment agency who sent him to a gas laboratory that needed a chemical engineer and to a paint factory that also needed a chemical engineer. Finally, through a friend, he found employment in a mill as a drill-press operator where he worked for about three months. He was attracted to my office by an advertisement in the local newspaper. We immediately placed him in a research laboratory which could use his training, and to use his words, "at a salary and opportunity for advancement more than satisfactory." Our methods have proved sound in practice, and we do not intend to abandon them in favor of any spectacular expansion. I am personally convinced that with the rapidly accelerating importance of the chemist in postwar industry, theplacementcounselor canplay avital role in conserving talent, but only to the extent that he recognizes his limitations and does not overreach himself by invading other spheres of employment. Sincere application to the interests of the chemical field warrants the hope of continued successful service to the profession, and I may say without reservation that I can look for no success that is not bound fast to the successful careers of my clients.
