EDITORIAL
R I D Internship “I just figure if you work hard every day and put all you’ve got into it, something good will come out of it.”
The above quotes Don Nelson Tidwell a former truck driver who a t age 22 has a net worth of $20 million. * Such inspiring precepts may lurk in the mysterious subconscious of young professional scientists in the early weeks of exposure to first assignments on a corporate staff. Kot all, but some, have the dream of early financial success via the possibility that some day a local civic group will place a bronze plaque on the door of his or her old homestead typically advising “Here lived the inventor of the longer short circuit”-or similar. Whatever may come from the opportunities afforded by devotion to the common cause of industrial research, the first year is possibly determining in terms of work habits, attitude, and consequent ultimate attainments. It is normal to be assigned to a “group” and thus exposed to a pattern and mold already fashioned by a leader whose talents for training may be good, average, or indifferent under specific circumstances. This experience is not unlike that in some other professional disciplines, with a t least one exception: The young medical student is required t o serve an apprenticeship as a hospital intern while he begins to observe and practice the regimen and science of healing, curing (and failing) in a profession for which purpose he has devoted years of study in prescribed subjects which underscore the basic functions and operations of a complicated subject. I n that instance the mentors are the senior medical staff experienced in subheadings of the total healing art. The expectations are firm that in a relatively short term the individual can stand alone in situations of mild and critical magnitude-at least on a provisional basis. Having this tradition in mind we inaugurated the test of a somewhat parallel program. Upon arrival, one is assigned to a preceptor responsible for facile introduction to policies and procedures. This is not usually a supervisor but a younger member with the charisma to provide fatherhood during the weeks of adolescent transition from university to practice. One of the first nerds is to understand the “THEY FUXCTIOS.” “THEY” is the R/D magnum concilium, i.e., directors, market managers, planning department, and others who fashion the departmental accountabilitiesthe things that should happen in the laboratory in order to be resonant with “them.” This cultivates a relationship which suggests that, while one is assigned to a pmblem, the opportunity is larger, i.e., to participate in a solution. Interspersed is exposure to activities and accountabilities of other groups, always with the opportunity to participate in learning and discussion. I am regularly impressed by the subjects which a university does not (and possibly should not) teach: how to make an invention; patent law procedure; creative approaches to problem solving. I t is significant to know the two sources of ideas are (a) those already worked out by others and (b) your own. We teach that the first is prelude and the second is primary. After formal instruction in this subject the able candidate who has fixed this point has also launched a new career. Career expectations are individualized and multidirectional. The preceptor functions inspirationally to define guidelines for future qualifications as a Group Leader, Director, Scientist, and Senior Scientist. He is coach, teacher, advisor, confidant, and spiritus rector. He acts to recognize the basic humanity in the tough and regularly frustrating steps to make science useful, to help the intern plan an attitudinal pattern for appropriately competing in an environment of elan de corps. Perhaps, not surprisingly, “the child is father to the man” for the preceptor finds even after some years of experience his own internship is reinforced. The parable of the rich truck driver is valid if we can know how he succeeded against the manv who simply drive a truck.
* Lawrence A. Armour,
“The Young Millionaires,” Playboy Press, Chicago, Ill., 1973. Ind. Eng. Chem. Prod. Res. Develop., Vol. 12, No.
4, 1973 259
