Or are the poor
rural poor
poor poor
poor poor poor poor
poor
the you're.
That briefcase contains some papers
that are going to make some young men mighty happy.
The man who carried it was personnel representative of one of the largest
corporations in America.
He came here to the college to interview some young men who will graduate mention
earing this Jim will take those records
and his impressions of some of the men he has met back with him with other members
of the personnel department. He will reveal each case carefully. When they finish.
They will offer some men
and all expenses trip to the planet by air to look it over.
First hand before signing up. That's backside front. Isn't it.
A job looking for a man these engineering jobs are important ones jobs worth doing
jobs that will give a lot of satisfaction
when they're well done these jobs are looking for young men with ability the demand
is greater than the supply
and it looks as if it will be for at least another ten years.
The danger in the situation is
that many high school graduates their eyes filled with the glamour of the
professional engineer and the size of his paycheck.
They plunge into professional engineering training without the proper background
without the aptitude without the genuine interest without the will to put in the
necessary work but this is a real danger is shown by the fact
that one college of ten boys who start an engineering course for drop out by the
end of the first year.
It's pretty much the same story at other colleges.
Well. Perhaps their time and their money is not all wasted
but it could have been spent my wisely.
A second and more important danger in the shortage of engineers is
that many young men who are qualified unsuited to the field will get away because
they are not aware of their aptitude and abilities
or because they have an inaccurate idea of what an engineer does
or simply because they never thought of it.
This is a real danger too because our best insurance against war is our national
strength national strength the nice mechanized era depends on industrial strength
and
that depends on having a supply of the train people who translate ideas into machinery
structures and products and engineers.
So we'd like to have you.
Think about engineering.
We hope to show you that engineering is a whale of a broad profession
and has in it.
Room for more widely differing people than you may realize we hope to show you
that there are scientific ways to discover whether you are have the abilities to
succeed in engineering whether your interests lie in the fields of engineering
and whether you have the necessary grip to make the grade.
If you find that you are qualified and interested.
It will be up to you to prepare yourself in high school to enter an engineering
college with a running start.
Let's begin with the scientific testing program we mentioned.
Even if your school is in a position to provide every pupil testing in counseling.
It will still be worth your time and the modest current.
To make use of the testing facilities of some college
or university your own state college university teachers Carmen's
and many private schools have fine testing facilities. Take a test from Bill.
Who decided
that if he was determined to enter a technical technical advice as to whether it
was a wise move. He had already taken a battery of tests coming
and had come back from what he considered as near a verdict in the every one thing.
He could see the company was preparing for him
and you could hardly blame him for being nervous. On this account.
Do I get to take engineering
but we're going to tell you what you can take engineering
but we have some test results that will help you make up your own mind.
So why don't you pull out for sharing your bill a little plus a solid board to get
an idea what it looks. First of all. General intelligence.
And with your high school record.
Now you see these are both well above average and roughly equal. That's good.
You mean it's good because they're equal.
To pull your high school records it only comes to about this point now
that would mean that although your ability was good.
You hadn't used your ability to best advantage in high school.
If a guy's lazy in high school.
He's probably going to be lazy in college and
that kind of guy will not get through engineering he'll either drop out themselves.
Or you'll be asked to drop but those who tells me I can get through college. OK.
But I think you can do better than just get through.
Bill let's take a look at your aptitude test those are the tests I worked.
Yes but I didn't get through them all.
Well actually we couldn't expect you to finish them all if you did
and if everyone finished them we'd have no basis of comparison.
Now your verbal aptitude. Was only about average.
Your computational aptitude is well above average now and space relation.
Wasn't that's the one that looks like a lot of blue prints. Yes that's right.
That was the test with it.
It showed you a box taken apart in sections
and you had to determine what the box would look like put together again spacing
locations quite high mechanical aptitude. Very good.
But
that means I had to take engineering get all knots up to Bill well to get a look at
your interest pattern first but I know what I'm interested in
and I'm interested in mechanics and I'm good mechanics too.
Well no bill that's not all it takes just because a guy likes to monkey with a
motor car doesn't mean he's an engineer. Maybe it means an auto mechanic.
The aptitude an interest that you just mentioned are marketed.
Clear associated the success of mechanical trades and success with
that in engineering frequently the guy who takes engineering because he likes to
tinker around with automobiles would have been wiser to become an auto mechanic.
We think it would be better for him to succeed as a mechanic than to fail as an
engineer. Well. What does it take to be an engineer.
Well Bill we found
that the best engineers have aptitude in math
and in mechanics as well as sound interests in mechanics math
and science.
More
and more engineering is becoming a scientific field rather than just strictly a mechanical
field and the best engineers are awful strong and literary and verbal abilities.
Well let's see the rest of the result took a bill to put the rest of them on the
board the mechanical interest by.
Computational interest high also. Scientific interest.
Very high literary interest low artistic interest.
Surprisingly. But it does mean I could be a good engineer doesn't it.
If you're really determined to be an engineer aren't you Bill.
But the pattern looks pretty good you look pretty much like an engineer.
There's one thing Bill
that you're going to have to watch your ability in the communication is better than
is your interest. You're going to have to pay real close attention
and work hard in those courses that teach you to speak directly
and write clearly well why is
that because you have to write reports as an engineer and when you write reports.
You have to make them clear because just as a newspaper man is writing something
for someone to. Read and understand you as an engineer have to do
that the user you make it for them to understand the better impression you'll make
as an engineer. Let's look into this a little more thoroughly.
Of course not all good engineering profiles are exactly like built
but with those profiles in the test back of them testing services are able to give
you a lot of reliable help in picking the right vocation.
So take advantage of that help.
But after today interest in ambition aren't enough unless you're a glutton for
punishment.
You should have a good high school preparation in order to take advantage of
college engineering courses.
So
when your high school counselor tells you you should be able to do good work you'll
Mansome take all you can get you should be able to do good work in chemistry
and physics and take both of them that are offered
and you must be able to do good work in English too when he tells you
that you believe them. Now what about this field of engineering itself.
What's it like what does it have to offer.
Perhaps you believe that with your personality.
Engineering is the last profession that could satisfy you.
Let's take a look at several boys as different as they can be
and see what they found out about engineering careers their class.
It may not be just the same size as yours.
But our engineers come out of classrooms just like yours all over the country.
Some girls take engineering but it's not a common thing.
So let's eliminate the girls then let's eliminate those with gradient ridges below
see those with definite interests in other fields and those with that the tubes
that fit them for some other work there you have it for candidates who have the
stuff to make it. Let's look at them in. Individually.
Bob's a pretty quiet person he's known as a brain and prefers physics to football.
Why and how do things work.
This is the type of problem that stimulates Bob's natural curiosity
when someone mentions engineering to Bob he imagines something like this.
There have to have a prayer movement jello or whatever
or what's the matter with you reverse.
Not Or Bob doesn't think it would fit into such a situation than imagination has
given him an idea that is out of date
and incorrect because engineering does have a kind of job
that will suit Bob You see what are you going to mechanical electrical chemical
civil or any other branch of engineering you will find
that your job falls in one of these three broad classifications research
and development management sales
or production now research is probably made to order for Bob
and it's an expanding field these figures represent engineers employed in research
and development in one thousand nine hundred seventeen thousand
and government employment sixty two thousand in industry
and eight thousand in universities
and colleges in twelve years the government almost double the number industry
double there's
and the universities triple their numbers in these fields research was made for Bob
he would like this phase of ceramic engineering for instance helping to build a
racetrack not a model but the real thing a ceramic racetrack for electrons.
It is the heart of the synchrotron which is used for nuclear research
but research
and development is not limited to the purely theoretical feels research followed by
development enters into building the every.
They tools with which Americans make their livings how long.
If we charted our way by sextant readings depending on Clear skies to find out
where we are the radio section is a product of research and development.
It tracks the sun all day rain
or shine exactly how do you find out how to build a better plan.
Engineers don't guess about anything they can measure what happens to a power
when it promises. It's up to the research and development men to find out
and to apply is findings towards making a better one modern industry can't wait for
inventions to happen.
Research and Development is geared to find new products and methods constantly
and Bob The Brain Trust can find a job
that will challenge him one he will like in this phase of engineering.
There is nothing shy about done. He self confident personable. So he'll go.
He's got a lot of friends.
He's pretty good at public speaking
when done things avenge an earring he imagines something like this a drafting room
is the place where Engineers plans are processed. It's an important place.
Some like it very much and others insist that it's a very good place to start out.
Than those who think he'd like maybe not.
Nevertheless engineering offers none other jobs that will challenge
and use his social abilities and varied interests
but see what Don's place in engineering looks like a good salesman must know its
product and that of his competitors. He must know the whole field.
That's more than ever to with a man who was supervise a sales force
or work with distributors.
It's not hard to see how valuable an engineering background can be in sales work.
This is a side of engineering that has never occurred to done before. For instance.
How can an engineer help sell pressures in a highly competitive situation.
What about the product crushed rock. Can you improve it.
Research shows
that an angular form in the crushed rock aggregate it's called is better than a
flat
or sliver form the angular aggregate is less likely to slide around under the loads
placed on it.
What do you do to get a higher percentage of the angular type from your crushing
machines the impact pressure is developed you study it in slow motion pictures some
three hundred times slower than normal the Hammers break rock
and throw rocks together hard enough to break them the product has a high
percentage of the desired angular form
and your sales effort gets a shot in the arm
but manufacturers in a competitive field can't stand still.
What are the problems of the contractor the man who is your customer calling cost
him a lot of money when a big job is a long way from the plant.
So the management sales force calls for a part of all right. Pressure.
That can be moved close to the job a management decision based on engineering
estimate. Work imagination and engineering knowledge payoff
and profits as the sales engineer points out the improvement to the cost conscious
business men who buy the machinery done has a lot of imagination.
He prides himself on that and in engineering.
There are jobs that will keep him right on his toes. He would like that.
In other words there is a career in engineering
that would done well done is the extroverted type of individual Paul in the same
class is known as the strong silent type.
He's a big guy naturally
and goes along without attracting much attention until somebody wants to get
something done then they call on Paul.
Paul knows his uncle is a chemical engineer who got into research and
when Pollan magine himself as. Engineer.
He see themselves in a smelly place full of glass where he'd feel out of place in
this or those ankle finds it fascinating but there is a part of engineering
that is just as good at that call as other parts were done
and Bob production engineer the man between the materials yard and the delivery.
He's got to know how to keep quality.
Costs down one job for a production engineer might be getting huge fixtures
that will hold tons of steel in place while it is well that.
Or it might just as readily be providing an environment where flight simulators can
be assembled work where the ordinary dust in the air is a hazard.
If the production man is turning out thousands of Adenike old units.
He has the problem of making the flow of materials match manufacturing capacity.
The flow of subassemblies match the assembly line the flow of the assembly line
matched demands of the sales force when items must be custom made
when everyone is different it's the production engineer who plans the assembly
system that will tell each worker what to do each separate order so
that the instruction sheets may be written out the necessary parts gathered from
the stock room and put together properly set regulated to each requirement.
But the production engineer works not only with materials and machines.
He works with men.
They do know that newly made cellophane is porous
and must be moisture proof before it is sold.
It takes the machine three stories high that coat it dry it
and wind it into rolls again these men must buy the new role of cellophane under
the only one while the machine is running.
First he makes a crayon mark on the underside of the material near the beginning of
the new role.
From this marquee cuts the cellophane away to leave a long tongue held by a piece
of tape he will glue this tongue to the end of the old row.
This sounds easy until you know
that the new row weighs nearly half a ton the cellophane is traveling through the
machine at about eleven feet per second.
And it's a good the machine must be rethread
and the eye of the needle is three stories up.
How about it Mr Production Engineer do your men have the temperament coordination
decisiveness teamwork training
and experience to do the job in production the respect
when so readily can really pay off our fourth candidate.
Well let's call him X.
His qualifications are going to be easy to pinpoint is those of Bob or Don or Paul.
He may have the aptitude and abilities for something old of engineering
and yet seem a little lazy because he hasn't found anything to interest him.
The simple situations outline for Bob Dunn and Paul probably won't help X.
Very much. His problem is a little more complex.
So he will have to find more information probably on his own.
There are three things X.
Can do to get a better idea of what engineering can offer him.
And what he can offer engineering he can take additional tests to better understand
some of his qualifications in addition he can visit teachers at
any engineering college who will be happy to talk with him about his future
and third he can obtain from them.
The names of Engineers near his home engineers who are ready to show him what the
engineer does and what it takes to be one who exactly.
Well he's a person who may find engineering a challenging
and profitable life's work
when he discovers a many job types in this very broad field.
And when he realizes
that he will have to make an investment good hard work is a person who has the
intelligence and initiative to find out more about what engineering can offer he
and maybe a few.