An Appraisal of Vocational Guidance
T O COUNSEL young persons wisely in the selection of their vocations is a serious concern of higher education. One guide for future counseling is an answer to the question, How wise has such guidance been in the past? Are the young people whom we have counseled successful and happy? To have information on such questions is especially important to men and women engaged in vocational analysis. To this end the techniques used by an especially effective counselor, the late Herbert E. Hawkes, dean of Columbia College, the undergraduate school for men at Columbia, are described here in some detail, and an appraisal of his wisdom in vocational guidance is attempted by summarizing the replies to a simple questionnaire received from more than two hundred men to whom he had given vocational advice. For many years, Dean Hawkes had maintained an informal friendly relation with all the students. The door of his main office was always open, and it was his practice to be there whenever possible. The student was greeted by Dean Hawkes himself, and the tenor of the interview was casual and made for intimate understanding and confidence. This personal factor entered into all of his work in no small way. Dean Hawkes did not like to have vocational conferences with Freshmen because they lack acquaintance with the wide variety of vocational fields, a survey of which is offered during the freshman and sophomore years. At the end of the sophomore year, however, the Dean invited each boy to answer a questionnaire and write a report which clarified his position on a number of points, including his vocational choice. As the Dean studied these, he took up with the student the question of his vocation if the young man seemed in need of advice. By the junior year, most students had come to vocational conclusions. Consequently, the sophomore year at Columbia College was the one in which the majority of these vocational conferences was given. Dean Hawkes had at hand a complete cumulative record of each student. This included his general background-nationality, religion, education and vocation of his parents; his high-school record; vacation and vocational interests; his college-placement tests, including