WHO ARE YOU, YOUNG MAN?

It is a singular thing, but a fact, that many young men who have just been "received into the society of educated men" find themselves spurned, at least temporarily, by that larger and supposedly less select society known as the world. It was just for the purpose of proposing new members for the larger society that the Alumni Placement Office was organized.

Since last year, all matters connected with student employment and alumni placement have been under the supervision of Associate Dean Plimpton. Unquestionably the coordination of these related problems has meant more efficient and more intelligent guidance of students in search of employment while in college or upon graduation.

While the Office is better fitted to do its job well than ever before, less is known about this department of the University than almost any other. To fulfill this need, a series of articles are to be published in the "Crimson".

The new agency can and should be of use to undergraduates, particularly Seniors. Even if one feels assured of a position upon graduation, it is advisable to go to the Alumni Placement Office to test one's ability "to create an opportunity" and perhaps find, as a result, that a choice of occupations is possible. But for the majority, who do not know where their bread will come from after four festive years, and who are beginning to be bothered by the twin imps of doubt and perplexity, nothing could be more valuable.

The men in charge are nature in experience and wisdom, their records worth examining. More important, however, is the philosophy behind the activity and their method of coping with their problems. A basic tenet of their theory is that a man must first sell himself to them. Only then can they introduce and describe their marketable product to the prospective employer. Every conceivable way of facilitating alumni employment is used. Personal conferences, the discovery of interests, the compilation of information, the arrangement of interviews between "scouts" and students, the inspection of various plants: these are but some of the more routine matters to which the Office attends.

The position of Dean Plimpton and his associates is essentially that of broker or middleman. He cannot and would not, if he could, pull jobs out of his pockets like a beneficent Santa Claus. But his organization can and does perform all in its power "to help a man help himself".

Perhaps the greatest tribute to the agency work is that it is most respected where it is best known. Certainly much can be learned from the articles, more can be learned from the use of the Office's fine services.