through the middle of May each year. It is during this period that the representatives of leading American industries come to the campus to talk with the seniors and graduate students who will finish their work at Tech during the coming year. The preparation for this season began back in October when Fred Ajax sent a letter to each of the 7,237 companies on his mailing list. This attractive letter (brochure might be a better description) lists the type and number of students who will graduate in the four classes (March, June, September and December) of the coming year. During this same month, he calls a meeting of these graduating students to explain the Tech placement system in detail. At this meeting the students are briefed on their responsibilities for proper preparation for the interviews. This includes preparing their own qualification forms on one of two standardized forms, having their photos made for inclusion on the forms and their own responsibility for a proper appearance at the interviews. Between October and January, the placement office is kept busy scheduling interview dates for the many companies who have indicated that they desire to send representatives to the campus for interviews. Some of the companies will ask for a survey of the classes that will give them an indication how many boys are interested in being considered for employment with their particular organization. The placement office completes these surveys as a service to the requesting organizations thus saving many companies a good deal of time and expense that might have been wasted. In the four months of the 1954 inter-
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view season over 400 companies will send representatives to Tech to battle for the 719 seniors and graduate students who will finish up their college work this year. The fact that 60% of these graduates carry military obligations does not deter the companies in their interviewing. American industry is interested in "long" as well as "short" term employment. The large companies like Bell, Dupont, General Electric and Westinghouse will hire a good man regardless of how long he will be with the company before leaving for the military. All companies interview boys with military obligations, secure a qualification record and ask them to write for a job after their military service is complete. This system, pioneered by Tech, gives our graduates security and assurance after their military service has been completed for their contacts have already been made. What happens when a company comes to Tech for engineers? Well, Let's take a tour with one of them, the Bell System. Before company representatives arrive on the campus, the graduates-to-be are notified via a note from the placement office that the Bell System will be on the campus for interviews on February 16th, and that they are interested in IE, IM, EE, ME, Phys., Cer and Math graduates. The first meeting is scheduled in the YMCA auditorium at 9:00 A.M. At 9:00 A.M. on February 16th, over 200 boys crowd into the "Y" to hear the Bell System representatives tell their story. Dean Ajax opens the meeting with a short humorous talk on the system and their needs. Representatives of A.T.&T., Southern Bell, Bell Laboratories, Sandia Corporation and Western Electric follow with short resumes of
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their companies. Then the rush is on as the boys crowd the two tables in the front of the auditorium to sign up for the individual interviews. The Bell team will be on the campus through February 19, so everyone wanting an interview with any number of the different companies is assigned an interview time. The individual interviews are held in various rooms in Knowles Building (including a storeroom) and it is here that the real personnel work is accomplished. No job offer is made at this time. As a protection to both companies and the students, all job offers must be made in writing and accepted the same way. Two weeks before each class graduates, Dean Ajax calls a meeting of the class. At that time each student fills out a qualification record for the permanent files. The alumni placement system is explained to the group, and those who have not yet accepted jobs are put on the alumni placement list at this time. (Around 15% of the class at present rates.) The alumni placement system is operated by the national office under the direction of Roane Beard. It is a free service to both employers and Tech alumni. A weekly placement bulletin is mailed to all alumni who are looking for jobs. The bulletin lists and describes the jobs that are available to the alumni. The alumni then contact the companies directly to apply for the available positions. An average bulletin lists around 50 different jobs varying from those requiring no experience to those at the executive level that require many years of experience. Tech believes that year-round placement is as necessary a function of the modern educational institution as are the basic sciences. They have proven it by being the pioneers in the field.
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GROUP INTERVIEW — Dean Ajax talks to 150 Tech boys who turned out for the IBM group interview. 10
MOB SCENE — a group of potential interviewees crowd around placement director Fred Ajax's table to make their appointments for personal talks. THE GEORGIA TECH ALUMNUS