Jobs Ahead

On the evening of the first day a young man in a sweater stood up and asked a question. It was the question on the tongue tip of the 1,500 other young men & women at the Choosing A Career Conference sponsored by L. Bamberger & Co. (department store) in Newark, N. J. last week. It was the question uppermost in the minds of thousands of 1934 college graduates. It was the question which the successful careerists on the conference platform found the most difficult to answer. Said the young man in a sweater: "This is all very interesting, but what I want to know is where and how can I get a job."

The young man wanted to talk about jobs-in-particular while his elders on the platform wanted to give advice about jobs-in-general. That advice ranged all the way from Railroader Leonor Fresnel Loree's bitterly comic counsel, "find a permanent job and stick to it," to sincere attempts at appraising the future in specific fields. Excerpts:

Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins: In the hoped-for improvement of economic conditions, a career in industrial relations work should hold a satisfying and well-rewarded future.

Adman Bruce Barton: The social revolution now in progress might reach a point where industry is so regimented that there would be very little advertising. . . . We must advertise war . . . sickness & health . . . books & reading. If I could have young Mr. Vanderbilt working for me. or Max Baer, I'd much rather have Max Baer.

Banker James P. Warburg: Having the right friends and a good set of teeth used to be the entrance requirements for banking. They are that no longer. Banking as a business career is dead. Banking as a profession is in its infancy. . . . Unless you are prepared to live on a salary I do not think you should go into banking.

Vice President Jack Straus of R. H. Macy & Co. : I look for a further concentration of the retail business in big stores and mail order houses. There are probably more jobs to fill than there are trained people to fill them.

Showman Samuel Lionel ("Roxy") Rothafel: The entertainment business needs good taste and a finer personnel. The showman doesn't know and the public doesn't know what the public wants. My idea is to be creative and present new things.

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart: I prophesy a great change in the transportation system. . . . Airlines will carry all first class passengers and first class mail. But don't believe too much what the old timers like me tell you. . . .

Vice President James Mooney General Motors Corp.: America's participation in international trade today evidencing an amazing vitality. . . . have not the slightest hesitation in assuring you that the opportunities in this field will be greater than ever.

U. S. Budget Director Lewis Douglas: For those who seek a career in Government . . . personal fortune must be forgotten, nor should personal power be end.

President Thomas L. Parkinson Equitable Life Assurance Society: I hate to say it, but there is almost a total vacancy at the top of the ladder.

President Colby M. Chester Jr. General Foods Corp. : If some of you are interested, I suggest that you approach the problem from the standpoint of distribution. . . .

Donald S. Bridgman of American Telephone & Telegraph: The one big reason the Bell System is not taking on any college men at this time is because the reserve of young men which we did not need in 1929 and which we took on was sufficient for about ten years.

Frances M. ("Robbie") Robinson secretary-assistant to NRAdministrator Johnson: This new day offers abundant opportunity to our secretaries. . . . The door is open. It is up to the women to make the grade. . . . Pull is the bunk. Push and merit are all that count.

Publisher Richard Simon: Drag is a wonderful thing -- make use of it. ... The publishing business is hard. In the last ten years I have received applications personally from at least 5,000 young men, and I haven't given a job to one of them.

Though he had no jobs to scatter among the career-seekers at the Bamberger conference, Publisher Simon was overstocked with advice. Same day he made his speech, he published New Careers for Youth by that oldtime adviser-to-the-world, Walter Boughton Pitkin.* As an individual job expert Author Pitkin was better qualified to speak than most of the Bamberger conferees. He has been cook, cattle boss, psychologist, peddler, cinema executive, junkman, literary critic, factory hand, interpreter, private tutor, printer, reporter, fiction writer. At present he is highly successful as author (Life Begins at Forty, More Power to You), Columbia professor, big-scale farmer, publishers' consultant, Government adviser and syndicated newspaper columnist. Not content with his own experience, he has for the past year had 30 researchers canvassing some 500 business & professional leaders about job prospects. In his new book he warns his young readers to use his data only as hints to make thorough personal investigation: of any fields in which they may be interested. Author Pitkin's thesis: Many an ok career is either overcrowded or on its last legs while new careers are opening up which promise better days for everyone. He is gloomy about the prospects of getting good work in education, law, medicine social work, the ministry, music, journalism, library management, fine arts, acting architecture, small farming, mining engineering, radio, cinema, aviation. On the bright side he finds all kinds of engineering (except mining), farm management the New Housing, air conditioning, industrial art, retailing, personnel work, vocational guidance, applied psychology, the New Salesmanship, banking, hotels & wayside inns, cost accounting, appraising market research, industrial code management, Civil Service. Author Pitkin thinks the U. S. public school is a failure, doubts whether college is much help in earning a living. He thinks youngsters would be better off learning their jobs, preferably through apprenticeship. He advises the trained but jobless man to apply his skill one step down the scale: let the dentist, for example, become a repairer of jewelers' tools. He recommends "merger jobs": let the jobless engineer use his training and personality as a salesman of technical equipment. He thinks there are plenty of chances for wideawake youngsters to make their own jobs -- as small town managers, interior decorators for middle-class homes, co-operative agents, co-operative accountants, attic researchers. And he is most optimistic about the prospects for such breezy, confident jacks-of-all-trades as Walter Boughton Pitkin.

*Simon & Schuster, $1.50.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.