SOME PERSONAL ASPECTS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CHAPLIN TYLER
Development Department, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
There are just 20 years on which a chemist or chemical engineer
can
count for his success. Even this short time is divided between
getting
himself on the right track and then going places when he is on
it.
Personal development, as the key to professional progress, is
the
means of advancing, and the author here outlines some aspects
of
individual personal planning aimed toward maximum use of
abilities.
I N THE welter of large-scale postwar planning, the importance
of individual personal planning readily may be over-looked. Yet,
now at the beginning of the Nation's greatest period of
constructive effort, the way is open to each chemist and engineer
to contribute as never before to-ward a better life.
Unfortunately, but not without good reason, our schools
emphasize the tangi-bles in professional training to the prac-tical
exclusion of the intangibles. I refer particularly to the
importance of planning a career and the consideration of certain
nontechnical factors affecting the realiza-tion of such planning.
Open discussion of the subject, it is hoped, will lead to greater
individual achievement with consequent enhanced stature of the
profession as a whole.
The typical chemist or chemical engi-neer is graduated from
college at 22 to 23 years of age. This means an active
pro-fessional life of 37 to 43 years, assuming compulsory
retirement at 65 and optional retirement at 60. Let's assume, as an
ap-proximation, that the graduate will have 40 years of active
service. However, he need not be concerned immediately with the
last 20 years, since as a general rule progress made in the first
20 years fore-shadows subsequent progress. Accord-ingly, the 20
years from age 22 to 42 should be utilized to the utmost. Failure
to heed this generalization will result in getting "off the beam",
and getting back is much more difficult than staying on. The
ex-ceptions are so rare as to be news.
The first 20 years in turn, may be di-vided into two 10-year
periods: the period of establishment and the period of growth.
Considering first the period of establish-ment, requirements for
satisfactory prog-ress may be formulated as follows:
1. The right start. A great deal has been said by employers,
personnel ex-
perts, and educators concerning the selec-tion of employees.
However, from the point of view of the prospective employee, the
selection of an employer is vastly more consequential. Although the
trial-and-error method is extensively practiced, it is wasteful.
Common sense dictates that not many false starts can be made
without losing priceless years. Fortunately for the chemical
profession, the largest employers of such talent are companies
whose past and present achievements and future pros-pects are
largely a matter of record in the business and technical journals
and i n re-ports to stockholders. Such information may be
supplemented by reports which come to the colleges from former
students. Careful investigation and weighing of job opportunities
are certain to be time and effort well spent.
2 . Patience. The American system of formal training, as applied
t o the 4-year college man, comprises 16 to 17 years dur-ing which
progress is recorded by annual or semiannual promotion. He goes on
the academic "production line" at 6 and comes off a t 22 or 23.
Little wonder that the typical graduate becomes restive when in his
first few years in industry he can't measure progress in terms of
"A's "B's", and "C's", and in terms of frequent, regu-lar
promotions. His only mathematical measure is his paycheck, which
according to the psychologists always is 15% less than the
recipient thinks is deserved. However, assuming he has confidence
in bis employer, his chief concern should be not about any apparent
lack of progress, but whether he is turning out a 1 0 0 % +
performance on each assignment a s i t comes along. His worst enemy
often is impatience.
3 . Getting the job done. Satisfactory performance is a greatly
prized quality. It can be summed up in three words: ac-curacy,
thoroughness, and promptness.
Spectacular performance is not expected; neither is i t
necessary. The million-dollar ideas and brilliant execution may
come, but they originate from a minority. For the majority, getting
the job at hand done is the thing that matters. It may mean
designing a heat exchanger, operating an acid plant, or selling a
carload of solvent: whatever i t is, someone will be chocking o n
the performance, and with each check a plus, minus, or just so-so
impression is registered. It is analogous to the mathe-matical
process of integration. The boss is the integrating mechanism, and
a man's performance consists of numerous "dx's" and "dy's", which
upon integration yield a result which means something to the boss
if not always to the man.
4. Mastery of personal relationships. Getting along harmoniously
with people means being able to work with persons of all ranks and
walks of life so that an atmos-phere of mutual regard prevails. I t
means settling difficulties as much as pos-sible at one's own
level, without burdening the boss; he has his own difficulties. I t
means, in the large organization, maintain-ing a delicate balance
between team effort and individualism. In the small organi-zation
greater versatility is called for, though this does not necessarily
mean greater freedom.
5. The objective viewpoint The scien-tist is taught to be
objective in his think-ing and to rely on facts. This is one
teach-ing from which there should be no diver-gence, however great
the temptation Often the facts are meager or are not readily at
hand. But that does not jus-tify expansive speculation, at least
until reasonable diligence toward fact-finding has been
exercised.
As tangible evidence of progress in t h e first 10 years, the
chemist should find that his salary affords an adequate living
stand-ard; that he has earned the confidence o f associates,
subordinates, and supervisors; and that h e has attained either a
strategic position for line advancement, or a staff position,
where, even though working a s an individual, he is dealing with t
o p man-agement with all the advantage such con-tacts afford. From
then on, the factors previously discussed continue to apply,
although continued progress in the second 10 years requires
increasing attention t o these further factors:
1072 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S
