CRITERIA OF VOCATIONAL SUCCESS 
harmony in vocational ideals may turn out to be the crux 
of the employment problem. 
Studies of the professions bring out more clearly the 
social importance of the problem of vocational success. 
What constitutes success as a doctor, a journalist, or a 
clergyman? Foster (53), in his study of the careers of the 
Harvard Class of ’94 as one means of estimating the merit 
of the plan of requiring a specified amount of concentration 
and scattering of elective courses, used an original and 
appropriate method of gaging success. The alumni whom 
he studied were engaged in a great variety of occupations, 
each perhaps with a different standard of success. His 
first problem was to find a basis for comparing all these men 
with each other. The criterion of success which he adopted 
was that the alumnus be rated successful by at least two of 
the three judges who knew the class intimately, each judge 
having been asked to designate “those men who had 
achieved the kind of success which he would be glad to have 
Harvard College promote, if possible, by the administration 
of the curriculum.” Such an approach although relying on 
subjective opinion makes at least a beginning in the critical 
consideration of success in the professions. 
In a larger sense, vocational accomplichment is a function 
of our civilization. Standards vary from one age to another 
and from one continent to another. The ancient Greek or 
the modern Hindu cannot be judged by the same standards 
as the Canadian. Even such closely related stocks as the 
English and the American show important differences in 
their vocational ideals and aspirations. Such considera- 
tions will, however, lead the investigator far afield. Atten- 
tion must be directed toward the criteria which the business 
or industry itself can provide and which it will consider 
sound. 
SUGGESTED CRITERIA OF SUCCESS 
Mention will here be made of 1 3 kinds of criteria of vo- 
cational accomplishment by which psychological tests and 
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