A  PRACTICAL  COMBINATION  OF  EMPLOYMENT  METHODS  343
tion,  the  previous  interview,  and,  in  fact,  of  any  action
or  correspondence  which  may  have  taken  place  at  some
previous  time  regarding  the  present  applicant.  In  mentioning ­
  all  these  factors  at  this  point,  we  presuppose,  of
course,  that  the  various  phases  of  the  employment  process ­
  which  are  to  be  discussed  here  shall  already  have
been  in  use,  and  that  therefore  the  resulting  records  are
available  whenever  a  former  employee  returns  to  seek
reemployment.  The  value  of  such  records  can  not  be
overemphasized.
If  the  applicant  has  no  previous  record  with  the  company ­
  in  which  he  is  applying  for  work,  the  next  step  is  to
have  him  make  out  an  application  blank  which  will  provide ­
  some  of  the  information  necessary  as  a  basis  for  the
subsequent  interview.  The  writer  is  not  so  bold  as  to
offer  the  ideal  application  blank.  There  is  no  one  application ­
  form  which  will  answer  all  purposes.  Every  industry ­
  or  commercial  organization  has  its  own  particular
needs  and  peculiarities  and  will  design  its  application
blank  accordingly.  Nevertheless,  certain  items  can  be
enumerated  as  being  almost  indispensable  on  any  application ­
  form.  Among  these  are:  name,  address,  age,
family  circumstances,  nationality,  general  education,
special  education,  history  of  employment  in  the  past,
special  experience,  references,  kind  of  work  desired,  special ­
  qualifications  for  such  work,  and  so  forth.
When  the  application  blank  has  been  filled  out  it  should
be  passed  over  to  the  person  who  is  to  conduct  the  interview. ­
  Or,  if  the  applicant  is  a  former  employee,  his  record ­
  as  an  employee  and  his  original  application  should
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  interviewer  in  order  to  make
the  best  possible  use  of  this  information.  To  obtain  a
cue  from  which  to  start  the  interview,  the  interviewer’s