A PRACTICAL COMBINATION OF EMPLOYMENT METHODS 353 
manager will recognize and at the same time deplore. 
Such applicants should be handled by interviewers as 
material of the utmost value, since their freedom from 
any original preference allows a wide range in deciding 
where they will fit best. After the application blanks of 
these candidates have been carefully examined to deter 
mine so far as possible their preliminary experience and 
training, some limitations can immediately be made re 
garding the general field of work for which each is fitted. 
It now behooves the psychologist to bring into play a 
series of leading tests which will enable him to tell still 
more definitely where the applicant will fit best. In one 
or two of these tests the applicant will undoubtedly be 
better than in the rest, and these, then, will furnish a 
clue as to what further direction the more specific tests 
shall take. For example, in the work upon which these 
chapters are based the undecided candidate was frequently 
given the leading tests for the work of inspecting, assem 
bling, machine operating, and clerical work, and when it 
was apparent that the candidate excelled in one of these 
tests, the remaining tests for that specific work were 
given in order to determine more definitely still whether 
the applicant was fitted for this particular kind of work. 
Frequently, when newcomers applied for general clerical 
work they were given an arithmetical test, a filing test, 
a sorting test, and a posting or copying test in order to 
determine for what special kind of clerical work they 
should be further examined. This may seem like a long, 
expensive, and roundabout way to select applicants, but 
it is very much shorter and more direct than the ordinary, 
haphazard fashion of trying out an applicant for several 
days or even weeks at one kind of work after another 
until months elapse before the worker strikes his metier.