Swarthmore College Career Services records

The beginnings of a career advisory program at Swarthmore College can be traced to 1915, when Professor Robert C. Brooks highlighted the importance of vocational guidance in a Collection talk. Brooks encouraged student groups on campus to invite alumni to speak to their groups about professional careers. This suggestion was quickly implemented by a number of student organizations. In 1938, the program was formalized when the Alumni Office was established. In addition to managing alumni records and facilitating relations between the College and alumni, the Alumni Office was tasked with developing a program of vocational guidance and placement for male students. Swarthmore’s program distinguished itself from personnel offices in place at other schools by emphasizing the importance of helping students choose a career and direct their studies accordingly, rather than merely matching students with available jobs.

Around the same time the Alumni Office began offering vocational advice for male students, the Women’s Student Government Association formed a Vocational Committee in 1938 to assist students in picking a career. One of the committee’s earliest efforts was organizing a Vocational Conference, held every two years beginning in 1938. The Vocational Conference featured a variety of speakers over a period of several days, contrasted with a series of lectures over several months. (An earlier Vocational Conference for women, organized by the Philadelphia Bureau of Occupations for Trained Women at the request of the WSGA, was held in 1924).

In the early 1950s, a new three-part vocational guidance and placement service program was launched, administered for the men by the Alumni Secretary and for the women by the Assistant Dean of Women. The plan entailed enrolling a group of alumni counselors willing to advise students interested in their particular occupation, a series of career conferences featuring representatives from various fields of interest as well as experts in vocational guidance, and a job placement service for seniors and alumni.

Later, the separate women’s and men’s programs were consolidated into a single Career Counseling and Placement Office, today known as the Office of Career Services.