Toward a new vocational interest scale for computer programmers—a procedural report

With the growth of the computing industry, and its promise for assuming even greater significance in the future, almost every computer installation is feeling new demands for doing a better job of selecting for employment the best possible computer programmers. In response to this need, many individual computer installations are working independently, with relatively limited resources, toward developing their own methods for quickly finding potentially good programmers. These independent efforts may be useful in developing guidelines for selecting programmers in the individual installations, but there are some factors which require a more broadly based research effort. One such factor is vocational interest.

Measurement of vocational interests is a well established and firmly founded technique, which has proven highly valuable for counseling and personnel selection.