Vocational guidance

Parsons was a social reformer, lawyer, and lecturer who had spent decades working on behalf of the poor. Born in Mount Holly, New Jersey in 1854, he studied engineering at Cornell, lost his first job in the depression of 1873, taught art and literature in public schools, passed the Massachusetts bar, and lectured at Boston University School of Law for over a decade. His occupational odyssey gave him an intimate understanding of how haphazard career decisions could be.

At the Civic Service House, Parsons had been giving lectures on vocational choice to young people in Boston's immigrant communities. In 1905, he and Ralph Albertson founded the Breadwinner's Institute, offering courses that led to a two-year diploma. Meyer Bloomfield, a social worker, convinced Parsons to formalize his approach. With funding from philanthropist Pauline Agassiz Shaw, the Vocation Bureau opened its doors on January 13, 1908. In its first four months, the bureau served eighty young men and women between the ages of fifteen and thirty-nine.

Parsons' method, published posthumously in Choosing a Vocation in 1909, rested on three steps: a clear understanding of yourself, your aptitudes, abilities, and interests; knowledge of the requirements and conditions of different lines of work; and true reasoning on the relations between these two groups of facts. This trait-and-factor model became the foundation of career counseling and led to the development of psychometric testing, aptitude assessments, and the entire infrastructure of career services that universities maintain today.

The National Vocational Guidance Association was founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1913, five years after Parsons' death. The field he created was a direct response to the industrial economy's demand for sorted, slotted workers. Parsons intended vocational guidance as a tool of social justice, helping immigrants and the underprivileged navigate a system designed without them in mind.