Qualifications
The necessary qualifications are simple for the clerk who is to handle figure work with a calculating machine. He should have a fair mental equipment with at least a common school education. A high school or business school course will be an advantage. He should also possess a natural liking for arithmetic. The full use of one hand, preferably the right, is essential to success in operating such a machine.
Training Required and Length of Course
To operate any key-driven type of machine speedily and accurately one must devote considerable time to intelligent practice. The process is not unlike that of learning to operate the typewriter. In the operation of this type of machine both hands will be required for the manipulation of the 81 keys. An intensive course of from 10 to 12 weeks is required to develop the necessary manual skill and master the special rules for performing the various mathematical calculations.
On the crank-operated calculating machine, all work is direct, i. e., all operations are handled exactly as they are handled with paper and pencil so far as rules are concerned. Anyone who can handle a pencil can readily operate this type of calculating machine. Speed and accuracy on this type of machine are largely independent of manual skill on the part of the operator. One who possesses a good common school education and some aptitude for arithmetic will need only two or three weeks of practice in order to handle successfully all figure work in the average office. Such machines have an unlimited range in practical work, handling such work as estimating, engineering problems, and statistics.
Other Office Machines
Much important printing and duplicating are done on privately-owned machines, and skillful operators are always in demand for this work. Such an occupation may appeal to the man whose handicap makes him shrink from continual contact with the public, and who has his hands and fairly good general health.
Salaries are not large, usually from $10 to $15 a week and there is no natural line of promotion leading to more responsible positions. However, skill in this work, combined with a little capital, may enable a man to establish an independent business of his own by purchasing the necessary machines and advertising to do work for the general public.
Short unit courses of from 6 to 10 weeks will suffice to acquire the requisite manipulative skill for this work.
Where there are no schools giving instruction for this occupation arrangements can be made for securing training as an apprentice in the factory of the manufacturers, or in the offices of firms equipped to do this work for themselves, the training being under the direction of the Federal Board for Vocational Education.
Employment opportunities will be found only in the larger cities. However, an independent business may be established even in comparatively small towns.
The above statements regarding duplicating machine work apply to the operation of the addressograph and similar office devices, such as the Hollerith machine card puncher, the photostat, and the tabulating machine.
PLAN No. 1085. STENOGRAPHY
No less important than bookkeeping is stenography with its exceptional record for serving as a medium through which men may advance to high grade executive positions. Stenographic work requires somewhat more physical activity than does bookkeeping, but a skillful male stenographer, though somewhat physically disabled may count on employment owing to a constant demand that has never been fully met. In no other occupation is one thrown into such constant and close contact with the business executive to whose advantage it is to promote an employee who has shown capacity for more important and profitable work. As a stepping stone to big things a stenographic position has no rival in the list of business occupations.
Many prominent men might be named who owe their success to some extent to their ability to write shorthand. The list includes men high in official positions, and prominent railroad executives who have reached their high positions, through stenographic work. Their success gives conclusive evidence of the importance of this kind of training. In other lines, also as for example, in iron and steel, insurance, powder, electricity, and in fact right down the line of big business in America bright young men have, because they were shorthand writers, had the chance to go to school to the best teachers of the business in the world, i. e., the executive heads of their respective concerns. And instead of having to pay handsomely for their instruction, they received good salaries while they were learning and preparing to step up higher.
Qualifications and Training Required
Taking character for granted, the necessary qualifications for amanuensis and secretarial work are:
Good general health, eyesight, and hearing. Ambition, enthusiasm, self-reliance, and determination. A mind of at least average activity and alertness, improved by a thorough high school education or its equivalent.
Training in English to the extent of becoming proficient in spelling and punctuation, and acquiring a good working vocabulary.
Ability to speak and write with a fair degree of fluency.
A knowledge of the more common business papers, forms, and customs.
Accuracy and reasonable facility in the use of figures; familiarity with the simpler methods of bookkeeping; and ability to write a presentable hand.
For the broader field of professional shorthand reporting, the requirements are more exacting.
The time required to master shorthand for amanuensis or secretarial work is from seven to twelve months; for professional reporting, from one to two years, during a considerable part of which time the learner is usually able to earn a comfortable salary while pursuing his course in advance shorthand.
Where Training May Be Secured
A number of good private business schools, located so as to be convenient for those taking courses, are prepared to give any training required under arrangements made by the Federal Board for Vocational Education.
Salary Possibilities
The salaries paid to amanuenses and private secretaries range from $1,200 to $5,000 a year. Shorthand reporters, in law courts and elsewhere, earn from $2,000 to $10,000 a year.