Some Observations on Recruitment in Sociology

The manpower shortage in sociol has created a seller's market in which only a few of the larger dept's of top-ranking U's are able to staff their programs adequately. Not only are the young sociol'ts looking for the highest personal & professional rewards, but their training instit's & dept's are trying to place them in those positions that will reflect most favorably upon the training instit or dept. As a consequence, recruitment problems increase directly with instit'al inability to satisfy the expectations of prospective candidates & inversely with the degree of professionalization of sociol dept's. Prospective candidates are as aware of their advantaged position in the market place as recruiting officers are familiar with their recruiting & staffing problems. Solutions to these problems, however, are not so obvious. Until more sociol'ts can be recruited & trained, the problems of recruitment may be constructively dealt with by viewing them as problems of the profession rather than as problems of specific instit's & org's. It is suggested that the Amer Sociol'al Assoc & its affiliated regional societies, through their committees on the profession, make concerted efforts (1) to recruit & train more sociol'ts, (2) to decrease the degree of professional sociol'al distance between sociol dept's, & (3) to increase the degree of professionalization of smaller, less developed sociol dept's. Specific suggestions are offered for attaining these 3 interrelated objectives. AA.