VOCATIONAL INTERESTS AND SUCCESS OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS.

BASED on one of mankind's most significant technological developments, the electronic computer, data processing is a rapidly growing and already important occupation. Because it is so new, data processing is not a well-known field and has not acquired the popular stereotype that many other occupations have. Although such popular conceptions of occupations are frequently inadequate as grounds for vocational choice, the data-processing field lacks even this much reality for many people. Consequently, a measure that can be used to direct the attention of qualified persons to the data-processing field should be especially valuable in counseling, guidance, and recruiting. During 1964 and 1965, therefore, a project was conducted for the purposes of describing the vocational interests of computer programmers and developing a scoring key to measure those interests (Perry & Cannon, 1967). This paper describes the relationships of scores on the new programmer interest key and other Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) keys to measures of satisfaction and achievement among programmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]