In February of 1948, Mr. Glover had made a request to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, one of the five Founder's Societies, for the establishment of a student branch at Cal Poly. J. F. Calvert from Northwestern University and Chairman of the Committee on Student Branches, in March replied that a Student Branch would be established only on a campus where the curriculum in Electrical Engineering is accredited by ECPD. The much younger and less sophisticated organization, the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1947, organizing student branches for the first time (by now the AIEE had 126 student branches) invited the EL&R Department to organize a student branch. This came as a recognition of the outstanding work and curriculum of the department, and as a result of thorough liaison work of Clarence Radius. He had made an in person appeal at the New York headquarters. The IRE had a much broader membership with less stringent membership requirements. The faculty in Electrical Engineering spent much time and effort cultivating influential persons in industry and selling the virtues of its graduating seniors. A high concentration of effort was devoted to Westinghouse and General Electric.
Faculty promotion of the two top EE seniors in 1948 led to an agreement by Westinghouse to interview them at its Los Angeles headquarters. Two faculty coached them in preparation for the interview. On the appointed day, they were interviewed very professionally and with apparent enthusiastic interest on the part of the interviewers. Near the close of the day, Westinghouse made them excellent offers, the same offer they were making to top EE seniors from big name ECPD accredited universities. These two seniors turned and not only declined the offers, but did so with crudeness and rudeness. They denounced Westinghouse and devastated the reputation of their Cal Poly education. It was several years before Westinghouse would interview EE seniors again. It took a lot of faculty and student contacts to win over the company a second time. As for the two 1948 seniors, for one about eighteen months passed before he was employed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company starting as a pole hole digger; and the other, a year later, wrote a letter to the department apologizing, asking forgiveness and stating that Pacific Gas and Electric would, upon the recommendation of the EE Department, employ him as a junior engineer. He was recommended. Maybe the fact these young men were not GI's was significant and affected their attitudes and personal relations.
The experience with General Electric Company turned out quite differently. Faculty contact plus student contact led to the company's offering engineering graduate employment to one senior in 1949. The fact that this student's father was a middle management engineer with the company in Schenectady should not be overlooked. It was impressed on him that he was the first, a test case and that his conduct and performance would determine to a great degree, whether succeeding seniors would have an opportunity with General Electric. He had red hair and the stereotype personality that goes with it. Instead of starting him on one of the standard three month test engineering programs, they gave him a camera and unlimited film and told him to go around the plant taking pictures. He was given no reason nor guidance and never saw the resulting pictures. After about a month he called Warren Anderson in the EE Department in San Luis Obispo and unloaded his frustration. He said he was going crazy. Mr. Anderson told him to hang tough, be pleasant and take pictures with vigor and enthusiasm, and in the process, investigate every building, room and closet in the plant. Further, if he did not break he would eventually be reassigned to the regular program and Cal Poly EE seniors would have an opportunity with the General Electric Company. He passed the test and his life career with General Electric Company took off.
In 1950, the Western recruiter for General Electric on an early visit to the department said the company established an offer quota for each campus from which they recruit. Since Cal Poly was not accredited, there was not a quota for it. It was not even included in the recruitment itinerary.
However, he was very impressed with the students, the practical education they were receiving and the fact that the graduating seniors were doers from day one. He stated he was withholding three offers from the University of California, Los Angeles quota of five. He would hold interviews on campus, make no offers, but would use these three unfilled spots to make offers to a selected three after they were employed elsewhere. This would avoid the illusion of a quota for Cal Poly. In fact, he made arrangements for three other employers to hire them for this precise purpose. In August he lured the first one away from Southern California Edison Company by previous agreement. He has since been recognized as a distinguished engineering alumnus. September was magic time for the second and the third was brought on board by General Electric Company in October. These three young men proved to be top notch and their academic preparation was judged to be very acceptable. General Electric Company's acceptance of Cal Poly's EE program was uncontestedly demonstrated in 1951 when they gave offers to one-third of the graduating seniors (39).
It should be pointed out that 1949-50 was not a year for great promise of employment in engineering. By graduation time in 1950 the EE Department led in the percentage of graduates having secured employment, 95 percent. For the EL&R graduates, the picture was not so rosy, as only 25 percent had secured jobs. That picture changed abruptly, however, with the invasion of Korea, June 25, 1950.