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By
Briana Keller
Background
The University of Washington has offered 2.5-day Dependable
Strengths workshops since 1996, and has served some 475 participants,
mostly alumni. In December 1998, staff members at the UW Center
for Career Services decided to adapt the DS workshop to create
a special Graduate Student Dependable Strengths Seminar. Four
seminars were conducted during a two-year period (1998-2000),
serving 55 graduate students. The adaptation retained the
basics of the DS approach, which counselors valued for certain
special benefits to graduate students:
- DS provides a safe place to explore career issues (many
grad students feel pressure from mentors to pursue tenure-track
positions at research universities);
-
DS helps grad students realize it’s normal to question
their career paths;
-
DS helps them explore their positive experiences and
qualities (some grad students feel inadequate compared
to their professors);
- DS helps them learn about career paths outside academia.
Current Situation
Enthusiasm for grad-student career programming at the University
of Washington was renewed in September 2004 among several
units on campus. Subsequently, our center started offering
Grad Student DS workshops again in March 2005. I have offered
one seminar each academic term since then with help from other
facilitators, primarily Kate Duttro, who is a career counselor
in the UW School of Marine Affairs and a DS Master Trainer.
Participants
The Graduate Student DS Seminars have been popular with a
diverse group of graduate and professional students. Group
size for our six recent workshops has ranged from 4-16, with
a total of 66 individuals having completed the workshop since
March 2005. Participants have represented both genders, various
levels of graduate study, and more than 30 academic departments.
Adaptation
The traditional 2.5-day DS workshop was adapted in three ways
for the grad student population. First, because most attendees
are still in graduate school, our adaptation emphasizes the
self-exploration pieces of DS, and only highlights some of
the job-search components. For example, participants do not
complete the Job Magnet fieldwork, but are taught how to adapt
the Job Magnet for use during career exploration (as opposed
to job search). Second, our seminar lasts only two days in
order to accommodate grad students’ busy schedules. Third,
our seminar is held on Friday & Monday so participants
have a couple of days to complete their DS Report.
Facilitator Reflections
The facilitators have been pleased with grad students’
response to this new program. For the most part, students
ask good questions, quickly grasp the material, and seem appreciative.
Many participants exude excitement as they come to a more
precise understanding of their unique strengths. On the other
hand, some students seem to get deflated during the seminar.
We think it is disconcerting for participants to realize,
after they’ve spent years in grad school, that perhaps
their discipline or career path is not congruent with their
inherent strengths. Kate Duttro suggests that Winter Wonderland
snow globes provide a good metaphor for this aspect of our
seminar. Before participants come to the seminar, the snow
is on the ground and they can see everything clearly, even
if it is a bit cold. During the seminar, we shake up the snow
globe, everything gets thrown up in the air, and it’s
hard to see. By the end of the seminar, participants are just
starting to see the outline of their potential again but the
snow doesn’t settle for quite a while. The facilitators
have observed that the Grad Student DS Seminars transform
lives, professionally and personally, even if participants
do not come to a complete appreciation of their unique strengths
and excellence until months or years later.
Participant Reflections
At the UW Center for Career Services, we have been improving
our procedures for evaluating outcomes for DS workshops. In
the next issue of DSNews, I will present participants’
evaluations and comments from the final day of their workshop
and from a follow up conducted months later.
Briana K. Keller, PhD, a CDS certified Local Instructor,
is a Career Counselor with the Center for Career Services,
University of Washington, Seattle. For more information on
the UW/CCS Grad Student DS Seminar, please visit http://depts.washington.edu/careers/catalyst/seminar.html.
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