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By Byung Ju Cho
 I
want to share a story from one of my students. I teach a career
course in which Good Experiences play an important role. A
senior student with a Life Science major sent an email telling
about his change in behavior. Let me translate his story for
you. In class, I use the term “Achievement Story”
in place of “Good Experience.” I learn from my
student that just starting to think about one’s own
Achievement Stories can spark the hopefulness that can turn
a life around.
“I write to thank you for the ultimate change your
lecture made in my life. I never had an idea to go out and
get a job. I never studied seriously. Instead, I hung around
with friends, drank, chased girls, and dated. I was spending
my time in night cafes and bars. I played cards for money.
The dobakpan [an illegal hidden place for card playing] was
my place. I got GPA warnings twice from the Registrar’s
Office. My current score is 2.8 out of 4.5.
“I enrolled in your course because it looked so easy
to get the credit. I haven’t written the Achievement
Stories, but I began to think about myself. What are my strengths?
What do I enjoy doing? What do I actually do well, and am
proud of? You said getting a job is about using my strengths
to attract a job offer. I thought that was impossible with
my bad GPA and bad English, but knowing the strategy, I started
to gather confidence in me.
“Many of my friends send out resumes everywhere to
get a job. I find that they get nothing. Now that I gave serious
thought to the things I really enjoyed doing and was good
at, I found one thing I really love. That is sports. I’m
a sports addict and a specialist in sports events. In fact,
I know everything happening in the sports world. I habitually
read sports stories. I got the habit when I was little. I
enjoy surfing the sports websites. I looked hard into any
possibility of a future in sports, and I found some leads.
“A job in sports has nothing to do with my major, but
that doesn’t matter. You said the knowledge or skills
we pick up in school will work most of the time only as tools,
and should not be the real thing in getting a job or choosing
a career. A job in sports is not the job of today. It’s
going to become a job. I want to prepare for it and beat my
own path to it. For now, I need to get a bread-winning, temporary
job out of my Life Science major. To make that happen I need
a better GPA.
“With this goal, I start a day very differently. I
get up early in the morning. It’s not hard. And I just
sit down for study. Seeing this, my friends wonder what’s
happening to me. Sitting down for study is not the thing for
me, they say. Whatever they say, I just enjoy my days, every
day. In the past when my friends called me to come out and
play, I rushed to join them. The temptation was too strong
to resist. Now, I turn down the calls. This kind of thing
is happening to me.”
Dr. Byung Ju Cho is professor
of Entrepreneurship and Career at Ajou
University in Suwon, South Korea.
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