BJ, how did
you come to know about Dependable Strengths?
Through Richard
Nelson Bolles’s
book “ What Color Is Your Parachute?". This
book gave a Sampler list of counselors or places in
the Appendix, which included
something on DS training activities in the area of Seattle,
WA. I then searched the internet (UW web site) and noted
the class on the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process
to be held on certain dates. I registered and took the
January 2001 class – Bernard Haldane, Jean Haldane
and Allen Brown were the trainers. It was a 5-Day Instructor
Training.
How are you currently using DS in South Korea?
I use Dependable Strengths in
my class – “Career
Design and Job Creation”, with university students,
ages 20-27 years. I use DS to help the students find their
composite career-related strengths. I find that DS is
a very powerful and extremely useful concept for the students
to find their own unique strengths to apply for jobs and
career design. I actually use the term ‘Strengths’ instead
of ‘Dependable Strengths’ for ease of translation.
I encourage my students to write at least seven (7) achievement
stories, which are called Sungchi Yiyagi in our language.
And I show my students how the Dependable Strengths are
made up of emphasizing natural abilities as talents, interests
and temperament. Knowledge, skills and career values are
included as well in the model, but transferability of strengths
will be the point of discussion. I encourage students to
use the Dependable Strengths Report for asking about job
leads. I term the DS Report as One-page Business Card every
job seeker should keep.
What are your future plans for using DS?
I would like to continue
to use the concept but in much simpler ways. Students
usually struggle to look
for achievement experiences out of their lives. They also
find it is not that easy to write up the good experiences,
as they should. This is partly because many in my country
are not trained well to write. They continue to say that
it is not easy again to detect the patterns of motivated
strengths. So I need to simplify the process and make it
easier for them to get into.
What is your personal opinion of DS?
I highly value the concept
because it works, even when applied to students in different
settings and cultures.
It is a treasure.
What is it that you particularly value about DS?
While writing their good experiences,
students start to realize themselves, and begin to see
who they are. They
also change their way of seeing other people; they see
people as different rather than directly competitive. Another
good thing about DS is that it reveals the essence of the
personal statement, which is a necessity for getting a
job in Korea. It definitely strengthens the power of interviewing,
too. That fascinates me.
And on a parting note,
BJ went on to say,
“ This is
my very first time to be interviewed in the U.S. I
never expected to have a call from Dependable Strengths
for the e-newsletter… I am honored."
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