In this blog post, I’ll share my experience of reflecting on the meaning of self-development—which had been overly focused on building a resume and preparing for a career—through a new experience with theater during my college years, and what I learned about what true self-development really is.
Not long ago, I had a somewhat unique experience during my four years of college, a time I’d spent focused solely on moving forward. I participated in preparing and performing a play with a club I belonged to at university. The club had about 100 members, and the play was designed for the roughly 10 of us to perform for the rest of the group. Even when I had agreed to participate, I didn’t have much enthusiasm or interest in it, and above all, I didn’t think I had any talent for acting. I simply thought, “I need to do something during this break that will help my future self, but now I have one more thing to do on top of that.”
Even today, not many people would have much to say if they heard that I felt my time was being taken away by preparing for the play. While some might point out that I was living life too starkly or that I was only thinking of myself, it has become quite common to see college students investing their free time in activities they believe will contribute to their personal growth—especially those they think will benefit their future selves. We often refer to these activities as “self-development.” In the past, acquiring qualifications—such as language test scores or professional certifications—that added another line to a resume was often seen as the quintessential form of self-development. Today, this has expanded to include practical experience such as job-related training, projects, internships, competitions, and portfolios. In the current job market, in particular, there is a growing trend toward prioritizing job-related experience and skills rather than merely quantitative qualifications. Given that young people still face difficulties in the job search process, it is entirely understandable that college students and job seekers are actively investing their time in preparing for the future. Considering this trend, it is difficult to easily criticize the attitude of “I will primarily use my time for myself.”
As my thoughts turned to this, I found myself asking a few questions. The “they” I’m referring to here certainly includes myself. What are college students actually doing? And can we derive the meaning of “self-development” from the various activities they engage in? Among the activities college students engage in, there are quite a few that can be listed on resumes, personal statements, or portfolios. Examples include learning a foreign language, preparing for certification exams, participating in volunteer work or extracurricular activities, taking job-related courses or internships, and producing project outcomes. Viewed from this perspective, the “self-development” we commonly think of can be described as activities that help advance a future career path that has already been somewhat defined.
Among these, some activities are aimed at acquiring the skills needed for one’s future career, while others are designed to meet the requirements for entering a specific organization or field in pursuit of a desired career path. For example, a college student dreaming of studying abroad would likely seek to develop foreign language proficiency as a competency necessary for academic and daily life. On the other hand, if the school, company, or institution they plan to apply to requires a certain level of certified language proficiency or specific qualifications, they may study to meet those standards. Even though both involve studying a foreign language, the purposes differ slightly: one is aimed at developing actual communication and academic skills, while the other is aimed at meeting specific application requirements or evaluation criteria.
Activities like the latter were once commonly referred to as “building up one’s credentials.” It is worth considering whether it is appropriate to label all such activities as “self-development.” In the past, South Korea’s employment culture widely relied on factors that were relatively easy to quantify or document—such as language test scores, certifications, and volunteer experience—as criteria for comparing applicants. However, there is now a growing recognition that it is difficult to judge an applicant’s actual capabilities based solely on these conditions, and there is a strengthening trend toward evaluating candidates based on education, experience, career history, and abilities directly related to the job. The National Competency Standards (NCS) also systematize the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for performing job duties in the workplace, and in the context of fair hiring, they recommend structuring application forms around education, training, certifications, and experience directly related to the job. Therefore, the significance of scores on standardized language tests like the TOEIC, volunteer experience, and various certifications may vary depending on how they relate to the actual job or the purpose of the application. These factors do not always accurately reflect practical competence in a specific field. Nevertheless, in the past, such records were often accepted as evidence that the applicant had set specific goals and invested time in achieving them. Consequently, evaluators used them as a benchmark for comparison, and college students, in turn, often felt a sense of satisfaction as they met these criteria one by one, believing they were making progress. They took pride in strictly managing their time according to a plan and believed that filling their resumes with the experiences and achievements they had accumulated in this way would eventually lead to positive outcomes.
In comparison, there are activities that seem to fit the term “self-development” a bit better. For example, a student who has set their career path in marketing might participate in related contests or projects, or a student aspiring to become a software specialist might try their hand at creating applications or programs. Today, such projects and practical experience often serve as a means of showcasing one’s portfolio or job competencies. In fact, current job-focused hiring practices place a strong emphasis on the skills and relevant experience necessary to perform the job. Although the forms may differ, people strive to keep moving forward on the path they are currently walking. To illuminate that path a little more and to develop their own unique strengths even while competing with others on the same path, many college students and job seekers in South Korea are constantly working to improve themselves.
After reflecting on “self-development” in this way, I looked up the meanings of the terms “self-development” and “self-cultivation.” While the two expressions are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday language, there is a difference in their focus. The National Institute of the Korean Language defines “self-development” as the process of improving one’s skills or abilities, and “self-cultivation” as the process of awakening one’s latent wisdom, talents, and ideas. This definition differed slightly from my earlier understanding of self-development. If we follow this definition, wouldn’t it be fair to say that self-development isn’t just about cultivating skills that help one pursue a predetermined career path, but also about discovering latent talents or potentials that one isn’t even aware of yet? In other words, it is not merely a matter of paving the path I am already walking more effectively, but rather a process of discovering new paths I might choose to walk in the future. There is no immediate need to determine which of the two is ultimately the more valuable investment in a person’s life. However, self-development in this sense can take place in a slightly different way from the activities mentioned earlier—it can occur even through the process of taking on challenges in unfamiliar fields and gaining diverse experiences.
When the team members first gathered for theater rehearsals, our situation was quite bleak. The team consisted of students from various majors; while there were a few talented individuals among them, most had never acted before. Moreover, the team members who were somewhat introverted—myself included—often displayed such clumsiness in their gestures, facial expressions, and vocal projection that even we found it laughable. After that day’s rehearsal ended and we went our separate ways, there were probably a few team members who thought, “Wouldn’t it be better to just scrap this plan?”
But perhaps it was because I took the time to reflect deeply on “self-development”—something I had been so absorbed in—and began to think about the true meaning of those words in a new light. At first, I thought, “This play is taking up too much of my time,” but as the weeks went by, I decided I wanted to pour my passion into helping this theater troupe successfully complete the performance. For about a month and a half, I practiced almost every day without fail and never missed the weekly practice sessions.
At every rehearsal, I received feedback from the senior student serving as the team’s artistic director, along with specific advice on what areas needed improvement and the most effective ways to practice. Through that process, I gradually learned to humbly accept others’ critiques as needed. I also realized that I couldn’t just focus on my own role; I had to adapt myself to the acting styles of my fellow performers and the overall flow of the production. This went beyond simply being a beginner in acting—it became a new experience for me. And the greatest source of strength in maintaining that mindset was the sincere praise I received from my teammates. Every time I heard that I had changed for the better compared to the beginning, I felt motivated to try even harder. Fortunately, it seemed the other team members felt the same way. After a month and a half, the team had improved so much that it was hard to compare it to how we started, and in the end, we were able to successfully complete the play.
Even as a senior in high school, I believed that the effort I put in now would shape my future for a long time to come, and I felt I had to devote even a little more time to studying than others. Even after entering college, that mindset didn’t change much. I believed that the more time I invested in “self-improvement,” the further ahead I’d be at the starting line compared to others when I graduated. However, this experience was almost the first time I’d ever stepped outside that frame of thinking. This is because, instead of studying for language test scores or certifications—which I thought would immediately boost my competitiveness in the job market—I spent a significant portion of my break on theater rehearsals, the value of which, as a single line on my resume, I couldn’t even be sure would be recognized.
It is certainly important to prepare for a career, build professional competencies, and plan for one’s future while in college. Especially when graduation is approaching, it becomes even harder to ignore practical preparations. Still, I question whether self-development should be defined solely as meeting the requirements for a predetermined path. The path a person has taken so far is often determined by choices made before they’ve had time to gain sufficient experience, and it’s heavily influenced by family, peers, educational environments, and social norms. Even if one’s latent talents or interests lie hidden in a completely different field, the thought, “This is what I’ve been doing so far,” might prevent one from even creating an opportunity to discover them. Perhaps college is not only a time to learn how to run a little faster along a predetermined path but also a rare period to explore what kind of path one truly wants to walk. If I were given the chance to relive my college years, I would gladly invest time not only in activities directly related to my future career but also in trying out a variety of experiences—regardless of whether those experiences ultimately prove to be of great help to me later in life. This is because discovering possibilities I hadn’t yet realized and taking a step back from the version of myself I’m accustomed to are, in themselves, forms of self-development that are well worth the effort.
