Parsons, SO and DOTS

In Wendy Patton's book detailing the history of career development in Australia (2019), chapter one reviews the roots of the career field. Beginning with Frank Parsons (1909) three step gap analysis model - self-knowledge, occupational knowledge, analyse the gap - it struck me suddenly that these are the first two steps of Tony Watt's DOTS model (Law & Watts, 1977).

The DOTS model is (Law & Watts, 1977): D (decision learning); O (opportunity awareness); T (transition learning); S (self-awareness). DOTS 'should' be reordered as SODT; self, opportunity, decision, transition, which tends to more reflect how we make career decisions (read more on DOTS here). Frank Parson's three step gap analysis is self-knowledge - S - and occupational knowledge - O (1909). Or 'SO':

1. S, self-knowledge. We need “a clear understanding of [ourselves]" (Parsons, 1909, p. 5)
2. O, occupational knowledge. We need to have "a knowledge of the requirements and conditions of success [...] in different lines of work" (p. 5)
3. What are the gaps? Be critical, and consider the "true reasoning on the relations of these two groups of facts” (p. 5).

Parson's gap analysis model (1909) gave us a pseudo-scientific method to guide our occupational choices, cited as "a critical component in the accept[ance] and institutionalization of this new field" of career development (Pope, 2015, p. 4). Further, Tony Watts certainly helped us all by including/defining/codifying D and T: the process of decision-making and in considering how we affect a transition into our chosen field though (Law & Watts, 1977). Life, and life's decisions, are a lot more complicated than when we simply inherited a trade - or the farm - from our parents (Patton, 2019).

In New Zealand DOTS this is called 'SODA' (Careers New Zealand, 2023) and in Australia, 'SODI' (Graduate Careers Australia, 2023):

S	"Self-awareness: Where you become aware of your interests, skills, values and abilities. You work out what lifestyle you want and your career goals."	"Self-awareness – the individual having knowledge about and understanding of their own personal development. Self-awareness in a careers context involves an understanding of the kind of personal resources (both actual and potential) they bring to the world."
O	"Option-awareness: Where you explore different career options and compare them."	"Opportunity awareness – an understanding of the general structures of the world of work, including career possibilities and alternative pathways."
D	"Deciding: Where you choose the best career option based on what you know about yourself and your career exploration."	"Decision making and planning – an understanding of how to make career decisions, and being aware of pressures, influences, styles, consequences and goal setting."
A/I	"Acting and planning: Where you create a plan and take action."	"Implementing plans – having the appropriate skill level in a range of areas to be able to translate job and career planning into reality."

But they are really the same old DOTS (Law & Watts, 1977)... which is also half of Parsons (1909), right back at the beginning of career practice.

Thank you, Wendy Patton, for allowing me to see this with fresh eyes.

Sam

References:

Careers New Zealand. (2023). The SODA model of career planning. https://www.careers.govt.nz/plan-your-career/start-to-plan-or-change-your-career/where-do-i-start/#cID_7143

Graduate Careers Australia. (2023). A Career Planning and Development Model: Using the SODI Model for Self-Assessment. https://www.graduatecareers.com.au/files/content/view/full/372/

Law, B. & Watts, A. G. (1977). Schools, Careers and Community: A study of some approaches to careers education in schools. Church Information Office.

Parsons, F. (1909). Choosing a Vocation. Gay & Hancock Ltd.

Patton, W. (2019). Career Development as a Partner in Nation Building Australia: origins, history, and foundations for the future. Brill Sense.

Pope, M. (2015). Chapter 1 Career intervention: From the industrial to the digital age. In P. J. Hartung, M. L. Savickas, & W. B. Walsh (Eds.) APA handbook of career intervention (Vol. 1, pp. 3–19). American Psychological Association.