16 Career Decision Making
Dawn Forrester and Eden Isenstein
Career Decision-Making
Decision-making is a key component in choosing a career and it is often a difficult process for people. Most of us were not given much education or guidance on how to make a decision and therefore we often rely on habits we have built that may or may not support our best interests. The following are some reflection questions to get us started as we work to increase self-awareness and increase decision-making skills.
- How do you typically make decisions?
- Are they wise ones?
- Are they well thought out and researched, or are they impulsive?
- Are you often happy with the outcomes of your decisions?
- Do you tend to do what your parents, your partner, or others want you to do?
- Do you procrastinate because you have a hard time making decisions?
- Have you chosen jobs or careers because they sounded good or because you just had to pay the bills?
The decision you are faced with now (what to study and what career to pursue) is really a BIG one! You are investing time, money, and energy to get your degree. So, let’s talk about how to be thoughtful with this decision. Take your time. Don’t rush. Don’t choose a career out of frustration or because you feel rushed. If you haven’t made a decision at the end of this class, that’s ok. That just means that you need more time (or information) and that you are willing to spend additional time doing research and contemplating your choices.
Decision-making can be reliable if you consider the following principles.
- Big decisions should be supported by big research, thorough analysis, time well spent in consideration, and thoughtful planning.
- After all that research, analysis and planning, however, we do need to consider our intuition and gut feelings as well!
- They say that career decision should be made with a combination of both: research, weighing pros and cons, and being rational PLUS feelings, intuition and for some folks, spiritual guidance as well!
Before you read on about the types of decision-makers watch a video on why it is hard to make hard choices. The speaker, Ruth Chang, is a philosopher who was once a lawyer – she knows about making challenging decisions! She discusses the reasons why it is hard to make difficult decisions such as, neither option is better than the other and that sometimes there is no best option, all are equal. She goes on to suggest that we have the power to create the reasons for choosing one thing over another. Thus, we become the ‘authors of our own lives’ since the reasons we choose thing one over thing two is because the reason came from within us, not from outside of us. Click here to watch the video: Ruth Chang | How To Make Hard Choices
There is no one right way to make a decision however researchers have come up with several models that are supported by organizational behavior research. Once you review the decision-making approaches below
Decision Making Approaches
Planning – weighing the facts – considering values, objectives, necessary information, alternatives, and consequences, a rational approach with a balance between thinking and feeling.
Impulsive – don’t look before you leap – little thought or examination, taking the first available alternative
Intuitive – it just feels right – automatic, preconscious choice based on inner harmony
Compliant – ill do what you say – nonassertive, letting someone else decide, following someone else’s plan
Delaying – cross that bridge later – procrastination, avoidance, hoping someone or something will happen to avoid making a decision, postponing though and actions
Fatalistic – it’s all in the cards, what’s meant for me is meant for me – what will be will be, letting the environment decide, leaving it up to fate
Agonizing – what if? I don’t know what to do, I can’t make a decision – worrying that a decision will be the wrong one, getting lost in all the data, overwhelmed by alternatives
Paralytic – can’t face up to it – one step further than what if, complete indecision and fear, accepting responsibility but being unable to act on it
Defaulting – playing it safe – choosing the alternative with the lowest level of risk
Often we use different strategies in different situations
- I might use the “intuitive” strategy to choose my career
- I might use the “impulsive” strategy to choose where I want to eat for dinner
- I might use the “agonizing” strategy to make other major life decisions
Regardless of strategy, the goal is to be intentional about our decision-making, and evaluate the effectiveness of our decision-making strategy so that with each decision we become better decision-makers
The UC Berkeley Career Center resources below add the pros and cons model of decision-making and include worksheets. It could be useful to create a pros and cons list for each of the careers you are considering. There is a worksheet you can use to list your values or priorities that are important for you to have in a career and in life, and then compare the three top careers you are considering. You can create your own form and use it to compare 10 careers if you want! Finally, there is also a link to a visualization exercise which is an excellent way to consider careers (not to be used on its own, of course). ,
Using all of these strategies in conjunction with a more linear, step-by-step process could be really helpful.
Career Decision-Making Resources
Career decision-making is a complex and personal process. Just as you decided which college to attend, what classes to take, and where to live, selecting your initial career direction involves researching and evaluating many factors of importance to you.
Decision Making Tools
Pros & Cons Model: Decision-Making Worksheet
Use the Career Center’s Pros & Cons Table (PDF) to help you evaluate both the positive and potentially negative outcomes of your impending decision.
Visualization Exercise
If you are more of an intuitive decision-maker, you may prefer this imaginative Visualization Exercise. You might have a friend or a Career Counselor lead you through the visualization, or you may just want to read it and imagine on your own.
Source:
UC Berkeley Career Center. (n.d.) Career Decision-Making. https://career.berkeley.edu/start-exploring/career-essentials/gain-clarity/decision-making/
Recognizing that making a career decision is a big, important and sometimes challenging prospect, consider meeting with a Career Advisor who can offer support and help you with your process.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- Think about a past decision that you made that ended in a positive outcome. What was your process?
- Think of a past decision that you made where the outcome was not positive. What was your process in this case?
- How confident are you when it comes to making decisions?
- Have you ever used any negative decision-making strategies such as delaying, complying with others, or being impulsive? What was the outcome of that decision?
- What did you learn from the lesson that will help you make this career and/or college major decision more productive?
- Can you identify the decision-making steps that you think will work best for you in this process?
