Making career decisions (general information about what this involves)
A decision making process (an example process that may help you make your decision)
Option evaluation techniques (some examples of other ways of making decisions)
Further resources (resources available at the University Careers Service's ClockTower Centre to help you with decision making)
Making career decisions
Some decisions have a big influence on your life and so it is natural to feel nervous that if you pick incorrectly you will end up feeling unhappy. Examples of these types of decisions include choosing a major, deciding between work or further study or determining what you want to do with your life. Some things can get in the way:- Lack of knowledge of the options open to you and lack of awareness of your strengths and weaknesses
- Belief that there is a perfect career out there. In fact, no one career path is perfect; knowledge can help you find work that satisfies most of your requirements
- Belief that any decision you make is 100% binding and must be 'correct'. Few decisions are 100% irreversible and we are likely to make new career decisions throughout our lives. Also, none of us can predict the future and no one can control outside forces.
A decision making process
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Identify your Options What are the choices you have to make? E.g. what career path am I considering? What other options are there? You may want to talk to a Careers Consultant and/or do some research to check this out. |
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Gather information on your options and yourself 1. Examine the information and resources you already have. Seek out new information to fill any gaps. 2. Develop a real understanding of yourself - what are your skills, interests, values, personal qualities, strengths and weaknesses? See the 'Assessing and Developing your Skills and Interests' and 'Identify your Career Options' Information Sheets for ideas on how to do this. |
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Evaluate Options Use one or more of the evaluation techniques described overleaf. If it helps, discuss your options with another person e.g. a Careers Consultant. |
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Select one of the Options Based on the information you have gathered and analysed, select the best option. If you do not have enough information to choose one option over another, you may need to do more research. You may wish to identify your best alternatives too: your Plan A, B and C. |
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Make a Plan and Implement the Decision Identify what information or resources you need to follow through on your decision. Identify possible obstacles to implementing your decision and plan to overcome them. Try not to worry about your decision: if you have fully assessed the situation and all possible outcomes, you have nothing to fear. Whichever option you take, there will be benefits: new experiences, opportunities to find out more about who you are and what you want. |
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Review the Decision Reflect on how you made your decision and how successful the outcome was. Think about how you can use what you learned when making future decisions. |
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Talk to a Careers Consultant for help with any part of this process. |
Option evaluation techniques
Pros and Cons Method Considering all the information you have gathered about your options and yourself:- Write down all the reasons you can think of in favour of a particular option (pro).
- Write down all the reasons against that option (con).
- Assign a score to each reason (pro and con) on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the strongest.
- Add up the scores and compare the results.
- If the cons win, make a list of alternatives to the decision. One of those may jump out as the preferred option. Otherwise, you can then repeat the exercise for each alternative.
Values analysis
Start by thinking about your values, what's most important to you in your life and in work. Do you want to spend time helping others, developing expertise, making money, working in a team etc? The Careers Centre can help you identify your values through a range of activities. Then, measure your options against your values. Which option(s) will most closely match your values?The "What If…" approach
Imagine that you have decided on one of the options before you. Work through the option (e.g. "What if I decided to do post grad study?"), imagine you have taken that decision and imagine the consequences. How do you feel about that decision? Do you feel excited, relieved, regretful, happy, sad? Is your body tense, relaxed? You could rank each response on a 1 - 5 scale to indicate how significant they are to you. Then imagine that you have decided on one of the other options and imagine the consequences. Our feelings can give us strong clues about which decision is right for us.Creative decision making
A career is an evolving process, and in our rapidly changing world an ability to be flexible about decisions and positive about uncertainty are valuable skills. This approach encourages you to accept that uncertainty is real and a positive part of decision making. Becoming too focused on a particular decision early on can prevent you from seeing other possibilities. A way to use this approach is to divide a sheet of paper into four quarters with headings Short Term Positive, Short Term Negative, Long Term Positive and Long Term Negative. For each option you are considering write down all the possible outcomes you can think of under each heading, however unlikely they may be. Then ask yourself "'What else could I do and what else could happen?".Further resources
Information sheets (available at the University Careers Service):
Assessing and Developing your Skills and InterestsIdentify your Career Options
Selected books and resources (available in the University Careers Service):
- Manthei, Marjorie. (1990). Decisively me : a guide to effective decision-making.
Auckland : Heinmann Reed. - Bolles, Richard Nelson. (2007). The 2007 what color is my parachute? a practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers.
Berkeley : Ten Speed Press. - Jeffers, Susan. (1992). Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Carlsbad , CA : Hay House. - University of Berkeley Careers Centre. Decision making worksheet. http://career.berkeley.edu/Plan/DecisionMakingWorksheet.pdf (a worksheet which compares options against your values).
