We all face many situations that require making career decisions. Everyone will manage these in their own way, as each career is unique.
It makes sense for each of us to take as much control of our careers as we can. If you are in control you can make your own career plan and decide how to put it into action.
Learning how to make effective career decisions is crucial. It will help you to:
- manage and take control of your career
- adapt to change
- take advantage of career opportunities as they arise.
What’s your decision-making style?
Decision making can be complex. To reach a choice, we need to take account of our current values, interests, skills and preferences. We also need to try to make sense of the information, ideas and impressions coming from the world around us.
How do you make important decisions? You might prefer to work intuitively and according to what feels right. Or you may prefer a rational and ordered step-by-step method. Some people may keep things to themselves, weighing up decisions in their own head. Others will want to involve people they know, gathering and testing out their ideas and thoughts.
Reflect on the career decisions you made when you were selecting your senior subjects at school.
- How certain were you about your next steps?
- How did you go about making your decision?
- Were there any important influences?
- To what extent was it a well-thought through, conscious decision, based on research?
- Did you collect a lot of information and generate a range of options?
3 obstacles to effective decision-making
Making decisions that affect your career can be complex for several reasons.
- The consequences of a decision can be significant. They can be unexpected – there may be things you are unaware of when you make the decision.
- There may be many alternatives, each with its own set of trade-offs and compromises.
- Career decisions can involve complex interpersonal issues arising from the involvement of other people, including our family, partners and friends.
Given these barriers, it’s not surprising that most of us have at some stage made career decisions that weren’t entirely rational and logical. Instead, circumstances and our emotions influenced them.
Good career decisions will depend on your readiness
It’s common for people to try to make career decisions without asking themselves whether they’re feeling ready to do so. Here are some reasons why you may not be ready to make a specific career decision:
- You may lack motivation and feel that given enough time the ‘right’ career choice will ‘just happen’.
- You may be indecisive and confused by decision making in general.
- You may have beliefs and assumptions that aren’t based in reality. For example, ‘I believe there’s only one ideal career for me’ or ‘I only get one chance at making a career decision’.
- You may find it difficult to commit to a specific career choice, fearing that you may miss out on a better option.
- You may find it challenging to balance the importance of your ideas with the importance of other people’s ideas (especially those of people close to you).
Getting ready to make an effective career decision begins with self-awareness. Put some time into reflecting on your decision-making style. What do you need to find out, do or have to make this particular decision? Time? Information? Skills? Commitment? Inspiration? Support? Confidence? Other resources? How might you make, develop or find what you need?
