Making Career Decisions

Written by Shawn Bakker

We make career decisions many times in our lives. Choosing a path of study, entering the workforce, changing jobs, and considering how to spend your retirement are all career decisions. What you choose is based on your answer to the question “What is the career for me?” This is not always an easy question to answer. However, if you can break the career decision making process down into manageable steps, identifying desirable career options is much less intimidating.

Step One – Know Yourself
Can you describe what type of person you are? I know that most of us think we can, but I dare you to try it. Make a list of your skills, interests, personal style, and main motivators. Having a firm grasp of who you are, what you like to do, and what you want to get from life will go a long way in finding a satisfying career.

Step Two – Know what is out there
This step involves investigating occupations with the knowledge of yourself gathered in Step One. Based on the skills, interests, values and needs you have identified, what career options appear to be the most suitable? When you are able to identify the kind of tasks and activities you would like to do, it is easy to determine whether a career will fit.

Step Three – Set Goals and Make Decisions
Now that you know more about yourself and have identified some possible career options, you are ready to make some decisions. Gather the facts for each career option and weigh how well each career will satisfy your needs and wants. This is also when you need to consider the realities of the job market and perhaps make compromises as you choose a path to follow.

Step Four – Implement Your Decision
Once you have made a career choice you need to act on it. You may need to acquire new skills and get further training and education. If you already have the required skills you may begin preparing for the job search, and networking job leads. When implementing your decision you may encounter a number of barriers that get in your way. These obstacles can come from yourself (fears of failure, perfectionism, etc) or from your environment (family pressures, economy, etc).

These four steps form the core of career decision making. Following them will reduce your anxiety and give you some measure of confidence in your decisions.

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 If you are interested in more information regarding career decision making, including how some of our instruments can help in this process, please contact us at 1-800-661-5158 or info@psychometrics.com