making career decisions

By Shawn Bakker

Throughout our lives we make a number of career decisions. Whether entering the workforce, deciding on where to go to school, or changing jobs, what we choose to pursue is based on our answer to the question “What’s the career for me?” As many of us are well aware, this is not always an easy question to answer. Yet, if we break the career decision making process down into steps, coming up with acceptable career options is much less intimidating. I have outlined the four steps that anyone making a career decision should take.

Step One – Know Thyself

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. Are you able to come up with a good description of yourself, or does it seem rather thin? 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 something satisfying.

Step Two – Check out the World of Work

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

Having increased your self-awareness and gathered information about possible career opportunities, you need to put everything into context and make a decision. This step involves gathering the facts for each career option and weighing 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. 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