| After you have completed your
self assessment and have explored career options you should be ready for the next step in
the career development process - career decision making. Career decisions should
draw from your personal convictions and the facts gathered in the exploration
process. Once a perspective is gained, decisions can allow you to focus on a
direction closely tied to your interests, create a career objective, and target specific
organizations for employment or continued education. In choosing a satisfying career, many decisions need to be made. What
can I do? What do I like? What do I value? etc.
Some people find it very difficult to make some of these
decisions. When that is the case, it is important to recognize the problem and
determine what barrier might be blocking the decision.
It might help to ask yourself the following questions:
1. Do I know what I value?
2. Do I know what my priorities are?
3. Do I have all the information I need to make the
decision?
4. Have I thought about the outcomes or consequences of
the decision?
5. Am I willing to take the responsibility for the
decision I make?
6. Am I willing to take the risk?
7. Am I willing to evaluate the outcome of the decision
and make another if necessary?
If the answer is no to one or more of the above, that is
the area(s) where you may have a barrier and where you may need to work to remove the
barrier.
A decision is made in a place in time. Life changes
and you change. New decisions may have to be made.
Don't be afraid to make a decision because you think it
is forever. You can only make the best decision for who you are and what is
happening at the time.
Steps in the Decision Making Process
1. Identify the decision to be made.
2. Gather information.
3. Identify the alternatives.
4. Weigh the evidence (identify possible outcomes and
risks associated with each alternative).
5. Choose among alternatives.
6. Plan and take action.
7. Review the decision (analyze and evaluate the
results).
NOTE: Steps 4-7 are often repeated several times to
continue narrowing choices.
Decision Making Styles
1. Intuitive: It feels right.
2. Planning: Using a procedure so that the end result is
satisfying, a rational approach with a balance between cognitive and emotional weighing of
the facts.
3. Impulsive: Little thought or examination, taking the
first alternative.
4. Delaying: Postponing thought and action.
5. Fatalistic: Letting something else decide, leaving it
up to fate.
6. Dependent: Let someone else decide, following someone
else's plans.
__________________________________________
For more information, please contact:
Career
Services Network
Olivet College
Mott
208
Olivet, MI 49076
Phone:
(269)749-7129
Fax:(269)749-7684
web@olivetcollege.edu
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