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Rutgers Online Career Planning > Make a Decision

Make a Decision

Decisions, decisions, decisions! Now that you have finished with your self-assessment and career exploration activities, it is time for you to narrow down your options and make a decision.

This can be an intimidating task. Sometimes decisions can be as easy as choosing a TV channel or picking a flavor of ice cream. These decisions have little impact on the way you live your life. Other decisions have a bigger influence on your life and so you may be hesitant to decide, feeling nervous that if you pick incorrectly you will end up feeling unhappy. Examples of these types of decisions include choosing a spouse or determining what you want to do with your life in regards to work.

Let's look at decision-making styles, tasks associated with the decision-making process, and some career myths that can interfere with effective decision making when it comes to selecting a major or choosing a career.

WHAT KIND OF A DECISION MAKER ARE YOU?

Decision-Making Styles

Not all individuals approach decision making in the same manner. There are different styles of decision making. There are "Inner Reliant" decision makers who take responsibility for their decisions and "Outer Reliant" decision makers who try and transfer the responsibility to others for their decisions. The following list identifies a number of different decision-making styles. As each of these styles is described, decide whether that style is "inner reliant" or "outer reliant." Examine your own style of decision making.

Impulsive Decider
One who takes the first alternative that is presented: "Decide now; think later. Don't look before you leap."
Fatalistic Decider
One who leaves the resolution of the decision up to the environment or fate: "Whatever will be will be."
Compliant Decider
One who goes along with someone else's plan rather than making an independent decision, especially when that plan doesn't agree with one's own beliefs: "If it's OK with you, it's OK with me." "Anything you say."
Delaying Decider
One who delays thought and action on a problem: "I'll think about it later."
Agonizing Decider
One who spends much time and thought in gathering data and analyzing alternatives only to get lost amidst the data gathered: "I can't make up my mind. I don't know what to do."
Intuitive Decider
One who decides based on what is felt, but cannot be verbalized: "It feels right."
Paralytic Decider
One who accepts the responsibility for decisions, but is unable to do much toward approaching it: "I know I should, but I just can't get with it. I can't face up to it."
Escapist Decider
One who avoids a decision or makes up an answer to end the discussion. For example, if asked by a relative about a college major, this type (although still undecided, but considering teaching), would respond, "I'm thinking about pre-med." This allows the escapist to give a socially acceptable answer without taking responsibility.
Play-it-Safe Decider
One who almost always picks the alternative with the perceived lowest level of risk: "I like anthropology, but I can get a job in accounting."
Planner
One whose strategy is based on a rational approach with some balance between the cognitive and emotional: "I am the captain of my fate; I am the master of my soul."

(Dinklage, as referenced by Brigham Young University Counseling and Career Center)

If you are currently satisfied with your style, then congratulations! If you feel a need to make some changes, now is the time to begin. For example, the next time you are asked, "What would you like to do?," offer your opinion rather than avoiding a commitment. Ultimately, making decisions and taking a stand are ways of forming and establishing an identity. Whenever you make statements about yourself (e.g. "I am majoring in nursing or I am joining the Peace Corps"), you define yourself for you and others.

Whether choosing a major, career path or deciding what to do about a job offer, the following 7-step Career Decision-Making Model will help give you structure while working through your decision.

Career Decision-Making Model

Step 1: Identify the Decision to be Made

Before you begin gathering information, it is important that you have a clear understanding of what it is you are trying to decide. Some decisions you might be facing could include:

What will I choose for a college major?
What do I want to do after graduation?

Step 2: Know Yourself (Self Assessment)

Before you begin exploring college majors and careers which will prove satisfying, you must first develop a true understanding of yourself: your skills, interests, values, and personality characteristics. Questions you may want to ask yourself are:

Skills

What are my strengths and weaknesses?
What skills do I need to acquire?

Interests

What am I interested in doing?
What activities have I enjoyed the most?

Values

What is important to me in a career?
In what ways must I be challenged and rewarded?

Personality

What personal qualities do I possess that will help me in the classroom?
How will my personal style influence my career choice?

In the self-assessment section of this website, you learned about your interests, skills, and values. We encourage you to meet with a career counselor to further explore these dimensions and how they relate to your academic and career plans.

Step 3: Begin Identifying Options (Career Exploration)

To continue gathering information and researching careers, you will need to start identifying options. Questions you might ask yourself are:

At this point in time, what college majors and career paths am I considering?
What other types of options am I considering?

In the Generate Options section of this website, you identified Rutgers University majors and/or career options which related to your interests and skills.

Step 4: Gather Information and Data

If you completed the first three steps, you should have a list of majors and careers that you plan to explore and research in more depth. You will now:

Examine the information and resources you already have.
Seek out and utilize new information.

In the Gather Information section of this website, you found many links which provided information on Rutgers University majors and/or career options which related to your interests, skills, and values.

Step 5: Evaluate Options

If you have completed your career research, you are now ready to evaluate each of the options you have identified:

Identify the pros and cons of each college major or career.
Explore how each major or career relates to your interests, skills, and values.
Project the probable future consequences of each major or career choice.

Step 6: Select One of the Options

Based on the information you have gathered and analyzed, you should now be able to choose one of the options.

Do you have enough information to choose one option over another? If not, you might need to do more research.

Step 7: Make a Plan and Implement the Decision

Having chosen one of the options, you can begin developing a plan of action. Ask yourself:

What information or resources do you need to follow through on your decision?
What are the obstacles to implementing your decision and how can you overcome them?

Some Final Thoughts about Career Decision-Making

You need to monitor your decision so that you can assess whether you are achieving your goals. Reevaluating your decisions allows you to make adjustments and to see if your desired outcomes are being achieved. This does not mean that your initial decision was "bad." You may have learned more or things may have changed so that a different decision is required. Change is becoming a "constant" in our day and age. Everyone must be willing to reexamine, readjust and remain flexible. Reevaluation may lead to slight changes in your career choices or total revisions.

Should you find that you are unable to identify any college major or career options at this time, or if you are having problems with implementing your decision, we recommend you schedule an appointment to meet with a Rutgers University career counselor at Career Services.

At this point we encourage you to move to the last section of this career planning site, "Next Steps." If you are finished using the site, please complete our online evaluation and help us make future improvements to this site.

Next: Next Steps

Try our other online guidance tool, Focus, a career interests, skills and values assessment.


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