Career Decision-Making Process

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Understand the career decision making process.
  • Begin the steps needed to determine your major.

The career decision making process requires you to think carefully about your interests, talents, abilities and values. Usually what you are good at indicates your career interests.

Circular Flow Chart with the following steps: Discovering Yourself, Exploring Options, Making a Decision, Taking Action, and Evaluating the Decision,.

The arrows in the decision-making diagram point in both directions, indicating that there is movement in the process. Throughout your life, you may find yourself revisiting this process on several occasions. Just as people and their individual situations change, so can their career decisions.

Studies show that most of us will spend more time planning a vacation than planning or managing our career development, yet making career decisions requires a commitment of time and energy that is well worth the effort. Although there are no quick fixes or sudden answers, taking a proactive approach to career-decision making will help to strengthen the correlation between career fulfillment and life satisfaction.

The career decision-making components explained below can offer valuable assistance in helping you make well-informed career decisions.

Steps Toward a Career Decision

STEP 1: DISCOVERING YOURSELF

  • What are my interests? Values? Skills? Personality preferences? Strengths?
  • What are careers that interest me?
  • What are college majors that I want to explore?

STEP 2: EXPLORING OPTIONS

  • What information or individuals can help me to explore my college or career options?
  • What classes or activities can help me to develop my strengths?
  • How can I learn more about informational interviews, job shadowing, internships, service learning, or student organizations to gain firsthand experience about a field?

STEP 3: MAKING A DECISION

  • How much time and energy am I willing to invest to make a career decision?
  • Who is part of my support system to help me evaluate the pros and cons?
  • What are my top priorities to consider for this decision?

STEP 4: TAKING ACTION

  • How can I strengthen my readiness for success in a college major?
  • What is one goal that I have? How can I reach it? What action can I take now?
  • Which one of my talents can I develop through classes or outside activities?

STEP 5: EVALUATING THE DECISION

  • Is my decision a realistic option?
  • Is there anything preventing me from achieving this goal?
  • Who in my support system can assist me with achieving this goal?