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How to Make Tough Career Decisions

by Jul 23, 2020Job Career0 comments

How to Make Tough Career Decisions
Should you quit your current job? Which job offers should you consider? Would you prefer to explore long-term options?

These are just some of the tough decisions that you need to make. Keep in mind that your decisions will likely affect the rest of your life. It seems that the stakes are quite high. However, there are also some areas where intuition may not be reliable. That is why it would be more worthy to take a more systematic approach.

What Is the Best Career Decision Approach?

A common technique to handle this would be to determine the pros and cons of this decision. However, it is possible that you could do a lot better. When you make a list of the pros and cons, it can be easy for you to place too much weight on the unnecessary things. Most importantly, this will not inspire you to make use of the most influential decision-making methods.

Here, we will give you a step-by-step process on how to make your next career decision by using the most valuable discoveries.

It is a fact that career decisions involve a lot of uncertainties. Sometimes you will feel stressed or anxious, but there is no need to worry since this is just normal. Making the next decision will not be easy. However, if you will use this process, you can avoid some common mistakes, so you can take the best next step.

Refine Your Decision

First of all, you have to ensure that you have a clear idea of what you really want to do. Are you deciding where to apply? Are you choosing between two offers? Or are you looking for something else? Also, take note that this process is designed mainly for deciding between specific options.

List Your Most Important Priorities

After having a clear idea of your next decision, the next thing to do is to list down 4 to 7 of your most important priorities when making the decision. When people make decisions, they usually concentrate on a very limited set of goals. By listing down your priorities, you will be able to focus more on what matters the most.
List Your Most Important Priorities
The following are the most recommended factors to consider.

Impact Potential

How important is the problem? Can this career contribute as a solution to the problem?

Personal Fit

Do you feel that you can be productive if you choose this career?

Personal Contentment

Can this career fulfill your important personal priorities?

Career Investment

Does this option accelerate your career in the long run? Or can it provide you with better long-term options?

Option Worth

If you are going to proceed with this option, do you have any back-up plans?

Importance of Information

Is this path an excellent long-term option?

Generate Options

When making career decisions, one of the biggest mistakes that people make is to consider too few options. Based on some research, considering an extra option can help in improving one’s satisfaction with the results obtained.

If you are trying to obtain the best options for your next career rather than a long-term career, then it would be helpful to consider both the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach.

When it comes to the top-down approach, you have to work your way back from the long-term options which are quite promising. For instance, which jobs can help you in reaching your long-term options? Which options can help you test out your long-term options?

On the other hand, a bottom-up approach will start from specific opportunities that you have right now and consider which of these are the more promising ones. Sometimes it makes sense to take a job even if you are not sure about it. This can even help you in learning about the best long-term paths.

Ranking Your Options

After gathering your options, the next thing to do is to rank them based on the factors that you have written down. No worries, there’s no need of making it as accurate as possible. This is done so you can have a general idea and it will be easier for you.

Watkins & Associates can provide you the best career opportunities in different industries. If you are looking for a new career then we can help you, just contact us at 713.334.4342 or send us an email at [email protected].

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