The Cure for Career Confusion
In the previous training module, I wrote a caution about relying too heavily on emotional and gut feelings.
In this module, I want to write a caution about the opposite extreme: ignoring your gut and relying on a ‘precise’ spreadsheet calculation.
‘Listening to your gut’ is probably the most common approach to decision making. It’s the way many people make most decisions; if we used an exhaustive, complex decision-making process to decide what to eat for lunch, we’d never get anything else done.
‘Listening to your gut’ is probably the most common approach to decision-making. It’s the way many people make most decisions; if we used an exhaustive, complex decision-making process to decide what to eat for lunch, we’d never get anything else done.
Cognitive research has found that human beings are wired to make less-than-wise decisions. Science has shown our brain uses a system to simplify decisions, but these mental shortcuts often are not in our best interests. The question then becomes: How do we overcome these innate predilections and decide better?
Science has found that human beings are wired to make less-than-wise decisions. Cognitive research has shown our brain often uses a mental ‘short-cut’ system to simplify decision making, but these shortcuts often are not in our best interests. The question then becomes: How do we overcome these innate predispositions and make better decisions?
Our daily lives are the cumulative effect of hundreds of small decisions we make constantly. These decisions encompass everything from what you chose to wear today, what you’re eating for your next meal, and what you’ll watch on Netflix tonight. Generally speaking, decisions like this come fairly easily, and we rarely agonize over the small choices we constantly make throughout our daily lives.
Big and high-risk decisions, like choosing whether to accept a job offer, however, can sometimes be very difficult to make. That’s to be expected: making career decisions is an emotional process with potentially significant financial considerations to take into account, as well as your desire to do what is best for you personally and professionally.
Complex decisions, like deciding which job offer to accept, often have several shared traits: There may be many evaluation criteria (with some of them conflicting), the risks and outcomes are hard to predict, and data is unavailable or incomplete.
While there is no one “right” way to make a big decision, thankfully there are proven decision-making strategies and frameworks you can use, either individually or, more likely, in conjunction with each other.
In this training module, my goal is to give you additional knowledge, strategies and tools you can use to effectively evaluate job offers and help you choose the best one for you.
While there is no one “right” way to make a big decision, thankfully there are proven decision-making strategies and frameworks you can use, either individually or, more likely, in conjunction with each other.
Here are 10 strategies you can use to help you choose the best new job / career path for you:
Create a Career Vision Summary
Don’t Trust Your Gut (Without Testing It)
Our daily lives are the cumulative effect of hundreds of small decisions we make constantly. These decisions encompass everything from what you chose to wear today, what you’re eating for your next meal, and what you’ll watch on Netflix tonight. Generally speaking, decisions like these come fairly easily, and we rarely agonize over the small choices we constantly make throughout our daily lives.
Big and high-risk decisions, like choosing a new job and career path, however, can sometimes be very difficult to make. That’s to be expected: making career decisions is an emotional process with potentially significant financial considerations to take into account, as well as your desire to do what is best for you personally and professionally.
Complex decisions, like choosing a new job or career direction, often have several shared traits: You may have many desires (with some of them conflicting), the risks and outcomes are hard to predict, and the information you need to make the decision is unavailable or incomplete.
While there is no one “right” way to make a big decision, thankfully there are proven decision-making strategies and frameworks you can use, either individually or, more likely, in conjunction with each other.
Check out the strategies in this training module – each with a unique point of view – to find the ones you can use to help you choose the best new job / career path for you.
Create a Career Vision Summary
Don’t Trust Your Gut (Without Testing It)
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that you can only get where you want to be if you know where you’re going.
If you haven’t done so already, today I’d like you to list the ‘key ingredients’ (e.g. what’s most important to you / the ‘evaluation criteria) of the right work for you by completing this Career Vision Summary form.
By listing the ‘key ingredients’, you are ‘framing’ how you’ll evaluate job offers and choose the right one for you. Framing helps decision-makers think about the viewpoint from which they will look at the choice and decide which criteria they consider important and which they don’t.
With this insight, it will be much easier to get a clear sense of how a job offer stacks up to what you’re looking for in your work (e.g. where you want to be).
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that you can only get where you want to be if you know where you’re going.
If you haven’t done so already, today I’d like you to list the ‘key ingredients’ (e.g. what’s most important to you / the ‘evaluation criteria) of the right work for you by completing this Career Vision Summary form.
By listing the ‘key ingredients’, you are ‘framing’ how you’ll evaluate job offers and choose the right one for you. Framing helps decision-makers think about the viewpoint from which they will look at the choice and decide which criteria they consider important and which they don’t.
With this insight, it will be much easier to get a clear sense of how a job offer stacks up to what you’re looking for in your work (e.g. where you want to be).
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that you can only get where you want to be if you know where you’re going.
If you haven’t done so already, list the ‘key ingredients’ (e.g. what’s most important to you / the ‘evaluation criteria) of the right work for you by completing the attached Career Vision Summary form.
With this information, it will be much easier to get a clear sense of how each job and career idea you evaluate stacks up to what you’re looking for in your work (e.g. where you want to be).
To build your list of ‘key ingredients’, I recommend using: