Developing Preliminary Goals and Making Decisions

Decision making is to many people the most difficult part of the career planning process. After spending time gathering information about yourself and careers, weighing the pros and cons of each option, it can feel difficult to make a final decision.

Blocks to Decision Making

• "I am interested in so many things, I cannot choose just one."
• "None of the career options are entirely me."
• "My family/friends won't like my decision."
• "I don't know if I will be happy doing this for the rest of my life."

Setting a preliminary goal is the first step in the decision making process. Before you can make a decision, you need to identify the decision to be made and the ultimate goal or end result you hope to achieve. But why preliminary? Throughout college you will learn a great deal, about yourself, from your academic work, and about the world of work. You may think in your 1st year at Princeton that your goal is to become a lawyer. That is a fine preliminary goal to have, but as you take new classes, secure internships or volunteer work, and learn more about yourself, you may discover in your 3rd year that you'd rather pursue a career in publishing. Now you have a new goal, to identify internships or jobs that will give you experience in that new field.

When working to establish goals, keep the following in mind:

1. Write your goals down as specifically as possible. Committing the goal to paper helps it feel more concrete and may serve as a motivator to action.
   
   
2. Focus your goal statements on the things you want, not the things you hope to avoid. Put a positive slant on your goals.
   
   
3. Make your goals SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound). For example, your goal may be to become a Supreme Court justice, CEO of an organization, or Manager of a Department. None of these will happen overnight, so instead break this large goal down into smaller goals, with specifically defined tasks, timeframes for completion, and ways to measure your progress toward the goal.
   
   
4. Don't ignore the long-term, big-picture goals -- they will give you inspiration, perspective and can keep you motivated while working on short-term goals.
   
   
5. Review your goals regularly. As you gather new information or have new experiences, you can modify accordingly.
   
   
6. Prioritize your goals.

Many people change careers 2-3 times throughout life; the decisions you make now may start you in one direction, but you can always make new decisions in the future. In fact, while you are in college you may view many of your choices as tentative - you may decide to take an internship to test out one field, only to discover you do not like it. The next summer, then, you may decide to try something new. Each experience you have will provide more information about yourself that can shape future choices.

Making a decision, in fact, can be made easier if you put more time and effort into self-assessment and career research. If you get stuck or are feeling too much anxiety about the decision you have to make, you might want to ask yourself if you spent enough time in steps one and two. This can also be the point when you may want to talk to a career counselor. There are many ways to make decisions; working with a counselor can help develop the strategy that will work best for you, in your time frame.

Decision Making Styles:

There are a variety of decision making styles. Some make decisions intuitively, based on feelings and hunches. Some people make decisions based on others' expectations for them, rather than making an independent choice. Some are impulsive and take the first alternative available, without identifying and evaluating other options. Still others may agonize, investing a large amount of time and thought in gathering data and analyzing alternatives (without ever reaching a decision point!). If any of these styles describe you, yet you still have difficulty making major decisions, you might consider trying a systematic approach.

The systematic style of decision making is results oriented, focusing on gathering information, identifying alternatives, weighing evidence, and taking action. Although this style does not guarantee a desired outcome, it can reduce the uncertainty or element of risk in decision making. Here are the seven steps to systematic decision making:

Step One: Identify the Decision to be Made - A decision must be made, which comes to your awareness by the need to declare a major, pressure from family or friends to make a vocational choice, and so on. Ask yourself what concerns you most about the decision, as well as identify for how much of the decision you are responsible.

Step Two: Gather Information - Most decisions require some pertinent information, the challenge is to know what information is most needed and the resources available to provide that information. As mentioned earlier, some information is gathered through self-assessment; additional information is collected from library research, talking to alumni, and utilizing the web. If you don't know what resources are available, come to Career Services to get some ideas.

Step Three: Identify Alternatives - While you gather information, you will probably find that a few alternatives begin to immerge (two or three majors that sound interesting, several career fields that seem rewarding and challenging). At this stage, you should not be evaluating alternatives, but rather focus on identifying alternatives -- what sounds appealing?

Step Four: Weigh Evidence - At this stage you begin the assessment process. What costs and benefits are involved for each alternative? What sorts of risks are there? Do the alternatives identified help or solve the original dilemma named in Step One? Based on what you know about yourself, the level of risk you are willing to assume, and the depth of interest you have in the alternatives, you can begin to put them in priority order.

Step Five: Choose Among Alternatives - Which alternative best meets your needs? Once you have weighed the evidence, you can make a decision or possibly even combine aspects of more than one alternative (choose one subject as a major, but also go for a certificate in another department).

Step Six: Take Action - The decision is made, now you must act on it. Registering for a class, applying for an internship, sending away for graduate school applications are all examples of action items. Again, if you have made a decision but aren't sure where to begin, talk to a counselor in Career Services (or an advisor, mentor, etc.) to begin to develop an action plan.

Step Seven: Review Decision and Consequences - Have your needs been met? How satisfying was the outcome of your decision? Once you have experienced the results of your decision, you may evaluate whether or not it "solved" the initial problem. If not, you may repeat parts of the process and make a new decision.

Career counselors are available to help students and alumni develop strategies for making decisions about majors, careers, graduate schools, career transitions, and so on. Consulting with a counselor can also be extremely valuable when feeling "stuck" in the process. No one can make the decision for you, but a counselor can facilitate the development of goals and strategies to approach the decision in the way that is most effective for you.