Career decision-making can be overwhelming! It’s okay to not have it allfigured out right now (or ever). Regardless, there are benefits to reflecting and thinking ahead, even if you can’t come up with all the answers.
Doing so can support you with:
Finding a career that aligns with your values and satisfies your needs to thrive within and outside of work
Identifying types of work that are meaningful to you, keep you engaged, and give you a chance to apply skills you like to use every day
Working towards achieving the impacts you’d like to make in your field or area of work, however small or large
Pursuing a degree and other professional development that supports you in your career growth and continuous learning
Thoughtful and intentional decision-making paves the way to satisfying career choices. The decision-making process can be used for making many types of career-related choices, including:
Which training/educational program to pursue
Which certificates and training to complete
Which occupational field to enter
Which paid/volunteer experience would be most satisfying
Whether to change occupations and/or fields
Whether to start a small business
Which employers share your values and can support you in working towards your intended impacts
What kinds of workplace culture best suit your preferences and needs
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Career decision-making does not have a definite timeline, and it is something you may return to throughout your career. You may work through it quickly, or it may take you six months, a year or as an ongoing process. |
Set a goal & goal and develop an action plan
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Decision making within the context of change |
Having satisfying career choices requires good decision making. It is important to have an approach that helps you effectively assess your career options. An effective approach will consider your
The following sections outline one possible approach to navigating the decision-making process. Career decision-making is not linear. You may be working through the following steps simultaneously or completing one or more step(s) later in your process:
Assess and narrow your options
Make an initial decision
Set a goal
Develop an action plan
Implement and adapt your plan
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Assess and narrow your options |
At this point, you may be considering one or several career options. If applicable, start to narrow down your options to a manageable number by doing occupational research and engaging with self-directed activities available to you as a Waterloo student (like SparkPath or booking an appointment with a career advisor).
Consider how each career option aligns with your values and needs, the skills you want to use or develop, and the impact you wish to make. If there is a misalignment, it may be a sign to focus on other options you are considering.
Pay attention to your feelings about each option. Are you sensing excitement? Discontentment? While being logical in the career decision-making process is valuable, your intuition about a potential path is also important to consider.
Career advisors can provide a supportive space for you to explore these different considerations and to reflect on the factors that are important to your decision-making. Book a career planning appointment to discuss your unique considerations and for support in navigating the decision-making process.
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Make an initial decision |
After assessing the possibilities, select the options you want to focus on now. This may involve pursuing one specific career path, or you may keep multiple options open as you move forward.
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Remember, career paths can change throughout your lifetime! |
Making a decision now doesn’t mean that you can’t or won’t explore something different in the future. You may try a career option and learn that it’s not a good fit for you, and that’s okay! Career paths are often non-linear, and career decision-making is an ongoing and iterative process.
Once you have decided which option(s) you want to focus on, you can begin to identify relevant goals and develop an action plan for moving forward.
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Set a |
goal and develop an action plan |
Once you have decided to focus on specific options, you can begin to identify goals and practical next steps. Your action plan may include multiple goals, such as
Two strategies for effective goal setting include SMART goals (Haughey, 2014), which are outcome-oriented, and PACT goals, which are process-oriented. These strategies will help you develop a plan to achieve your goals.
SMART is as follows:
- Specific: A goal is specific when you know exactly what will be achieved and accomplished
- Measurable: Measurable goals are quantifiable (e.g., numbers, dollars, percentages)
- Achievable: An achievable goal is within your reach (perhaps a stretch) based on your skills and level of motivation
- Relevant: the goal should be related to your current situation (e.g. what jobs you are looking for)
- Time specific: A time-specific goal is finite; it has a deadline (e.g., "by June 30, 2XXX" is much more specific than "soon")
For example: Goal: Complete X project using Python
Specific? Yes, I want to complete this specific project to showcase my skills on my GitHub and résumé
Measurable? Yes, I will have completed my goal when all of the steps for this project are completed
Achievable? Yes, I am confident I have the skills and time needed to complete this project
Relevant: Yes, the project highlights skills that are relevant to the jobs I am planning to apply for
Timely: Should be completed by the end of the month, with a start date of tomorrow
While SMART is focused on an endpoint with an outcome, PACT is focused on continuous learning and processes.
PACT (Cunff, n.d.) is as follows:
- Purposeful: The goal should be meaningful to your long-term career, “aligned with your passions and objectives”
- Actionable: your goal is doable right now and is within your control to do so
- Continuous: the “actions you take towards your goal are simple and repeatable…it’s about continuous improvement rather than reaching a supposed end goal”
- Trackable: “Not measurable,” simply a did you do it or not mode of tracking progress
For example: Goal: Learn to code in Python
Purposeful? Yes, python is central to the majority of jobs I am applying to
Actionable? Yes, I can start practicing today daily by working on projects and working through problems on leetcode.
Continuous? Yes, there will always be new challenges and areas to improve, depending on what developments in my field.
Trackable? Yes, I will complete one monthly personal project and 3 three leetcode problems per week. Will also take LinkedIn courses by the end of the semester.
While “learn to code in Python” may be vague and difficult to measure in the SMART sense, PACT acknowledges that “learning to code” can never have an endpoint because there will always be more to learn, new challenges and new developments in the field. Perhaps this goal can be revised further to reflect these developments, such as “improve X aspects of my coding in Python.”
As you begin to set goals and develop your action plan, you may want to use both goal-setting approaches:
- SMART for more outcome-focused goals, such as “gain five connections in the field of AI by May 30th 20XX.”
- PACT for goals that may not have an end date, such as “maintain work-life balance.”
Once you have identified your goals using the SMART and/or PACT methods, consider breaking your goals into small, manageable steps. For example, if one of your goals is to “prepare tailored application materials by the end of the month”, you may want to identify the specific steps involved in achieving this goal, such as:
Review relevant job postings to identify relevant skills and experiences
Draft a résumé
Draft a cover letter
Ask friends and/or family for feedback
Attend an appointment with a career advisor for support
Finalize résumé
Finalize cover letter
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These small, manageable steps become your action plan. If it is helpful, you can map out a timeline for when you would like to complete each step. |
The world is too complex to know all the variables affecting your plan and goals. Change and chance will likely play a significant role in your career trajectory. An effective approach is to include as much detail as possible in your action plan while preparing to be flexible. You may need to adjust your plan several times along your career journey.
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Implement and adapt your plan |
Once you have clarified your goals and action plan, you can implement your identified actions. As you progress, refer to your plan often to identify if you are on track or if some adjustments are required.
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Identify if you need to make any major alterations for the plan to make sense or if any of your goals need to be changed. |
If the primary goal remains the same and the process seems on track, add more detail to the steps as they become more imminent.
If new information or obstacles have emerged, make minor to moderate changes as needed.
If your primary goal or direction has changed, you may want to make major revisions to your goals and action plan.
- Learn more about: Career myths and beliefs
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References |
Berry, D. (2015, October 19). Car buying vs. Career planning. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/car-buying-vs-career-planning-dawn-berry
Haughey, D. (2014, December 13). A brief history of SMART goals. Project Smart. https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals/brief-history-of-smart-goals.php
Le Cunff, A (n.d) SMART goals are not so smart: make a PACT instead. Ness Labs. https://nesslabs.com/smart-goals-pact