Guide to Decision-Making Tutorial Decisions! Decisions

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Guide to Decision-Making

• Tutorial

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Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

• Youve come to the point where you have to make
  some choices.
• Youve learned more about yourself what you
  like, what youre good at, and what your values
  are.
• Youve found some occupations that seem to match
  your personality.
• Youve done the research and learned more about
  these occupations.
• The next step is to evaluate your options and
  make a choice.

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Your Goal.

• Your goal should be to find the most appropriate
  occupation, not the right one.

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• This tutorial will introduce you to a five step
• decision-making module and guide you in
• applying the principles as you make career
• decisions.

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Laying the Groundwork

• Making a decision can be very easy or difficult,
  depending
• on the amount of information you have about your
  choices.
• In choosing a career path, it is important to
  think about
• many factors, like the kind of decision-maker you
  are, what
• decision-making style you use, and things that
  can interfere
• with the decision-making process.

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What Kind of Decision Maker Are You?

• Decided
• people who independently integrate knowledge
• about self and options that enable them to
  develop
• a satisfying and beneficial career plan
• Undecided
• people who have not made a commitment to an
  occupational choice
• Indecisive
• people who are unable to make a career decision
  and often find it difficult to make plans in all
  areas of life, and generally focus on outside
  events or people when making decisions

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Decision-Making Styles

• Which style do you use when making decisions?
• Planning You weigh all the facts first, then
  decide.
• Impulsive You dont look before you leap. You
  just decide.
• Intuitive Your decision is based on what feels
  right.
• Compliant Anything you say. Whatever someone
  else says or thinksyou do it.

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Decision-Making Styles

• Which style do you use when making decisions?
• Fatalistic You leave it up to fate. Whatever
  happens just happens.
• Agonizing You cant decide because you keep
  thinkingWhat if? I dont know what to do
• Paralytic Cant face up to it so you dont
  decide.
• Delaying You put off making a decision and say,
  Ill cross that bridge later.

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Things that Interfere with Decision Making

• Family (e.g., parents, spouses, children.)
• People who are highly interconnected with
  another family member can have difficulty
  separating themselves emotionally and
  psychologically in decision making. They may lack
  a distinction between what they want and what the
  family member thinks they should have. A lack of
  agreement among family members also present
  problems.

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Things that Interfere with Decision Making

• Personal
• Being tired, run down, stressed, anxious, and
  unable to focus and concentrate on the
  decision-making activity will not ensure good
  performance.
• Society
• Age, gender, ethnic prejudice and discrimination
  are factors that can affect your decisions, as
  well as, economic recessions (i.e., job demand
  for a particular occupation is low) and job
  growth.

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The CASVE Cycle

• A cycle can be used to show the steps in making a
  career choice
• Pronounced ca-sa-vee
• Adapted from
• Sampson, J.P., Jr., Peterson, G.W., Lenz, J.G.,
  Reardon, R.C. (1992). A cognitive approach to
  career services Translating concepts into
  practice. Career Development Quarterly, 41. 67-74
• Common Difficulties in Decision Making
  developed by Ontario Womens Directorate and
  Times Change and from www.langara.bc.ca/counseling
  /career/decision.html

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CASVE Cycle
C
E
A
V
S
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CASVE Cycle
Communication
Execution
Analysis
Valuing
Synthesis
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CASVE CycleStep 1 Communication

• Knowing I need to make a choice
• Before you begin to gather
• information, you will need to
• define what it is you are trying
• to decide.

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CASVE CycleStep 2 Analysis

• Understanding myself and my options
• To make an informed career decision and prior to
  any exploration of the world of work, it is
  important to have a good understanding of your
  own personal attributes.
• Take steps to improve self knowledge (e.g.,
  skills, interests, values) via career
  assessments.
• Take steps to improve knowledge about options
  with regards to occupations, college majors, work
  organizations and job industries.
• Ask yourself
• What motivates me? What do I enjoy doing?
• What are my skills and values? Where do I
  envision myself working?

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CASVE CycleStep 3 Synthesis

• Expanding and narrowing my list of options
• Identify occupations, majors, or jobs that match
  your values, interests, and skills.
• Read books, search the Internet, and talk to
  individuals in the field to learn more about the
  occupation.
• Explore issues such as salary, duties and
  responsibilities, job outlook, and educational
  requirements.
• Obtain internship or cooperative education
  positions.
• Seek additional assistance from a career
  counselor or through the career services website.
• Narrow your list of options to three or five.

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CASVE CycleStep 4 Valuing

• Choosing an occupation, major or job
• Consider each alternative in terms of costs
  (consequences) and benefits to yourself, your
  family, your community, and your cultural group.
• Rank or Prioritize your options from the
  Synthesis stage.
• Make a choice.
• Make back-up choice (s) in case you have a
  problem with your first choice.

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CASVE CycleStep 5 Execution

• Implementing my choice
• Design a plan of action and implement the
  decision.
• Reframe your 1st alternative as a goal and then
  focus on the concrete, active
• things that will lead you to accomplishing
  the goal.
• Identify when to begin and end each step in the
  action plan.
• Be realistic
• Consider life circumstances (family, work,
  etc.)
• Consider potential obstacles and how you can
  handle them.
• Determine what resources and information are
  needed to complete each step in the action
  plan.
• Evaluate your progress from time to time. Change
  your decision if necessary.

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Remember!

• Career problems are continuousthey tend to build
  upon one another.
• Using the CASVE cycle to solve one problem will
  lead to using it again to solve the next problem.
• e.g. choosing a college leads to how to pay for
  it, which leads to when to start.
• Where are you in the CASVE cycle?

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Need More Help?

• For additional
• information, visit Career
• Services in Smith House.
• To schedule an appointment
• with a career counselor,
• complete the Talk to a Career
• Counselor form on our
• Website http//www.mcdanielcareers.org