Academic CentreCareer decisions can vary widely. These decisions concern even the choice of a ninth grade student after leaving primary school – whether to study in a technical school, high school, vocational school or some particular specialization in secondary school. When moving to the next level of education, career decisions become of more conscious quality – whether to study, work, or do both. The key issue at this stage is finding your professional role and identity, as well as learning how to manage your time and financial resources. Career decision-making will continue throughout one's life – where to work; if it is time to change occupation and job right now; if it is the right time to ask for salary supplement and increase in professional liability; if I can afford not to work. Decision-making is basically about how you imagine your life, your job, your working day and the environment in which you would like to work. In addition, decision-making involves the formulation and setting of concrete objectives. For the most part this is a time-consuming process as many factors have to be considered.
The first step in identifying a career decision is to find out what you know about yourself and your potential.
In the process of getting to know yourself, it is important to consider your abilities, interests and values. Figuratively speaking, during the journey called career, interests will guide you in the direction you are going (and that is what you enjoy doing), your abilities will determine the time you spend on your job (and determine what comes easily to you), and values, in turn, will tell you whether it is worth it at all (they will motivate you to do a specific job, studies). This knowledge of yourself will also help you find and choose the areas and locations that are best for you. It is also worth investing your time in exploration of opportunities to figure out what is right for you – it is worth exploring university offers, potential employers, professions that might interest you, and so on. The next step is to think about how you usually make decisions. It is important to understand and realize how you think, feel, act and make important and responsible decisions in life. Some people make decisions alone, others find it important to talk and consult, for some people decision-making is something spontaneous and intuitive, while for others this is a long thought process.
If you have made a successful decision in the past, it would be valuable to understand what has helped you in this process.
Only you know what kind of work you would like to do and in which working environment you would feel good. To make it easier for you to make your decision, we suggest that you use your imagination to think about the following:
- How do you imagine your ideal working day to be – duties, type of work, schedule, relationships with colleagues?
- How do you imagine your working environment and conditions to be?
- What motivates you to work in a particular job?
- How much salary do you want?