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Virtual Career Center
Decision Making And Goal
Setting
Making career decisions involves
identifying and eliminating alternatives,
thinking through probabilities and
identifying possible career outcomes.
Making career choices usually involves
finding work that needs doing, finding
ways to connect family and work,
exploring values and life-meaning
as these relate to work, and learning
to manage personal transition and
organizational change.
- What decision-making style do
you usually use for other decisions?
- What kind of internal and external
barriers affect your decision-making?
- How much risk are you willing
to take?
- How are career and life transitions
affecting your career decisions?
- What do you know about your
talents, influences, self-beliefs
and perceptions of work?
- Are you making career decisions
based only on what jobs are available
or what pays most?
- If you are failing to decide,
you are deciding to fail.
Planning for Attaining
Goals
Once you have decided upon a career
direction, you need to plan the
action you will take. The first
step is to write a long-term goal,
defining the career outcome you
want. Then it's important to define
and list, in order, the action steps
you'll need to take to reach the
goal. As you begin to take initial
action steps, it's important to
review periodically to see if your
career journey is progressing the
way you want. You may need to revise
your action steps or even the long-term
career goal as you go through this
process. Some additional things
to consider:
- Are your long-term career goals
and shorter-term action steps
realistic and attainable, measurable,
specific, in concrete terms, and
agreed upon by others who have
power over completion of the goal?
- Do your action steps address
the ways you will get around barriers
you have identified?
- Are you using "Positive Uncertainty?"
Are you focused yet flexible,
aware or wary about what you know,
objective yet optimistic about
what you believe, practical yet
magical about what you do?
How can
the Alumni Career Center help you
to make informed and satisfying
career decisions and move into action
to accomplish your career goals?
- Career
Interest Assessment
- We can help you identify your
possible career interests, personality
preferences relating to career
choice, and barriers to career
planning through our career assessment
program. The Career
Interest Assessment is now
available online.
- Career
Advising - By working
with you in individual appointments,
we can help you to identify and
improve your career decision-making
skills including looking at possible
self-defeating beliefs; we can
help you to assess balancing life
roles; we can help you to deal
with career transitions; we can
help you to be realistic and thorough
as you make career decisions.
A career advisor, working individually
with you, can help you organize,
set up, review and adjust action
plans, consistent with your long-term
goals until you reach them. Career
advising is a feature of the Alumni
Career Center's Comprehensive
Service Package, available
for an annual fee of $160 to Alumni
Association members. An option
to meet one time for one hour
with a career adviser for a $40
fee is also available to Alumni
Association members.
- Alumni
Offering Assistance feature of
the Alumni Association's Online
Directory More than
40,000 alumni in a wide variety
of occupations can give you experience-based
information about their work and
career paths. This resource is
available to members of the Alumni
Association and accessible through
the Online Directory link at the
right.
- The
Pathfinder: How to Choose and
Change Your Career for a Lifetime
of Satisfaction and Success
by Nicholas Lore. See Chapter
14.
Can't find the resources you are
looking for? Have questions about
the Alumni Career Center services?
University of Illinois alumni can
ask our career experts for help
with job searching and career questions.
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