Decision-Making Model Analysis Paper

Deciding on a Career Path:

Using a 7-step Decision-Making Model

Deciding on a career path has long been on my mind because of retirement coming around the corner. A major decision had to be made as to what direction will I go after leaving the Army. By using my experience in the military of critical thinking, I was able to narrow my decision and throughout the whole process used a 7-step Decision-Making Model. I ran across this decision-making model through the internet at (htttp://www.unf.edu/dept/cdc/services/decisio.htm) while doing research for a college class in critical thinking. Some of the steps I had already formulated in my mind so the beginning was rather easy, now I just had to complete the rest by using critical thinking to make a decision.

Step one; Identify the decision to be made. Questions like, what will I choose for a major? Should I go to grad school? What kind of job do I want? These types of questions are the start for many young adults who are looking for the right answers. In my case these questions had already been answered and even accomplished for the most part. Being in the military and the education process already started, step one came and went. Critical thinking was used to decide on answers to these questions long ago.

Step two; Know Yourself (self assessment). This helps in understanding oneself by exploration of four areas; skills, interests, values, and personality which can also be found at (http://www.careercenter.uiuc.edu/findingpath/deciding.asp). In the area of Skills, you may ask yourself questions like, what can I do best? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What are my most prominent skills and abilities? What skills do I still need to acquire? Interests, questions like what am I interested in? What activities have I enjoyed the most? What kind of people do I like to work with? What kind of job setting would I enjoy? Values of an individual can be asked by the following, what satisfactions do I seek in a career? In what ways must I be challenged and rewarded on the job? Exploring their personality, what personal qualities do I possess that will help me on the job? How will my personal style influence my career choice? How will I get along with my supervisor? Co workers?

In my particular case with step two after 18 years of military service I had explored my skills, interests, values, and personality quite extensively. Being the age I am and knowing what I want, the number of different jobs I have held in the broad field of electronics, my rank and vast experiences, I have had plenty of time to do many self assessments. Not only that but all the critical thinking involved with my jobs, all the decisions I had to make on the job and in my personal life that were to last me a life time were crucial. All those decisions which took much critical thinking lead and helped me to what I decided to do in the future upon leaving the military.

Step three; Begin Identifying Options (career exploration). Questions like, what are my options at this point? What are my other interests in other types of jobs or careers? What other jobs or careers should I be considering? If you really read the first three steps in this model you will see that one has to continually use critical thinking in answering all questions and even think of more questions to be even more precise in your final decision.

I had already decided on a backup plan for a career that was related to my first decision in my career path. Although the first career choice still required more education as well as my backup plan, it could all be performed during the same time frame. My critical thinking experience put me on track as to an alternative career paths. All questions were still answered for all steps so far so I could move onto step four.

Step four; Gather Information and Data. By having a career list and alternate options one can now continue with more in depth research. One would have to examine the information and resources they already have from the first three steps and identity any additional resources you might need.

Step five; Evaluate Options that will solve the Problem. Once you have completed the career research, you can now evaluate each of the options you have identified. You would identify the pros and cons of each alternative, identify the values and needs that are satisfied by each, identify the risks involved with each alternative, and project the probable future consequences of selecting each. My choices and answers for step four were inline with my expected evaluations. I explored and did much research into my career field, I weighted all the pros and cons, the risks involved were minimal no matter what