Making tough career decisions

I think it’s fair to say we have all experienced having to make a tricky decision regarding work. Be that an internal move or promotion within your current company, or expanding your career into a new organisation. Making these decisions is something that certainly should not be taken lightly, however that decision should be made as easy as possible to reach your conclusion and course of action.

As a recruitment professional, I have to make tough choices every day. Although, I sometimes forget that my candidates also have to make multiple choices throughout the recruitment process. I’ve spent the past few years trying to understand how my candidates make decisions and have come across multiple ways and ‘rules’ that will make those strenuous decisions less laborious, and more importantly help you come to an answer more immediately!

Ask questions

Make sure you have all the available and necessary information you need to reach your conclusion. This is one of the most imperative factors in helping you think, decide and outline why a move is right or wrong for you. If you are working with an agency make sure your consultant gives you ALL the information you need to make your decision. Be that a job spec, holiday and sick pay information or a part time break down of your salary. Without this information, a lot of people start to make presumptions and make their decision based on information they just don’t know is correct!

Time

As mentioned previously, some of the decisions my candidates have to make are substantial and will drastically alter their current lifestyle (for the best) and thus I understand people wanting to take their time. Although this is the case, too much time can be a bad thing. I’ve experienced many situations where I personally have taken too much time to decide and over complicated the process! If you start to spend more than a few days discussing and thinking about an opportunity then you can start to come up with objections that just don’t make sense and would not normally affect one’s ability to come to a conclusion. Weigh up your options; spend a day or two speaking with family and friends. Make the jump or not, sometimes you have to take a risk to forward yourself.

Discuss

One proven, and well wrote about technique is to discuss! Take some time out to speak to a colleague or family member about the opportunity you are considering. You can find out a lot of things by simply talking about the job to someone – specifically those whose opinion matters to you. Even if your co-workers, friends and family have concerns about your job move, when speaking to them you will start to see yourself either agreeing with them or pushing for why it is the right move for you! You then have your answer.

Agencies

If you are working with a recruitment agency, respect the time and effort the consultant is putting in to find you specific and detailed vacancies that match your criteria. Try and not manage the process yourself, but always push your consultant to keep you in the loop regarding changes to the process, offers and other extra details. Make sure you know all the details you need to know in order to attend an interview and more importantly treat the agency as your friend – not foe. This is such an important part of the recruitment process and without your patience, respect and time a consultant will not be able to provide you with necessary advice regarding your next job move.

I hope this gives you some more insight into individual decision making, but also the recruitment industry and how best to use an agency.

If you have any other ideas or thoughts on this, I’m more than happy to hear them!