How to choose between two compelling career paths

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

Changing careers involves making many tricky decisions – when to quit, which career to do next, how to make your move.

Refining your decision-making skills is a vital element in changing careers.

Choosing your next career calls for a savvy mix of real-world research and gut instinct. Combining fact and feeling is the surest way to get clear on what you want, find out what's out there and test your assumptions.

Suppose you've done all that, well done you! Perhaps now, you're faced with choosing between two job offers that fit your values and vision of an ideal working environment.

How do you make the 'right' decision?

Put decisions in perspective

Put the process and prospect of 'right decision making' in perspective.

Whatever you decide, you're bound to feel anxious about it. Especially if you listen to your pesky inner doomsayer trying to protect you by warning you about everything that could possibly go wrong.

If you're waiting on the moment when you can make a stress-free choice, you'll most likely be waiting indefinitely.

Accept that perfect solutions are pure fiction and try some of these six strategies for calming your inner critic.

Everything is uncertain

Much as we'd love it to be different, all our decisions, tiny or transformational and their outcomes are made in uncertainty. Conscientious career conversations, gritty real-world exploration and following our intuition all increase our chances of making an excellent choice. That said, chance and change, two things we can never control, will influence the 'rightness' of the outcome.

Interestingly we rate our 'best' decisions based on the best outcomes. In hindsight, we need to remember that we have information now that we didn't have at the crunch point of deciding. What role did luck play? What potentially game-changing information arrived just after you'd decided? Which unexpected doors opened as a result?

Any decision involves a leap of faith based on what you know in the moment. If you're scared about current or future career doors closing, remember that isn't necessarily the case. You can always return to your previous career, maybe in a different role or organisation that suits you better.

One of my clients was in her second career. Coaching helped her realise that returning to her first industry in a company more aligned with her values and the way she wanted to work was her best option.

Changing careers is a master class in managing uncertainty on many levels, including making close calls. Here are nine brainy ways to curb your career change uncertainty.

Three top tips for making close career change calls.

1. Project yourself

Photo by Jens Lelie on Unsplash

Imagine where you'll be five years from now in each career or role. Assume that everything has gone well.

Put a timer on for 10 minutes, and free write about each one. How do you spend your day, what works, and what irks you?

How did this feel for each scenario? Did you uncover any fears or discover aspects you aren't so keen on? Did it pose any outstanding questions about whether either or both careers would be right for you?

2. Prepare for the worst

Imagine the worst-case scenario.

List everything that could possibly go wrong with making this career change.

Rate each potential disaster according to the likelihood of it happening. Then think of a way to mitigate the risks.

Staring down the scary career change doubt monster and reality-checking your fears can help calm your nerves.

3. Detune the dilemma

Don't let the stress of deciding, bring you undone.

Acknowledge your anxiety, and it'll be less likely to cloud your capacity to choose. Feel you're getting sucked into a spin cycle of stress and indecision? Breathe, smile, and say, 'Hello again, decision dilemma, I've earmarked brain space for you in a bit, please come back then.'

Then make sure you allocate brain space for reflecting, projecting and very importantly, don't go it alone.

Talk your situation through with someone. Try following this advice from decision making researcher and former professional poker player Annie Duke in her book 'How to decide.'

'One of the best ways to improve the quality of your beliefs is to get other people's perspectives. Beliefs are contagious. Informing someone about your belief before they give you their feedback significantly increases the likelihood that they'll express the same belief back to you… The only way you can know if someone is disagreeing with you is to ask for their opinion first. So, resist the temptation to share your opinion before you solicit theirs.'

Here are seven reasons for talking to a trusted human whose distance from the dilemma and desire to see you succeed can help you decide.

Finally, back yourself. You've done the groundwork. You've figured out what meaningful work looks like for you and where to find it. So, take your best decision-making shot and believe that whatever the outcome, you'll handle it.

---

By Jo Green, Career Change Coach

I know that when you find what you love, heart and soul, your life changes. I work every day with people who are reshaping their current careers, starting new enterprises or searching for a new direction. Basically I help people who don’t like their job to figure out what to do instead!

As a Careershifters and Firework Advanced Certified Coach and experienced career changer myself, I can help you figure out what fulfilling work looks like for you.

Drop me a note to organise a free 20 minute consultation to chat about your career change and how coaching could help.