Decision-making tools

• Cost/benefit analysis

  • This involves adding up the benefits of a course of action and then comparing these with the costs associated with it.
  • How it is used to make personal career decisions:
  • Brainstorm the benefits of a decision; then brainstorm the costs of that decision particularly related to the costs and benefits over time.
  • Assign a monetary value to the costs and benefits.
  • Compare the value of costs to the value of benefits and use this analysis to decide a course of action.
• Cost/benefit analysis

  • Advantages:
  • Good when costs and benefits are clear
  • Helps to simplify the process, more benefits = good idea; more costs = bad idea
  • Can get input from lots of people to improve the analysis
  • Disadvantages:
  • Estimating the benefits can be challenging. Usually, the cost/benefit analysis tool only allows for the calculation of monetary values and excludes the environmental and social costs and benefits
  • The application of the tool demands expertise and sufficient data.
• Paired comparisons

  • This tool would be best used when you have been offered more than one job or when you have various options or pathways to consider.
  • By comparing two options in detail, you may be able to make a more informed judgement about your choice as well as understand the different aspects of the two options.
  • The process used for paired comparison is that each option is compared against another in terms of the cost of each.
  • A table can be used to make it easier to see the comparisons and rank the options.
• Paired comparisons

  Advantages:

  • Great when you have a lot of different options and not sure which one is best
  • Clarifies decision making as sets out a process to follow.

  Disadvantages:

  • Not much good unless there are a lot of options to choose from
  • Points awarded can be difficult to decide unless you specifically know for what you are awarding points
  • Need to be clear about your objective when making a decision otherwise this method does not help to clarify.
• Six thinking hats

  • The brain thinks in a number distinct ways which can be deliberately challenged, and hence planned for use in a structured way allowing one to develop tactics for thinking about particular issues.
  • Enables you to look at a potential career choice from a wider range of perspectives and gives you an opportunity to reflect deeply on the various aspects of a potential career. It also allows you to evaluate the risks as well as look at the possibilities of a career choice.
• Six thinking hats

  Advantages:

  • Provides a template to follow
  • Good for introductory decision-making thinking
  • Helps to simplify decisions
  • Allows objectivity and takes emotion/bias out of decisions
  • Can help goal setting and aid motivation in making decisions
  • Reduces procrastination
  • Can improve exploration of ideas
  • Fosters collaborative behaviour.

  Disadvantages:

  • Time consuming
  • Not always all aspects/hats need to be considered
  • Difficult to adopt six different opinions when you are doing this process by yourself.