“More than five times as many people enter careers by chance than through the assistance of career professionals. This results in a high degree of occupational mismatch, job dissatisfaction, job-related stress and depression (estimated to cost employers $44 billion annually).”

 Why should I make a thoughtful and informed career decision?

 The goal of career decision-making and career planning is to have choice rather than random chance direct your career and in turn direct your life.  It is a tool that you can use numerous times during your lifetime. It will benefit those entering the job market, those looking to change careers and those interested in a retirement career. The method can also be used for other decision-making processes

The key reasons for the importance of learning career decision-making skills are the following:

•  You are likely to have more than one job or career in your lifetime (by choice or misfortune) so you would do well to prepare.
•  A higher quality of  life will be more likely.
•  Today's job market requires it.
•  There are social and economic benefits.
   

1. You are likely to have more than one job or career in your lifetime so it would benefit you to prepare. People are changing jobs, occupations, and employers with greater frequency.  More than fifty percent of college students will change their career decisions during their years in college. Over half of college graduates obtain employment in areas unrelated to their college major.  It is now common for people to have four or five distinctly different careers during a lifetime. Seventeen percent of workers change jobs annually (Herr, 2003).  Other studies reveal one in six change jobs annually. The United States Department of Labor estimates that participants in the American labor force change occupations on the average once every five years.  There are probably several reasons for this unsettledness.
   
1. A principle reason is the volatility in the work world. What do I mean by this? There is less job security. In previous years as many as one in five employees were laid off due to changes in the marketplace. The business world is highly competitive and rapidly evolving. Businesses try to keep up with changing technology and respond to changes in their finances. In order to do so, they downsize, outsource, redistribute resources, require that their employees upgrade skill, and wear many hats. Changing economic structure requires higher levels of skill, life-long skill development, and greater diversity of skill per employee 

2. New technology and the changing structure of business provides new career opportunities for many workers. 

3.  Another reason is our longer long lifespan.  Many of us may not be able to afford to retire.

2. It will effect the quality of your life.  Engaging in the informed career planning process is likely to produce a better fit between you and your work.  How many occupations can you think of?   Do you know that, there are over 20,000 occupations?  There are probably several careers that match your interests, abilities, personality, and values. Finding a good match has been shown to result in greater job satisfaction, higher incomes, less work-related stress, depression, higher levels of education and training, and less frequent and shorter durations of unemployment.  Students are more engaged when attending school if they know what they want to do and it is a good fit. One of the most important factors associated with students who complete college is having a career goal when they began their studies. The specific goal might be expected to change during the time spent in college (as discussed above), but having a goal may increase motivation for study and completing a college program. Learning how to make effective career decisions now, will affect your ability to cope with future changes and you can apply the skills to future career transitions that may be out of your control.   

3. Significant career self-management is required to cope with employment volatility and the nature of business today.  It requires the internalization of a career development process, in which individuals maintain an evolving and self-directed vocational self –understanding.  This is in contrast to the traditional notion of careers, which was a passive submission to the one “right” life-long career. You need the life-long acquisition of new skills and educational which yields you employment flexibility. Employment security will be based on the acquisition of transferable skills consistent with your career objectives but flexible enough to respond to change.  Today's work-world requires you to be in charge of and engaged in a process of life-long learning and career development. 

4. There are social and economic benefits to peoples' occupations being based on informed and thoughtful career decisions.  By virtue of the fact that informed career decisions reduce occupational mismatch, underemployment, and unemployment, increase the likelihood of career satisfaction, and result in lower incidences of work-related stress and depression, informed and considered career decisions lead to higher incomes and tax revenues, less worker turnover, increased productivity, better health for the employee and the employee's family, fewer instances of violence and substance abuse, which lead to savings in social welfare, criminal justice, training/hiring cost and health-care costs.