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You will have to make a lot of different decisions during your employability journey - these might range from deciding which employability event to attend, whether you want to apply for a job, or if you will do a placement year or year abroad. Making the right choice for you can feel like an overwhelming idea, and it can be hard to know where to start. Only you can know which options and opportunities are right for you so feeling confident in how to make these decisions will help you keep your employability journey benefitting your wants, needs, and priorities. Using the tools below can help your thinking and help you explore your options, and find the right path for you.
Decision-Making Tools
Decision-Making Tools
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis tool is a way for you to break down a decision into:
Strength - these are the benefits or positive outcomes you will gain in your chosen path.
Weaknesses - these might be any limitations or constraints you might face in your chosen path.
Opportunities - these are the opportunities that you will gain from your chosen path.
Threats - these might include any barriers or challenges you might face in your chosen path.
You could use this tool when considering the opportunities you have during your degree to develop your employability and to help you decide which opportunities are best for you.
Mindmapping
Mindmapping
Using a mind map can help you explore your options and visualise the paths you can choose. You can adapt mindmaps to cover any topic you want to explore. This tool can be used as a starting point for a job application, to help you decide on your summer plans to develop your employability or to help you explore your options for your life after you graduate.
A mind map should have these elements:
Your central idea - this is the topic or questions that you are exploring
Branches - these are where you layout your main points that affect your decision
Sub-branches - these help you provide detail to your main points
Categorising ideas - you can use colours or codes to categorise your ideas and point into positives/negatives, benefits/limitations or current actions/future actions.
Pros/Cons List
Pros/Cons List
A list of pros and cons might feel like a simple and obvious way to help you make a decision, but it can also be an effective way to get your thoughts down quickly. Writing out the pros of a decision can help you see clearly the benefits, and writing the cons can help you see which ones you can address and which ones are out of your control. You can use this list for long and short-term decisions during your employability journey.
You can use the How to Reflect activity to help you think about why certain decisions might be best for you.
By completing this activity, you will have used these SGAs:
Defining Purpose
Self-awareness
Adaptable
Innovative
Growth Mindset
Autonomy
Emotional Intelligence
Research Skills
Critical Thinking
Problem Solving
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