The trouble with choosing

At the end of the year, if all goes well, I will graduate from university. I will venture into the big, wide world and try to find some sort of career. However, I am having a lot of difficulty making a decision about what I would like to begin my working life with. When I reach out to friends and family for advice, the responses I receive in return are falling into broadly two categories. While both categories of advice are sort of helpful, neither are completely satisfactory. Worryingly, neither have helped me take much action concerning my career. I hope that this post will deliver the pinch of salt that I have found is required for either of these sets of advice to be of much use to you.

The first set of advice falls into the lack of self knowledge category. As Penelope Trunk mentions, career choices are actually choices of identity. By choosing a certain career, you are in some way defining a part of you. You are planting your metaphorical flag in the land of Lawyer or Doctor or whatever. The reasoning goes that since this is a fairly big deal, you should do some soul searching before categorising yourself. In other words, if you don't really know what you want you cant go and get it. Unfortunately, soul searching is a never ending pursuit. Do we ever fully know ourselves? Also, the self is always changing. Whenever this happens you would need to re-evaluate your choice. This is rather tiring and time consuming. This method of career selection requires that after some period of soul searching you come out of your mental isolation and declare to the world: I am an Engineer. However, this has such a sense of finality and importance that I shy away from making such a proclamation. The other problem is that there may be multiple jobs that could satisfy the true self hiding within me. If this is the case then making a choice between these attractive futures would still be incredibly difficult. Obviously a certain amount of self knowledge is helpful when making career decisions, but when is enough?

The second set of advice is of the "more is better" variety. I have always been advised to keep as many career options open as possible. To a large extent I agree with this technique, especially given my wide stable of interests. When it comes to job hunting however, a multitude of paths is becoming an impediment to action. While it is wonderful to have a lot of choice, it is also debilitating. For all I know, I may actually have far fewer options than I realise, but when we perceive that there are many options available it is very difficult to make a decision. This is a case of too much of a good thing. Those dispensing career advice often have a belief that more choice results in a happier you. However, as the psychologist Barry Schwartz argues, in many situations a large amount of choice actually makes people unhappier. This phenomenon is referred to  as the paradox of choice. One illustration of this paradox in action involved a company's retirement scheme . The study found that for every additional 10 retirement fund options made available to employees by a company; the rate of employee participation in any retirement scheme went down. More choice made people participate less. The employees found it so difficult to make a decision that they didn't make any decision at all. I am finding a similar phenomenon occurs in my job hunt. I get so overwhelmed that I choose to do nothing at all.

Another finding from Schwartz's studies illustrates a further problem with the "more is better" advice. Even when we manage to make a decision, his studies find that people are less satisfied than when they make a decision in an environment of less choice. One reason he proposes for this phenomenon is that the more options there are, the more we believe that the perfectly outcome is possible.With a large number of choices, we expect perfection. If the reality does not match that expectation, we are dissatisfied. The pool of available  careers has ballooned in recent years. No longer is there the choice between a lawyer, doctor or engineer of our parents' generation. One result of this increased variety is that we expect the perfect job to be out there. Dissatisfaction arises when reality does not achieve perfection.

Finally, there is the issue of blame. When you don't have many choices and the outcome is unsatisfactory; you can blame others. The world presented you with too few options and you made the best out of a bad situation. However, when you are in a decision rich environment and the outcome is unsatisfactory, who can you blame? Only yourself. You should have chosen better. This contributes to your disappointment both in the outcome and in yourself when a job is not to your liking. Schwartz found that people will be disappointed with the result, even when the outcome is objectively good, because their expectations are so high. When the reality does not meet these high expectations, they blame themselves for not achieving what they wanted.

Both types of advice do have some merit, but I feel that the implications of this sort of advice are often not verbalised. What do I recommend? I am still working on that....  One possibility may lie in arbitrarily limiting the options available to me. As Barry Schwartz says: "Everybody needs a fishbowl." Or maybe I just need to force myself to make a decision, any decision and see what happens. I can always change jobs. Having an actual job would also help me identify what I would like in the ideal job. Some structure and contact with regular working people may do me some good. I will let you know if I come up with any better ideas.