Information integration is the third step in Career/Life Planning, and brings together steps one and two. Decision-making is the integration of information you gained about yourself (Self-Awareness) and the world of work and education (Career Awareness). It assists you with narrowing a general occupational direction into a few career options. This process can then lead you to one career choice that will be satisfying to you.

A decision-making method many people use includes:

1. Anticipate or identify the decision to be made.
2. Use information from diverse sources to arrive at a more clear understanding of the decision and its root causes.
3. Generate alternative solutions.
4. Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of alternatives, including potential risks and benefits, and short and long term consequences.
5. Select the alternative that is most appropriate to the goal, context, and available resources.
6. Establish criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of each solution or decision.

Once you have made your career choice or broader career path decision, you become ready to establish meaningful goals which will provide you with a sense of direction and purpose. In examining your goals, it's important to think of potential challenges that may impact your goals, such as a lack of money or child care considerations. You may want to take a thoughtful approach now, about how you can go about resolving the challenges. A thorough review of challenging as well as positive impacts can help you design an individualized career plan with careful attention to time management and your goals.

Upon completion of establishing goals and timetables, you can pursue your career choice through your necessary education and/or training to be ready to take the next step-looking for work, or Marketing Strategies.

As you are pursuing your goals, we encourage you to do an on-going evaluation. In other words, as you are taking classes in a specific major, or trying out internships or other methods to obtain information about your career choice, continue to question what you are doing. Are you interested in what you are learning? Do you want to develop the necessary skills required for the career? Does this choice fit with your personal, work, and cultural values? Part of the evaluation process of deciding on a satisfying career is to continuously reflect on the work you did in the Self-Awareness puzzle piece.

Here are some links to assist you with integrating your information:

• Career Development eManual-is an on-line college created career planning inventory that contains a section on decision-making and goal setting. It is free of cost.

• Jobweb-National Association for Colleges and Employers-How to Decide What You Want to Do-is an instructive article that helps students to explore the "how" in career decision-making.

• A career decision-making worksheet is found in the Career Planning Summary and Action Plan; a step-by-step worksheet which assists with career decision-making. See Career Services for the Plan and the worksheet contained in the plan.

• Goal Setting - Powerful Written Goals In 7 Easy Steps-here is helpful information for establishing and accomplishing goals.