Summary of my CDDQ Results
According to my CDDQ results, I have no difficulty making decisions due to lack of information about the self, internal conflicts, or external conflicts. I do have moderate difficulty in making career related decisions due to a lack of motivation, dysfunctional beliefs about career decisions, lack of information about the decision making process (how to do it effectively), a lack of information about available occupations, lack of information regarding additional information sources, and unreliable information about some aspect of the career decision making process. Finally, the only category in which I showed a “significant difficulty” was general indecisiveness.
This suggests that I have a good idea about who I am and what I want in a career (no difficulty due to lack of information about the self or internal conflicts), and that I have adequate support from significant others (no difficulty due to external conflicts). In addition, some of my career decision making difficulty likely arises out of a general lack of information both of careers and how to make informed decisions about my career path (lack of information about decision making process, lack of information about occupations, lack of information about additional sources of information, and unreliable information), inaccurate beliefs about the decision making process (dysfunctional beliefs), and a lack of drive to make any career decisions at this time (lack of motivation). A general difficulty in making decisions (not exclusively career decisions) seems be the driver of most of my decision making difficulty.
This suggests that I have a good idea about who I am and what I want in a career (no difficulty due to lack of information about the self or internal conflicts), and that I have adequate support from significant others (no difficulty due to external conflicts). In addition, some of my career decision making difficulty likely arises out of a general lack of information both of careers and how to make informed decisions about my career path (lack of information about decision making process, lack of information about occupations, lack of information about additional sources of information, and unreliable information), inaccurate beliefs about the decision making process (dysfunctional beliefs), and a lack of drive to make any career decisions at this time (lack of motivation). A general difficulty in making decisions (not exclusively career decisions) seems be the driver of most of my decision making difficulty.
Reflection on my CDDQ Results
While I have reservations about the design of the CDDQ, I have to say that the relative values of my scores seem to fit into my life very well. I’ll speak first to those categories, of which my responses indicated no difficulties, followed by categories that seemed to be the source of moderate difficulties, and finally the category that was indicated as being the source of significant difficulty.
When first reading my CDDQ results I was not surprised at all to find that I didn’t have any apparent difficulties with lack of information about myself, or internal and external conflicts. I have a deep understanding of myself (i.e. my values, abilities, attitudes, strengths, and short-comings), and comfort with who I am and what I want; these are not areas that cause me any great difficulties. That being said, I believe that self-understanding has certainly aided in making career related decisions in the past. Knowing who I am and what I want has allowed me to step back from conflicting or difficult career choices, and decide what option was most congruent with my self. The support and similar values held by those I surround myself with has likely served to further increase my self-understanding and decrease any internal conflicts I may have been battling with. This has given me a sort of confident ease over most of the serious decisions I have to make. The fact that much of the areas I was reported to have some difficulty with were related to a lack of information was, admittedly, a little disappointing. Everyone likes to think they know what they’re doing all the time, but according to the CDDQ much of the difficulty I experience in making career related decisions is due a lack of information. The more I thought about this, the more I realized this is very much true of my current situation. I’ve been so focused on pursuing my graduate degrees and becoming a professor at some point that I rarely take the time to evaluate other possible careers, or what other steps I need to take in order to achieve my goals. This has been an eye-opening experience, the result of which has encouraged me to begin some informational interviewing with some of my academic mentors. I am mainly taking the time to ask them what they find are good and bad aspects of their career, how they got there, and what they would suggest for someone hoping to do the same. |
I’m learning a lot about some of the lesser-known drawbacks of the position (i.e. voluminous amounts of paperwork, pressure to publish, reliance on grant funding). I still believe this is something I’d like to pursue, however, it’s given me a lot to think about regarding how to better prepare myself.
My general indecisiveness is something that many of my closest friends and family-members remind me of every day. It’s not necessarily major or important decisions that I struggle with; rather, it’s the minutiae of every day decisions that I struggle with. I’m often the first to defer to others to make simple decisions (i.e. where to go for dinner, what movie to see, etc.) for me. While I was quick to privately rebut the CDDQ results informing me that general indecisiveness is something that makes my career decisions difficult, the more I considered it the more I realized the cumulative effect that minor indecisions have likely had on my life. Constantly deferring to others for their opinions and reassurance that I’ve made the correct decisions is very likely interfering with my ability to just get the job done. While I do think that my CDDQ scores, relative to one another, fit with my reality very well, I don’t necessarily think that any of the categories have contributed to career indecisiveness in any major way. If nothing else, the CDDQ has given me cause to reflect on the possibility that I have been overly focused on one narrow career path (professorship). I believe it will be beneficial to find further information to help me make a more informed decision about what the job entails and what steps I should take to help ensure my success. |