At UCAS, we’re committed to supporting advisers in guiding students through one of the most important decisions of their lives. That’s why we’re thrilled to share this blog from Liane Hambly, an international educator, career coach, and co-author of Creative Career Coaching. With over 35 years of experience and a CDI Fellowship recognising her contribution to the field, Liane brings a unique blend of psychology, career theory, and neuroscience to her work.
In this blog, Liane explores practical strategies to help young people make informed, motivated decisions about their future, drawing on her extensive experience in coaching, supervision, and training over 20,000 practitioners worldwide.
When you were at school and deciding on your next steps, were you a turtle, dolphin or crab? Let me explain:
- Turtles instinctively know where they are going from a young age, hatching and heading into the ocean, often swimming solo with determination to reach their destination. Does this sound like you? Did you know what you wanted to do from a young age and made it happen?
- Dolphins are more playful, enjoying being in the moment and belonging to the pod. They’d rather stay in familiar waters than go it alone, enjoying being just where they are. Was this you?
- Crabs take things more slowly, making sideways moves, feeling their way across the seabed and scuttling under rocks if under threat or needing a rest. Did you have to feel and sense your way into your career, maybe changing direction or making a number of moves to get to where you are today?
Maybe you were a blend or none of these creatures, but I’m sure you get the point – there is no right way of deciding on your next steps.
There are many approaches, and the effectiveness depends on the student – the way their brain works, their personality, how important the decision is at the time (what else is happening in their life) and so on. Even those who appear 'sorted' can start to question whether it's right for them.
So how can you support young people to make the best decision, for them?
- Avoid advice giving! What works for one person doesn’t work for another. We’ve all heard stories along the lines of 'my teacher/careers adviser said I should …' invariably followed by the reason why the suggestion didn’t work.
- Let them know it’s normal to be undecided. It might appear that everyone else is sorted, but many people feel more uncertain than they appear. What’s more, many will change their mind and end up in careers they never considered when young. Let them know they just need to focus on the first step and make sure it’s something they will enjoy and be good at. They also need a way of processing or making sense of the information. This is where decision making methods come into play.
Discover their preferred decision-making approach. Pros and cons can be the default decision-making approach, but there’s no evidence that it’s any more effective than other methods when it’s a complex life decision.
For example, those prone to perfectionism can find themselves going round and round in circles with this method as they try to find the 'right' decision. So let’s find out what works for them. The below worksheet can be used to prompt reflection on:
- how they made past decisions (subject choices, work experience, other decisions) and whether this was an effective way of choosing and
- how they’d like to approach deciding on their next steps
Final thoughts
Life and career decisions are complex, and as a teacher you’re not meant to have all the answers. What you can do is to hold back from advice giving and empower the student to embrace their own decision-making and foster a mindset of curious enquiry.
