How I used decision tree to decide what’s next after college
A model that helped me to make my final decision of going for a full-time job
Fourth-year of the college was such a terrific year for me. While every other student had already decided what they’ll be doing next, I was struggling to find answers to what to do next. It was a stressful time with multiple questions lingering in my head.
Although I had fixated on doing Design, I was constantly juggling with whether I should go for higher education, do a startup or join a full-time job. I am sure many students are still struggling with these questions. I want to share a decision model that I used to arrive on my final decision of going for a full-time job. I’ve also highlighted how I shortlisted the companies for it.
Decision tree
The decision tree is a tree-like structure of decisions as nodes with branches as possible consequences of the decisions. It helps to map out all the possible outcomes of a decision and thus acts as a support structure for making the right decision.
I picked a chart paper and started to map all my thoughts on it. I started with a node called “College” and the aim was to reach a node that says “Happiness”. I branched out the college node into 3 further nodes- higher education, opening a startup and going for a job. On the branches, I wrote down the pros and cons of that decision.
Clearly, higher education would have allowed me entry into silicon valley (US) and gave me the exposure (pros) but I was also afraid of financial instability that it can cause to me and my family. I also got to know that it doesn’t add much educational value to your profile (cons). Opening my own startup would have required a lot of business, marketing, operations, and other skills apart from Product knowledge. I wasn’t really sure if I am quite yet ready for it. Also, I wanted to understand these skills and disciplines better by joining a firm first and then think about doing something of my own. I also decided to work on my craft first and stick to design for some time rather than investing my time in doing other things. This left me with the option of going for a job.
I again branched out the nodes to drill down on my decision better and began thinking about the consequences of going for a job, startup and higher education irrespective of cons. I branched out job into a remote job and onsite job and again wrote their pros and cons.
A remote job would have benefit in terms of freedom that it has given to me and the ability to travel and work from any place I want but over time I have figured out that I am kinda not a person who can work alone. I need people around me to work and chill and not every learning happens over the working desk. I can relate to this more now as I am working in a full-time job. Thus, I realised that the onsite job would suit me.
I again repeated the process and branched onsite job to working at a studio or product based company. Working as a freelancer for 2 years during college, I realised the fact that I was not getting an opportunity to see how my design decisions turned out. I wanted to see the results of my design decisions. I feel that job of designer in a studio/consultancy firm is very short term and it ends after he hands off design to the client. Thus, I would have missed the opportunity of improving the product further. Though working in the studio has given me a chance to work on different problem statements but this is a trade-off I took over improving the depth of my knowledge.
I again branched product-based company into going for an early-stage startup, middle-sized and large settled company. I was concerned more about joining an early-stage startup. I didn’t want to invest my energy in solving problems that the settled teams had already solved. I didn’t want to fight with developers and PMs over design and best practices because they have yet not realised the value of design in the org. I wanted to cut this crap and focus on my craft in an organised way. I wanted to learn from settled design teams and get mentored by them. So, I started focussing on both middle-sized and large-sized companies.
I continued this whole process until I vaguely defined how my journey is going to be. To give you an example, I bifurcated working at middle/large-sized companies to then working on an early-stage startup or climbing up the career ladder as a design manager. To this stage, writing pros and cons did become difficult but I still tried to branch as much as possible until I can’t branch more and that’s when I reach the node called “Happiness”. When I saw this tree again from top to bottom, everything started to make sense and I became more clear in my decision of going for a full-time job.
Shortlisting a company
The next question was to figure out which company to go for and how to shortlist companies for the interviews. Here I started listing down what matters to me most for the job.
#1. People
I value people a lot in my life. This was the value that I cannot trade-off while working in any company. I wanted to make sure whatever company that I join has a good set of people whom I can work with, who can motivate me to do more than my regular desk job and people whom I can look forward to for any kind of help.
To measure this, I started looking for people (mostly designers) who are actively sharing knowledge on social media, be it Twitter, LinkedIn or Dribbble even.
#2. Work Opportunities
The next important thing for me is whether the company allows the employees to work beyond their assigned job. I was looking for opportunities where I would get the chance to work with different product and functional teams like motion, creatives and also the chance to get involved in organising events, social/content marketing, et cetera, etcetera.
To know about this, I made sure to ask these questions in the interviews.
#3. Product Maturity and Impact
Product maturity was also one of the criteria for me to decide what impact my product decisions would have on the company? If I would be able to create enough value for the company? To give you an example, You will get more credit for your designs while working for a competitive product than a settled product. You’ll be working on bigger and impactful projects.
#4. Compensation
I was sure if all the above criteria were met, I would be able to grow professionally. The last important thing for shortlisting companies was financial growth and compensation because money does matter.
Ending notes
The decision tree helped me to see a clear picture of all the consequences of my decisions and helped me to make the right decision. It was also important for me to trust myself and remain committed to the decision and not let others alter my decision because of their lack of understanding of the situation. Also don’t worry too much about shortlisting companies for the interviews. Not all companies will fit all of the above criteria. Thus, choose whatever company feels right for you and go ahead. You’ll do good.
I hope this decision model can also help you to arrive at the final decision and If you’re still not sure about the decision, I recommend talking to multiple people and do whatever that you feel is right for you.
