LAUSR

Abstract Career decision making is among the key notions in vocational psychology. At the core of career decision making is the process comprised of compiling a list of promising alternatives, confirming which are suitable to the individual, and, after comparing them, identifying the best one. This review begins by delineating career decision making, highlighting its unique features, and justifying focusing on the process involved in reaching a career choice. Next, we describe three types of decision-making models—normative, descriptive, and prescriptive—and briefly review constructs related to the career decision-making process. While focusing on prescriptive models that promote a more systematic process in career decision-making, the challenges in applying general decision-making models to a career decision-making process are also discussed. Given the rise in the frequency of career decisions, it is of utmost importance for individuals, organizations, and society that individuals' career decision-making process be optimal, thereby decreasing the prospect of regret and facilitating individuals' transitions from job to job in the course of their careers. Four related issues have grown in salience in today's world—willingness to compromise, adopting a maximizing or satisficing strategy, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, and grasping the role of unconscious processes. We reflect on the future of career decision making and its role in confronting the emerging challenges of the 21st century. Career decision making will benefit by adopting AI-based career decision-support systems designed to cope with the job market's unpredictable nature. The challenge is how to promote embracing ICT to enhance the quality of individuals' current and future career-transition decisions.