ORIENTATION
knowing where and how to start

Decision Cycle

The CDMT process consists of six steps, referred to as the Decision Cycle:

	Engaging, or starting early. Here you will learn why you need to think about a career direction now, how to assess your current situation, what you have to take into consideration when making a career decision, and how you can get help from people important to you.
	Understanding, or learning what's important. You will identify your interests, abilities, and what you expect to find in a job or career.
	Exploring, or expanding your options. Here you will learn about career clusters: how they are organized and the kinds of occupations they include and will have opportunity to explore the work content, requirements, and outlook of related occupations.
	Evaluating, or reviewing your options. Here you will identify the career clusters and pathways that interest you, select up to ten occupations in these clusters for further consideration and explore more fully the nature of work involved and the kinds of training and education required.
	Acting, or pursuing an educational plan. Here you will rank each of your selected occupations according to your level of interest, your abilities, and the extent to which it meets what you need and want in a career. Based on that ranking, you will create initial educational plans for the occupations selected.
	Reflecting, or reconsidering decisions. Here you will make a final review of the occupational choices you have made and the educational plans you have developed to see if they are consistent with the interests, abilities, and career needs and wants you initially declared. If the choices you have made do not match with your original statements, you may go back over your decisions and reconsider the choices made at each step.