A - Analysis Paralysis

Welcome to the A-Z of overthinking a career move

The A-Z of overthinking

We start with Analysis paralysis and it's where the A-Z of Overthinking a Career Move begins, because it's often where the spiral starts.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of research...

There's nothing wrong with doing research when contemplating a career move or change. For example, looking at salary data, reading about companies, talking to people in the industry you're curious about. It's what any sensible person would do.

However, there's a point where the research stops being preparation and starts being protection. A point where the information you're gathering isn't helping you decide or move forward; you're gathering information to avoid deciding. And the tricky part is that we don't often realise when we're doing the latter.

If you're currently considering a career move, ask yourself this: After doing some research, do you feel clearer about what to do next? Or do you finish with three more questions, two new concerns, and a sense that you need to research a couple more things before feeling ready to take action or a decision?

If it's the latter, then all of that research isn't moving you forward. It's keeping you busy enough to feel like you're making progress, without having to face a difficult decision or do something that feels uncomfortable.

Why more information makes things worse, not better

Surely the more we know, the better equipped we are to decide? Well in theory, that's true, up to a point. The problem is that mid-career decisions aren't the kind of thing that gets solved by more and more data.

Schwartz's (2004) work on the paradox of choice showed that beyond a certain threshold, more options and more information don't improve decisions - they paralyse them. We get caught in an endless comparison loop, always able to find one more variable that might change the picture.

And career decisions come with an additional complication. Unlike choosing a new phone or a holiday, the variables in a career move are enormous, many of them are unknowable in advance, and no amount of research will tell you how you'll actually feel six months into whatever you decide. We try to create certainty in a situation that doesn't offer it. The research we do is an attempt to close the gap between "I don't know what will happen" and "I'm confident this is right."

The question(s) we're avoiding

There's usually a common few questions that are challenging to sit with. For some people it's: "What if I make the wrong choice?" For others it's: "What if I leave my current job and regret it?" Or maybe it's: "What if I'm not good enough for what comes next?"

The research keeps those questions at arms length. The longer you stay in the information-gathering phase, the longer you can avoid confronting those questions. And research feels responsible, right? It's what any sensible, considerate and careful person would do. It's why it works so well as a hiding place.

But staying in that hiding place has a cost too. Every month spent doing research is a month spent in a job that probably isn't where you want to be. We spend so much time and energy calculating the risk of moving that we often forget to calculate the risk of staying. The toll of another year doing work that doesn't fit or fulfil. The slow erosion of confidence that comes from knowing you want something different and not acting on it.

What does not deciding cost you?

There's a concept called the cost of delay - essentially, what you lose by not deciding. For career decisions, that cost is rarely financial in the first instance. It's more personal than that. It's the version of yourself you keep putting on hold because you don't have 100% certainty in your next move.

I don't know about you, but I've never met anyone who looked back and said "I wish I'd spent another six months researching my decision." The regret, when it comes, is almost always about the time spent waiting for certainty that was never going to arrive.

So, what actually helps?

If the prolonged research mode is familiar, here are some things worth trying.

• Set a decision deadline, not a research deadline. The difference matters. A research deadline says "I'll keep looking until this date." A decision deadline says "I will decide by this date, with whatever I have." The first gives your brain permission to keep searching. The second gives it a container.

• Ask yourself what you already know. Write down, without any further research, what you currently know about the move you're considering. The pros, the cons, the fears, the pull. Most people who do this are genuinely surprised by how much clarity they already have - clarity they've been burying under more data because the clarity itself is uncomfortable.

• Notice the pattern, not just the content. Instead of focusing on what you're researching, pay attention to when you research. Does the urge arise after a bad day at work? When someone asks you about your plans? The timing often tells you more than the data does.

• Talk to one person who's done it. One conversation with someone who's actually made a similar move is worth more than twenty articles about whether it's a good idea. Not because they have the answer, but because they'll tell you something the articles won't: that they didn't feel ready either.

To conclude...

Research and analysis is convincing because it tells you that you're being thorough, responsible, measured, and those are considered good qualities to possess. The problem isn't that you're thinking about this carefully. The problem is that 'carefully' has become 'indefinitely' and somewhere along the way, the thinking replaced the doing.

You probably don't need more information. You probably already know more than enough to take the next step. Not the whole leap, just the next step. The discomfort you may experience isn't a sign that you haven't done enough research. It's a sign that the decision matters to you. And decisions that matter are supposed to feel like this. The research won't resolve that feeling. Only moving will.

Thank you for reading - it means a lot.

Shona

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This is post 1 of 26. Next up: B is for But what if I'm wrong?

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