When you are about to decide on a job, you are asked to make a decision about something you have very little experience with. There are some principles that might be helpful to you in your decision making process.

1. Don’t let location be a major deciding factor. – Most organizations are going to relocate you in a few years. You may decide on a job based upon location and not be there for very long.
2. Don’t select a less desirable job because of a relationship. Ultimately you are going to resent your choice and take it out on your relationship.
3. Trust fate that things are going to be for the best. Many great careers began with a list of doubts. Once you make your choice, you have to believe that this was meant to be.
4. Sleep on your decision – Make a decision before you go to bed. Write it down and your reasoning. If you find that you slept well and still felt good about the decision in the morning, you probably made the right choice. If you had a troubled sleep and a lot of doubts in the morning, you aren’t ready yet to decide.
5. Don’t get caught up in post-decision regret. You can be miserable if you dwell on what might have been. The key is to make the career choice be the best one possible for you. You can determine this by how you approach your job.
6. Decide if you want to be or if you want to have. This will help you understand whether you are focused more on what the career can provide you in material goods or what you will be doing that you are proud of.
7. Make the decision that’s the best for you and not someone else. You need to decide which offer is the best even if your parents or others close to you don’t agree. You need to decide what’s best for you.
8. View the job acceptance decision as the first step in a lengthy career. How will this opportunity lead to other opportunities? There may be an initial choice that looks very good, but it will pigeon hole you into a career you don’t want. Just as actors get stereotyped into one type of role, you can be thought of as only being capable in one specific job area that you don’t want to make your long term career.
9. Don’t think that you are making a commitment for an entire career. First jobs rarely end up as the place where you will spend your entire career. Typically first jobs last 3-5 years.
10. Don’t let too long of a time period go from graduation until your accept a job. The longer the gap, the harder it becomes to get a good job. It’s better to accept a job that may not be your preference than to have a long time span before you start your career.

When you get job offers, you may want to review these principles to see how they relate to the offer.