Career choice and heuristic:
Many of us rely on intuitive gut feeling when making big decisions like choosing a life partner or choosing a career. Sometimes that may be problematic.
1. Intuitive decision making works really well when it is based on expertise. In these we lack it.

2. In absence of having any real expertise in choosing career, because we haven't really spent a lifetime in choosing careers, we default to heuristics. These exert a powerful grip.
3. When we ask the complex Q's like which career is best for me, we resort to simpler Q's instead

4. For example we may ask a simpler question, which career pays well. Given that media keep highlighting the salary Google paid to IITians etc, the availability heuristic makes us believe that engineering etc is the best career as far as money is concerned. Same for management.

5. At other times, we substitute the complex question with the simpler question of do I like it. As we don't have any real insight into the lives of engineers, we substitute with an even simpler question do I like maths and science. This is affect heuristic at display.

6. Then we also have a representative heuristic, if we are academically good/ nerdy, we start believing we are more fit for say engineering/ medical role, because that is the stereotype associated with it.
7. We might also substitute with simple question like what I am good at.

8. It is not to say that some of these things like our interests and our abilities should not guide our career choice. But we need to be aware that career exploration should be a long drawn process with much deliberation and experimentation. Intuitive decision may be biased.

9. Even despite long drawn deliberation /experimentation, sometimes a career may not gel with who we are. The role of luck in a satisfying career shouldn't be underplayed. At those times, it's best to start afresh and not get bogged by sunk cost fallacy.
End of musings. Pls add.