Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

Attribute Swung from Worst to Best Consequence to Compare (Neg Stress; Learning; Influence; Financial Stability) Ranking Rating Weight Benchmark High Stress, Low Learning, No Influence, Low Stability 5 Neg. Stress Low Stress, Low Learning, No Influence, Low Stability Learning High Stress, High Learning, No Influence, Low Stability Influence High Stress, Low Learning, High Influence, High Stability Financial Stability High Stress, Low Learning, No Influence, High Stability Table 1: SwingWeighting Set Up With the table constructed, the next step is to rank order the outcomes from 1 (being the best) to 5 (being the worst). Clearly, the Benchmark earns a “5”. Next, we compare the four other hypothetical job offers to the benchmark and to each other to determine their rank. If you had to choose among only these four offers, which would be your first choice? Your second choice? And so on. Suppose that after some thought, John concludes he most prefers going from Low Stability to High Stability over the three other objectives. Thus, he would rank Financial Stability “1.” After more reflection, John fills in Table 2 with the ranks. Attribute Swung from Worst to Best Consequence to Compare (Neg Stress; Learning; Influence; Financial Stability) Ranking Rating Weight Benchmark High Stress, Low Learning, No Influence, Low Stability 5 Neg. Stress Low Stress, Low Learning, No Influence, Low Stability 3 Learning High Stress, High Learning, No Influence, Low Stability 4 Influence High Stress, Low Learning, High Influence, High Stability 2 Financial Stability High Stress, Low Learning, No Influence, High Stability 1 Table 2: SwingWeighting with Rankings The next step is to fill in the “Rating” column in the table. We always start with the lowest ranked item being rated “0” and greatest ranked item being “100.” The ratings for the other three hypothetical job offers must fall between 0 and 100. The comparison is relatively straightforward to make; how much less satisfaction do you get by swinging Influence from Low to High as compared to swinging Financial Stability from Low to High? Suppose that after careful thought, John assigns 75 points to Influence, 60 points to Neg Stress, and 20 points to Learning. See Table 3. Essentially, this means that John thinks improving Influence from worst to best is worth 75% of the value he gets by improving Financial Stability from Low to High. Decision Analysis Applied to Job Selection 279 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM