Work In Progress - Development of a Decision Matrix Modeled after Common Industry Practice to Help Students and Faculty Make Impactful Career Choices

Sep 11, 2026

Uploaded by Tawan

The work-in-progress paper presents a newly developed weighted decision matrix tool designed to support individuals in making high-stakes, complex life decisions using quantitative ranking. It mirrors common industry decision-matrix and FMEA approaches by organizing decision considerations across Excel spreadsheet tabs, letting users assign relative importance and score each opportunity. The tool has been used by high school students, undergraduates, and faculty candidates. Future work focuses on broader adoption and collecting user data to evaluate impact.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Problem context for students and educators

Industrial decision tools and rationale

Proposed weighted decision matrix tool

Implementation and future work

Paper ID \#49182 Work In Progress: Development of a Decision Matrix Modeled after Common Industry Practice to Help Students and Faculty Make Impactful Career Choices Dr. Elizabeth Michelle Melvin, Clemson University Elizabeth M. Melvin a Lecturer in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at Clemson University. She earned her BS in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH in 2002 and her MS and Prof. Adam T Melvin, Clemson University Adam Melvin obtained a BS in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Arizona, a MS in Chemical Engineering (with a minor in Biotechnology) and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University under the direct ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2025 Work In Progress: Development of a Decision Matrix Modeled after Common Industry Practice to Help Students and Faculty Make Impactful Career Choices Abstract The focus of this work in progress paper is to share a newly developed tool that utilizes a weighted decision matrix to assist individuals in making “big life decisions”. When faced with complex, intricate decisions in industry, many project and safety management programs employ decision matrices or failure modes and error analysis (FMEA) to help teams come to a more comprehensive conclusion as to what direction they should take to make the highest impact based on quantitative analysis. These types of tools could also be helpful to an individual making an impactful life decision in that they allow a user to brainstorm all essential factors that are most important to them and ultimately derive final numerical scores to rank multiple potential opportunities (options) . Opportunities include potential jobs, graduate or undergraduate schools. Examples of factors include job location, starting salary, compensation packages, professional responsibilities, scholarship opportunities, potential mentors, or career/livelihood needs for a partner. Decision considerations are grouped by type on separate tabs on an Excel spreadsheet. The user decides how important it is relative to other considerations inputting integers ranging from 10 (highest importance) to one (lowest importance, then grades each factor for each opportunity by entering an additional set of integers ranging from zero (does not have / meet expectation) to five (well above expectations) . These values are weighted and summed to generate a score for each option. To date, this tool has been used to help (1) high school students decide where to attend college,(2) undergraduate students choose which job to take or which graduate school to attend, and (3) faculty candidates determine where to start or continue their careers. Future work entails further utilization of the tool in addition to the collection of data from users of the tool to evaluate its impact. Introduction A student shyly walks into their professor ’s office with a palpable air of excited, nervous energy. This student is the student who typically asks all the questions in class and office hours. They are wide-eyed as they tell the professor that they have good news and bad news. As the professor considers all the possible mental health and curriculum and academic issues, the excited student starts to formulate what the actual problem is. The good news: they have been awarded three offers to competitive companies for their first co-op or internship. The bad news: they have no idea which company to choose or even how to begin making that decision. And the truth is, this is not the last time this student will be faced with a potentially difficult, life-altering decision either. Most of the major milestones they will face in their professional career will be a series of intricate decisions that deeply impact their career, finances, relationships, colleagues, and personal life (Figure 1) . Educators and mentors can give them the canned response of “Well, there is reall

FAQs

What problem does the weighted decision matrix tool aim to solve?

It helps individuals make impactful “big life decisions” when options are complex, by providing a structured, quantitative way to compare opportunities.

How are factors and scores handled in the tool?

Decision considerations are grouped on separate Excel spreadsheet tabs. Users assign integer importance weights and then grade each factor per opportunity with additional integers, producing weighted sums for ranking options.

Who has used the tool so far and what future work is planned?

It has been used to support high school students choosing colleges, undergraduates selecting jobs or graduate schools, and faculty candidates planning career starts or continuations. Future work will expand usage and collect user data to assess impact.

Sep 11, 2026

Uploaded by Tawan