Decision-making is always termed as a cognitive process that results in a selection of a course of action or belief among many alternative possibilities (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, Camm & Cochran, 2015). Decision-making is a study of choosing or identifying alternative based on the preferences or values of the decision maker. The decision I had in hand was very tough to make regarding continuing to work for an accounting firm I was working for or moving to two firms that had required my service after my application. This decision I was faced with was very tough.

My decision-making process regarding the three jobs was inevitable, and it was very important to me. Before arriving at the final decision, I had to consider a number of steps. The steps were my decision-making process. My process had four steps, and below are the steps:
Identifying the decision I had to make – this is the important stage and affects all the other stages (Hunink, Weinstein, Wittenberg, Drummond, Pliskin, Wong & Glasziou, 2014). This is because any decision inaccurately defined during this stage will make my whole decision-making process be based on a wrong starting point. I was forced to go through an internal process of trying to clearly define the nature of the decision I must make regarding the three accounting jobs.
Gathering relevant information – this stage required gathering pertinent information regarding the other two new offers since I already knew almost everything about the firm I was working for. I had to seek for information from within myself and outside myself. Within myself entailed carrying out self-assessment of the other two companies while outside myself involves looking at magazines and talking to friends about the firms in order to get the relevant information. Therefore, this step involved both internal and external process.
Choosing among alternatives – the information I gathered in the previous stage were about the rate of compensation for the companies, working conditions, the distance from the jobs from where I was staying, and job security. Choosing my alternatives was based on the above factor. To arrive at a final decision, I compared the above factors for all the companies and chose the company that had the best factors compared to all the others.
Taking action – this stage involves arriving at the final decision. Arriving at the final decision regarding the three companies was done by choosing the company that offers the best compensation, has a good working condition, good job security, and closer to the place I was residing.

There were some similarities between my decision-making process and the one in the books. The four stages I used, that is, identifying the decision I had to make, gathering relevant information, choosing among alternatives, and taking action were all similar to the ones in the book. The only difference that was present is that the ones in the books were seven while mine were four. The steps of the decision-making process in the book were identifying the decision to be made, gathering relevant information, identifying alternatives, weigh evidence, choosing among alternatives, take action, and reviewing decision and consequences.

Using all the steps of the decision-making process is important because it helps guide the process of making a decision (Anderson et al., 2015). The outcome of using all these process makes one end up with a desirable outcome. I had skipped some steps, such as identifying alternatives, weigh evidence, and reviewing decision and consequences. This made me collect inadequate information about the other two new firms. This meant that my decision-making process only relied on information that was not enough. The outcome of this is that I ended up choosing a company that I should have chosen.