Behavioural Science at Work
BSAW Career Compass
BSAW Career Compass
Choosing a university course or career can feel overwhelming. There are thousands of courses and hundreds of potential career paths to choose from. There are also plenty of online career tests that can tell you about your interests, personality, strengths and values.
But having more information doesn't necessarily make the decision any easier.
The Behavioural Science Career Compass is a personalised, evidence-based, career and further education course decision-support service designed to help secondary school students understand themselves, identify the options most worth exploring, and make better-informed decisions about what comes next.
More than another career test
But knowing yourself is only half the equation
From hundreds of possibilities to a manageable shortlist
Crucially, these are directions to investigate, not instructions about what you should or should not do.
Career decisions are rarely made well in a single sitting. Good decisions involve exploring possibilities, gathering evidence, testing assumptions and gradually narrowing the options.
Choose the level of support that's right for you
Ideal for students who don't know what direction to take, have too many possible options, or simply want to make sure they're making their choices for the right reasons.
You'll complete a short background questionnaire and a carefully selected set of evidence-based assessments exploring your interests, strengths and aptitudes, personality, values and motivations, and preferred ways of working. I'll review and synthesise the results before we meet, so our consultation isn't spent simply going through test scores.
Together we'll explore what the evidence tells us about you and what it might mean for your future choices.
We'll identify promising career and university directions, consider the kinds of working environments that may suit you and examine any important questions or apparent contradictions in your profile.
We'll also examine how you're making the decision itself, including potential biases, assumptions, social influences and noise that could be affecting your choices.
Parents are welcome to join the final part of the consultation.
You'll receive a concise, personalised Career Compass Summary bringing together:
Career Compass Plus includes everything in Career Compass, together with a second 60-minute one-to-one consultation.
After our first meeting, you'll have time to properly investigate the courses, careers and possibilities we've identified.
Then, typically 2–4 weeks later, we'll meet again.
This time we'll ask:
And, where you're ready: can we now narrow the choices?
The second consultation allows you to explore and reflect without feeling that you need to make a life-changing decision after one meeting.
Because good career decisions are a process, not a test result.
Which Career Compass is right for me?
Choose Career Compass (€295) if you want to understand your interests, strengths, values and preferred working environment and identify the career and university directions most worth exploring.
Choose Career Compass+ (€395) if you would also like support after you've investigated those possibilities, helping you evaluate what you've discovered and begin narrowing your choices.
Who is Career Compass for?
Career Compass is particularly suitable for TY, 5th and 6th year students who:
You don't need to know what you want to do before you come. That's the whole point.
Why Behavioural Science At Work?
Behavioural science examines how people actually make decisions in the real world. It helps us to understand the psychological, social and environmental factors that influence our choices, usually without us realising it.
Career Compass was developed by Dr Diane Pelly, an applied behavioural scientist. Diane holds a PhD in Behavioural Economics, as well as degrees in psychology, economics and finance. She is a wellbeing expert, researcher and consultant and has extensive experience in building rapport and working with young people through lecturing, teaching, and helping her own four children navigate the university admission process.
In addition, Diane has over 30 year’s experience of working for, and with, organisations in the academic, private and public sectors. She helps individuals and organisations to make better decisions and change behaviour by applying evidence-based behavioural science insights and frameworks.
Career Compass brings that expertise to one of the earliest major decisions young people face:
Her approach combines established psychological and career research with a deep knowledge of how humans make choices to help students use all of the evidence available to them to make the right choice, for them.
It’s not all about "What should I be?"
At 16 ,17 or 18 you don't need to decide what you're going to do for the rest of your life.
Careers change. Industries change. Opportunities change. And people change.
The objective is not to predict your future.
It's to help you make a thoughtful, evidence-informed decision about your next step.
- Understand yourself.
- Understand your options.
- Understand what's influencing your decision.
- Then decide what comes next.