Is Java Reflection bad practice?

Consider this piece of code:

public void doSearch(ActionEvent event) {
    String query = searchTextField.getText();
    if (query.isEmpty()) {
        data = FXCollections.observableArrayList(dc.getJobCoachRepo().getList());
        usersTableView.setItems(data);
    } else {

        String searchOn = "search" + searchChoiceBox.getValue();
        try {
            Method m = this.getClass().getMethod(searchOn, String.class);
            m.invoke(this, query);
        } catch (Exception e) {

        }
    }
}

public void searchFirstName(String query) {
    data = FXCollections.observableArrayList(dc.getJobCoachRepo().searchFirstName(query));
    usersTableView.setItems(data);

}
...
...

I'm using java reflection here to avoid an if construct. The choicebox is used to let the user decide on what attribute he wants to search, there are 6 possibilities right now. I've gotten some comments from other students that using reflection is 'bad practice'. Is this the case? Why?