Setting Career Goals

As a child you may have dreamed of what you would be when you grew up but you probably never considered how you would get there. As an adult, you need to consider your career in a more strategic way and set goals for your career development. This goal setting will help you take the steps you need to reach your goals and give you something to work on and re-assess as you progress.

Knowing What You Want

What do you want to do? It may seem like simple question but if you don’t have a clear answer then it is going to be difficult to achieve it. The first step to setting career goals is to have the final goal in mind. Whether you want to become CEO of a company, work for yourself or balance your career with a family, you need to be specific about what it is is that you are setting out to do.

Making A Plan

Once you have decided what your goal is you can start putting together a plan to achieve it. Sit down and think about your career development over a ten year period. Think realistically about where you would like to be in one, two or five years time. Consider if you need to move companies, get more training or look for promotions. Having this overall outline of where you want your career to go will give you a blueprint that you can then fill in with smaller, day to day goals.

Setting Goals

As you progress through your career you need to set yourself goals to make sure that you are still moving in the right direction. These can be big goals or small steps that will build your skills and move you forward. Try and set yourself a small goal each week, a bigger one each month and a major one each year. Working towards and achieving these goals will help keep you motivated and focused on your career development.

Re-Assessing

As a child you thought that becoming whatever you wanted to be would be simple and straightforward. As an adult you realise this isn’t true and as much as you make plans, life often gets in the way and you have to change them. Making plans and setting goals is the best way to strategically work on your career development but you need to be regularly re-assess. Look at what you have achieved, consider what else you could do and make sure that you are still heading in the direction that you want to be.

Setting career goals is a good way of keeping your carer development on track. By deciding what you want and making a plan you can steer your career in the right direction. As well as an overall plan, set yourself small everyday goals that can help you build up your skills and keep your motivated. It is also important to consistently re-assess if your goals working and getting your what you want.

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