Setting goals for your career journey is essential to achieving satisfaction and success in your career. Whether you are aiming to be an administrator or director of a multi-national corporation, knowing how to set career goals and defining what is required to get there will help you to achieve your ambitions.
Setting goals for career journey is a basic and key principle used in business by successful people. So applying the same principles to managing your career by formulating a career development plan to control your direction can give you a lead role.
Career goals are clear statement that defines the ultimate job you aspire to throughout the course of your career. Provided it is realistic, a clear career goal allows you to then set yourself an action plan, or personal development plan, to work towards to achieve your professional ambitions. What are the solid tips to setting goals for your career journey?
Solid Tips For Setting Goals For Your Career Journey
Whether you’re about to graduate from high school or thinking about a career change, there are likely several types of careers that could be a good fit for you. The different types of careers are:
- Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources
- Architecture and Construction
- Arts, Audio/Video Technology, and Communication
- Business and Finance
- Education and Training
- Government and Public Administration
- Health Science
- Information Technology
- Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security
- Marketing
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
Do you have interest in any of the above listed career, here’re the five solid tips for setting goals for your career journey:
1. Identify the industry
As we mentioned the different types of careers above, the first step to setting goals for career journey is to identify the industry you’d like to work in, it can make it easier when searching for a specific job. Choosing a particular career path you are interested in can also help you decide on your education. With many options to choose from, having an understanding of the types of careers can be helpful when deciding what is best for you.
2. Think about your overall education goals
You want to get started with education and training career like going to college or a training program, but don’t have a solid plan yet? Setting a goal is a great place to start your training journey. Goals give you something to plan your activities around. And they’re a way to measure your success.
Setting education goals is not complicated. Your goals can be as complex or as simple as you want. Your overall goals might be the answer to one of the following questions:
- What do you want to get out of education?
- How do you want to put your training or education to work?
- How do you want to feel once you’ve accomplished your educational goal?
Then, identify steps that will move you closer to your education career goals. These will become your education or training activities. Everyone will have different activities, depending on where they are in their planning. Some activities you might include are:
- Decide on a career you want to pursue. You can get started with a self assessment.
- Learn about training requirements for a job of interest. Find these in an Occupation Profile for the occupation you’re interested in.
- Learn more about the range of education or training options at What’s right for me?
- Search for a local short-term training program. Visit the Local Training Finder to search by occupation, program, or school.
- Search for a college program. Search for schools or programs anywhere in the United States with the Local Training Finder.
- Learn about the cost of training, financial aid, and other ways to pay for training.
3. Explore more detail on the occupation
You may be someone who has known for a very long time exactly what occupation you aspire to. Or perhaps you have several careers in mind with no clear understanding of which one is best for you. Either way, the initial step in formulating a career plan involves exploring in more detail the occupation that interest you and ensuring you are comfortable with the reality of your options.
4. Be specific, but don’t overdo it
You need to define your career goals, but if you make them too specific, then they become unattainable. Instead of saying, “I want to be the next CEO of Apple, where I’ll create a billion-dollar product,” try something like, “My goal is to be the CEO of a successful company.”
5. Don’t be self-centered
Your work should not only help you advance, but it should also support the goals of your employer. If your goals differ too much, then it might be a sign that the job you’ve taken isn’t a good fit.
