Tips on Career Goal Setting

1. Tips on Career Goal Setting By Clarke Cagingin, SOSC 125W student

2. What is a Career Goal? • A goal in general is a result one wants to achieve. • Goals require varying amounts of effort, depending on how much work is to be done and how much time there is to do it. • Career goals pertain to one’s career and improvement in its quality.

3. Components of an Effective Goal • Goals must be specific, measurable, and realistic.- Specific means that the conditions are concretely defined. For example, “I want to sell more product isn’t specific enough, but “I want to sell at least 25% more product this month than last month” is much better.

4. Components of an Effective Goal (Continued) • Measurable means that there is a way to measure your progress. In the example stated in the previous slide, the salesperson can see how much they sold (20 more cell phones, for example) by keeping track on something like a document.

5. Components of an Effective Goal (Continued) • Realistic means that the goal is attainable within one’s abilities, position in the workplace, and time. • An unrealistic goal would definitely be “I want to be CEO in three months” by a new, low level employee. There are too many things to do in so little time for that to happen. • A more realistic goal would be “I want to get the promotion one week early” by an employee who’s been there a while and has been consistently doing great work.

6. Goal Scope • There are long-term goals and there are short-term goals. • Long-term goals tend to take a year or more (maybe even a decade) to complete. These goals are major. • Short-term goals take about a month or less to complete, and mainly consist of minor tasks. • Some long-term goals can be broken up into several short-term goals.

7. Goal Priorities • There are different levels of priority in goal setting. • Some goals are classified as “must complete”, where there are highly negative ramifications for not completing them. Usually they relate to overall finances or retention of a job, especially a good one. • Other goals are not as important, and vary in importance. The less important ones could be unfinished and not negatively affect one’s career much, if at all.

8. Goal Updating • You should check on your goal progress regularly. At least once a week or two weeks is good for most medium-sized goals. • Checking on your goals allows you to make small changes if you need to, or perhaps it’s not the right goal for you, so you can also cancel (as long as there aren’t any consequences that are too negative).

9. Why are Career Goals Important? • Career goals allow you to find opportunities to push yourself and advance your position in your career. • Successfully completing goals can lead to more work enjoyment, allowing you to do a better job because you feel good about it. • Without goals, you could be stuck in the place you’re in. Perhaps it could be fine if you really like it and you can make enough to support the people you need to support (like family), but it’s good to try to become better.

10. Ways to Stay on Track • Remember the reasons why you set the goal, and the positive effects it will have. Perhaps you want more respect from working harder. • Share some of your goals with friends and family. They can remind you about your goals and help put you in the right direction. • Overcome temptation to procrastinate and become distracted. Physically separate yourself from distractions if you have to.