Setting Career Goals Effectively

Setting career goals effectively can help ensure that your career continues to move forward. Career goals can prevent you from drifting with the whims of the labor market and ensure that you steer your career toward your own career choices and targets.

Determine where you want to go from here and commit to moving your career in the direction you want. Here are several tips for setting career goals:

Make your goals specific.
If your goal is too vague or general, you won't know when you've actually accomplished your goal. For example, if you goal is, "I will improve my job searching efforts." how will you know if you've accomplished that goal? If, on the other hand, you goal becomes, "By Friday, I will tell five business contacts that I'm job searching and ask them to pass on any job leads they may know about." then you have a specific goal, and you'll be able to measure whether you accomplished it or not.

Make your goals positive.
State your goals as something you are moving toward, not something you are moving away from. For example, instead of saying, "I never want to work for a micromanaging boss again." try, "I value independence, and I will ensure that my next job allows me to work independently." It's much more motivating to work toward a positive goal than to allow yourself to remain focused on past negativity or disappointments.

Consider short term, medium term and long term goals

Career goals can be short term (I will call five business contacts by the end of the week and let them know I'm job searching) medium term (I will find a rewarding job in my field in the next six months) or long term (I will be financially independent and able to retire when I'm 60). Often it's helpful to establish long term goals first. That way, you can work backwards and ensure that your medium term goals contribute to achieving your long term goals and your short term goals contribute to your medium term goals.

This strategic approach to setting career goals helps to ensure that you are actively moving your life and your career in the direction you choose. Seeing the big picture of achieving your long term goals, can also help you to stay motivated to achieve your smaller goals because you know they are leading to something bigger that you truly value.

Set congruous goals
Setting congruous goals simply means that if you set several goals, you should ensure that they are compatible with each other.

For example, I recently read a magazine article in which the author detailed her goals for the year. Her goals (among others) were to lose 15 pounds and to learn to bake the delicious cakes and cookies that her grandmother used to make. Now, this author may have more self control than I have, but for me, losing 15 pounds and becoming an excellent baker are two goals that I could not work on at the same time. I'd be sampling all of my delicious creations, and the goal of learning to bake like grandma would completely sabotage the goal to lose 15 pounds.

So, once you've determined your goals, review them to ensure that they support each other. It's counterproductive to set goals that are not congruous. You'll just be setting yourself up for failure.

Challenge yourself
When you're setting career goals, they should be achievable, but a bit of a stretch. Avoid setting yourself up for failure with goals that are not realistic, but at the same time, challenge yourself just a bit. Set goals that you feel you can achieve but you know you'll have to push yourself a bit to make them happen.

Know your values
What are your core values - independence, achievement, security, recognition, freedom, commitment? When there's a discrepancy between your job and your values, you run a high risk of career burnout. So, when you're determining what to do next in your career, consider your values before you set your career goals.

Setting career goals can help you to gain the focus you need to move forward in a positive direction in your career. Commit to yourself and your goals and you can thrive in your career.