Career Goal Examples: Top 6 Achievable Career Goals

Successful people have goals, but even if you have a career or are already in a professional position, you may struggle on occasion with progressing along a path upwards in your career.  It can be easy to feel suffocated, confined, or lacking direction when it comes to navigating through a career.  To keep from veering off track, it is helpful to set up career goals.  Career goals will represent objectives, benchmarks, and milestones in your career.  Let’s take a look at some beneficial career goal examples to set you up for success with your chosen field.

How to Set A Career Goal

Before you set a career goal, there are few things that you should know about goals, as they are set on various levels.

1. First, decide what you want to do, accomplish, or be in life.
2. Secondly, split your larger goal into smaller and more achievable goals or targets that you have to achieve.  This will make accomplishing your goal easier to manage and will help streamline the process into reaching your ultimate goal.
3. Finally, you will want to formulate and develop a proper plan for your goal.  It can be best to establish a step by step plan that will enable you to start working towards achieving it.

6 Career Goal Examples

1. Increase Performance Metrics:  Certain industries and companies use performance metrics when they evaluate an employee’s performance, productivity, and effectiveness levels.  Metric numbers generally measure things such as customer satisfaction, organization performance, employee competence, and cost management.  Metrics are usually measured on a weekly basis, but they can be measured daily as well.  A good career goal could be to increase your performance metrics, which will help show the value that you bring as an employee to the organization or company that you are working for.
2. Earn a Promotion:  It is always a good feeling to get promoted, and a promotion involves careful planning, commitment, and execution on your part as an employee.  For instance, you may need to: do additional work, take on more projects, develop relationships with other department members, and update your resume.  A promotion will generally be a long term goal that you can work towards overtime.
3. Earn a Management Position:  After you have been working with a company or business for awhile, you might have an itch to advance in your position.  If your career goal is to earn a management or an executive position, your goal could range from lasting 6 months, to 5 to 10 years depending on the field that you are in.  This type of career goal can require a series of short term goals to help you reach the position you desire.
4. Start a Business:  A lot of people associate success with branching out on their own, and a viable career goal, in that case, can be to start your own business or open your own practice to become your own boss.  Many people, generally between the ages of 18 and 34 have the desire to start a business if they have not already started one.  When opening your own business, it can be helpful to outline a series of short term goals that can help you get to where you need to be.
5. Get a Job:  For many people, especially in this economy, an example of a career goal might be obtaining employment and finding a career.  If you are looking to find employment, there are plenty of short term goals that you can develop that can be completed before you reach your final goal of obtaining a career.  Remember to be patient in trying to find a job, as it can be a long but rewarding process.
6. Earn A Degree or Certificate:  Earning a degree or a certificate is a great step into jumpstarting you career goals and putting you on a path towards success.  Most careers require that the person has specific knowledge, education, or a specific degree when it comes to furthering or advancing in their career.  Once you are able to obtain proper education, you can look to increasing your career goal options.

More Career Goal Examples

• Switch jobs to one that you know you will enjoy more.
• Identify personal boundaries at work and know what you should do to make your day more productive and manageable.
• Communicate more effectively at work.
• Feel happier and more positive during your workday.
• Develop more friendships at work and try to be less competitive.
• Double your sales or productivity, depending on your job.
• Pick up and learn a new skill.
• Set your eye on a specific award at work and go for it.
• Be more organized with your daily goals.
• De-clutter your work space and keep yourself organized throughout the week.
• Partner up with another person to increase productivity.
• Find a mentor or become a mentor.
• Be known as an expert in a certain field or area.
• Manage your clients better and more efficiently.
• Create a website, promotional material, or social media page for your business.
• Improve company profitability by a certain percentage.
• Delegate work and tasks more effectively to increase your own productivity.
• Send thank you notes to staff, clients, and managers.
• Take a vacation and log off from work to fresh your mind.
• Learn how to network better and attend networking events.
• Learn how to reduce work hours without compromising productivity.
• Go after the career of your dreams to find work in a field that does not feel like a job.
• Stop micromanaging your staff.

• Reduce personal or business expenses by a certain percentage.
• Join Toastmasters to improve your presentation and speaking skills.
• Delete old emails and old files from computer to make yourself more organized.
• Learn how to say “NO” politely at work.
• Learn how to under-promise and over-deliver with clients or managers to surprise them.
• Develop relationships with coworkers and clients to make work seem more enjoyable.
• Become more creative and break out of your rut.
• Build a personal brand or an online website or blog.
• Do things that will make you feel more energized at work.
• Ask for a raise.
• Update your resume and cover letter.
• Send out a certain number of resumes each day to potential employers if you are looking for a job.
• Ask your boss for more responsibility or more clients at work.
• Ask to be trained more for skills in a new department.

Tips for Setting A Career Goal

1. Know your strengths and weaknesses.  There are probably certain areas of life where you can better excel professional than others.
2. Know what you overall goal is for your career.  Ask yourself questions such as, “Where do I want to be in “X” number of years?”  This will help you know where your life is going and how it will intersect with your career.  There may be other goals that you will be interested in pursuing with time, so develop a time frame for your goal.
3. Know the steps you will need to take to achieve your goal in “X” amount of time.  Consider any road blocks you may face and think about how you will overcome them.
4. Be sure to measure the progress of your goal each week or month.  This will help keep you motivated and provide you with a sense of accomplishment.

Plan Accordingly

A career is one of the most important things in your life, and with the properly planned career and career goals, you will be able to achieve what you want from your career in the most efficient way possible.