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career goals examples

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.

Goal Setting at Work: Plan for Success and Reach Your Goals

Last Updated January 2023

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Use SMART goals to focus your work, hold yourself accountable, measure and evaluate your progress, and make an impact. | By Leila Bulling Towne

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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.

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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.

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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. 

Page Last Updated: July 2021