September 23, 2014
There are very many people who are wasting their lives because they have not set any career goals. These are people who wake up every day go to jobs that they probably hate meaning they cannot be as productive as they are supposed to and then go home and wallow in their misery wishing that there was something they could do about their depressing life. The good news is that you can change this and enjoy a satisfying work life that will help you grow in the right direction.
Questions to help you set your career goals
Before you get into the business of setting up your ideal career goals, it is important to make sure they are realistic. This is the only way you are going to achieve them without facing any disappointments. While putting up a list on things you would like to do, there are some questions you need to ask yourself such as:
- Am I committed to seeing the goals come to life?
- Do I have the required skill sets or education? If not, is there time to achieve them?
- Do I have access to resources that are needed to meet the objectives?
- Are the items on the list suited for my interests and personality?
- Do they fit the lifestyle I want to live?
You can share the plays with trusted family and friends to ask for their honest assessment to know if you are on the right path. From here you can go ahead and set the long term goals. These are things you would like to achieve in the distant future and some of the questions you can ask yourself while coming up with the list include:
- What am I good at?
- What do I really enjoy doing?
- What are the job characteristics that are important to me?
The answers you get from the above questions should help you develop ideal conceptual targets in terms of career goals which can end up looking something like this:
- “I would like to work in a creative profession”
- “I would like to work from home so that I can be closer to
- my kids”
- “I want to run my own business”
It helps to think about specifics when dealing with career goals so that you can know exactly what you will be working towards. When you are done, the next step is to come up with the short term goals that will help you reach the long term ones. Here you will also need to consider both operational and conceptual short term objectives where you get to ask yourself questions like:
- What are the skills that will help me achieve long term goals?
- What industry should I be focused on?
- What is the knowledge needed?
For instance, you may work towards gaining more responsibility at the position you are working in at the moment. You can also go back to school to make you qualified for a better position. Keep in mind that the short term aspirations are a stepping stone that will help you get to the long term goals. This means that you are supposed to name them and become serious with them if you want to achieve all your career goals.