How to Set and Achieve Career Goals

An average person spends almost 90,000 hours of their life working for the job they choose for themselves.

Because of this, you shouldn't base this decision solely on how much money you will make or how many jobs are available near you. Instead, it should be a well-thought decision backed up by the right steps.

So, let’s find out how to set and achieve your career goal the right way.

What Is a Career Goal?

Before we get into the fundamentals of choosing and accomplishing a career goal, let’s first understand what it is.

A career goal is basically what you envision yourself doing in life 5-10 years from now.

While setting a career goal, you decide what direction you’ll head into and explain the steps you’ll take to reach your destination. You also include the stops (or milestones) you’ll reach before you can finally achieve your major goal.

Short-Term vs. Long-Term Career Goals

As discussed, your short-term goals are the milestones you have to achieve before you can finally achieve your ultimate aim or your long-term goal.

For instance, if your long-term goal is to be a manager in a company, your short-term goals will be:

Passing school with grades good enough to get you into an excellent college.
Getting into a good business school.
Internship at a renowned company.
Or probably, volunteering at a startup, etc.

But these are just broad term examples. When you finally set SMART goals for yourself, you'll make them more detailed and as specific and timely as you can. We’ll discuss those particulars in the latter sections.

Preparations to Do Before Making Career Goals

It’s easier to say, set SMART goals and work to achieve them. But before you can do it, you must figure out yourself first. For example:

What will be good for you?
What are your interests?
What are your passions?
What are your best skills?
What do you love to do?
What are your values?
What are you good at?

To find the answers to these questions, do the following.

Meet a counselor. You may find one at your school or college, or you can contact someone outside. Make sure to do your research before reaching out to someone. Testimonials are a good way to determine the quality of someone’s services.
Review your work achievements or career—for instance, your academic record, work history, activities you’ve been involved in, etc. Determine the impact different work-related tasks have on you, your response to a complex situation, your personality traits, etc. They help you figure out various aspects of yourself. To give you a basic example, it can help you determine whether should you:
- Work in a cubicle, field, or home office [based on your personality].
- Work for someone else or be your own boss [based on your skills and capabilities].
- Get into a profession that helps people directly or scales other businesses, etc. [based on the type of tasks you enjoy and excel at].
Determine:
- What type of tasks brings the best out of you?
- Which tasks do you perform the best?
- What areas of a particular task result in lousy outcomes? And what you can do about it?
- What type of tasks do you perform badly that can be improved by learning new skills?
Take quizzes or tests online to determine your best personality traits that can be helpful in a particular profession.

These things help you find out in what fields you can excel in your professional life. Then based on it, brainstorm the career ideas that best suit you. Make a list of 10-20 things you can be doing, and then round them off based on your preferences.

But your work isn’t done here. After figuring out the top three career options, dig deeper into them. Consider doing the following.

Find out what qualifications, skills, certificates, programs, personality traits, degrees, etc., you’ll need to continue in these fields of work.
Google them to find out more about their scope, their current growth, and how well they do now in the market.
Reach out to the people already succeeding in these fields and interview them. You can find these people in your family, they can be your university alumni, or you may need to go out and network with industry experts.

Take notes of everything while researching and evaluate the final option that you can pursue. If you’re still unsure, consider volunteering in a startup to figure out if this is the type of work you may want to get involved in.

How to Set Career Goals

Finally, it’s time to make your career goals. As discussed, you have to make short-term and long-term goals. Make sure each of them is a SMART goal.

Specific: It means you know exactly what you’re going after—for instance, what you want to accomplish, who does it involve, where can you achieve it, and why do you want it.
Measurable: By making your goal measurable (deciding how much/many), you can measure your progress.
Attainable: It means that the goals you’re setting for yourself are achievable. To ensure it, ask yourself whether you have all the resources required to accomplish this goal. Plus, consider making a list of people who have already done it in the past. It encourages you to do it as you feel it’s doable.
Relevant: Make sure each of your goals takes you one step towards your final goal.
Timely: Put a timeline on each of your goals. It acts as a deadline and sets an urgency on you. Plus, this way you know if you’re running on time.

Here’s an example of a SMART career goal:

I will apply for internship programs [Specific and Attainable] in three IT firms [Measurable] by the end of my final semester [Timely] to gain experience and increase my chances of placement in this industry [Relevant].

How to Achieve Your Career Goals

After setting SMART goals, you must ensure they don’t just rest in your notebook. But, you actually work to achieve these objectives. Here are some of the ways that can help you do that.

Never take any criticism personally. If you do, it may get in your way of achieving your goals. Keep a positive mindset and be professional.
Stay consistent and persistent. It’s easier to get demoralized if you don’t see results soon. But have faith in the process and know that your hard work will pay off in the long term.
Keep on asking for feedback. It helps you be better and keeps you in the right direction.
Keep on exploring your passion.
Invest in yourself and continue learning.
Always reward yourself after every victory, despite how small, to keep the momentum going.
Keep on setting new targets (short-term goals) after achieving the previous ones to continue making progress.

Your Career Journey Is Going to Be Great

Investing time in research to ensure a happy career life is a wonderful goal to start with. By reading blogs like this one, you show that you're already on the right path.

All you need to do now is to stay consistent with the process and keep on making progress until you finally achieve your best career goal.