Setting Goals for Work: Planning Short- and Long-Term Career Goals

readsonthego | August 22, 2018 | Career Planning | No Comments

Envisioning where you’d like to see yourself go in your career is the starting point for laying out a game plan for achieving your dreams. When you have a destination in mind, you can begin to plot out the milestones that will get you there, just like a roadmap. Whether you’d like to start your own business, publish a novel or work your way up the corporate ladder, setting short- and long-term goals is the key to forming an achievable strategy for the trajectory of your career.

Examples of Goals for Work

It can be difficult trying to identify what to think of as a goal. Grace Donahue, a military career advisor at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), talks to students who are wrestling with this issue every day. The most common trend she sees is students who say their end-goal is their only goal.

But what else do they need to do in order to get there?

“One of the best strategies,” Donahue said, “is to work backwards from the goal and identify what steps need to be taken to get there. If this is done carefully, then you can identify where your main gaps and needs exist in your career (progress).”

If your dream is to become a narrative designer for a major game, you may want to:

Think about taking some creative writing courses while you’re still in college.
Begin networking with developers in the industry.
Arrange an internship with a development company.

Those are three big stepping stones that will help you get to where you want to go that you can add to your checklist of goals.

Approaching this strategically will help you break down the overarching goal and nail down what else you should be looking to achieve along the way. “(You) can gain motivation and clarity of vision from well-established goals,” Donahue said. With your strategic roadmap in mind, you can move forward with the confidence that you know exactly what your next step is.

What are Short-Term Career Goals?

Short-term career goals can best be thought of as milestones. They may be something immediately achievable, such as setting up your profile on LinkedIn or submitting an application for an entry-level job to get your foot in the door. The concept of a short-term goal is relative, though, as it could be something you work on over the course of six months, a year or more. They are actionable steps you can take in order to work your way up toward your dream job.

Some of the most common short-term goals Donahue has seen are:

Breaking back into the workforce after a long break (e.g. stay-at-home moms)
Finishing a college degree
Getting an internship to gain experience and networking opportunities
Earning a better paycheck
Improving quality of life
Paying off student loans

Planning for Long-Term Career Goals

You may have one specific long-term goal that is the pinnacle achievement you’re working toward. You can also have other long-term goals, as well, either relating to your progress toward your dream job or completely separate.

Work experience can play a powerful role on your resumé. To make the most of this, Moffett urges her students to be open-minded about the gradual advancement strategy: “Take the lower level job to get your foot in the door. Put everything you have into your job, even if it isn’t the dream job.”

Both Moffett and Donahue see common themes once their advisees go through the process of organizing their long-term goals: