It is essential to define your career development goals clearly as a professional. Proper planning will aid propel your action plans effectively without wasting time.
Career development goals are personal or team objectives that will help you improve your skills and boost your motivation. This article will help you get an indepth understanding of career development goals and how to set and achieve them.
How to Set Career Development Goals?
The best way to set career goals is to understand your long-term objective and then develop short-term goals to propel you to achieve long-term goals. Creating short-term steps will aid you in achieving your career goals faster and seamlessly.
1. Describe Your Goal Plainly
It is essential to understand the goal you want to achieve professionally. The easy way to do this is to identify your goals categories. Most plans fall in productivity, personal development, education, or efficiency.
You’ll have to clarify whether you want to improve your speed, efficiency, or perhaps time management. Or maybe you need to acquire a certain level of skills or better your education level.
Probably, you want to develop yourself with better communication skills, networking, or gain needed leadership skills. Know what you want and set a plan for your goals.
2. Set Short-term Goals
Identifying short-term goals that sling-shots you closer to your long-term career development goals is very important for your career development goals process.
It is also crucial that the short action plans do not necessarily have to change your everyday routine; then, you build on progressive milestones like boosting your product output or revamping your focus ability.
3. Use Notable Goal Setting Proces
Ther are several goal-setting processes that are very effective, the most common being the SMART tool. It emphasizes that your goals need to be specific, can be measured, easily achievable, realistic, and very timely.
This tool will aid you in setting attainable goals that are precise and have a deadline with trackable progress.
Examples of Career Development Goals
Below is an illustration of 7 examples of career development goals that will give you an idea of how to design your own.
1. Get a degree or certificate
Advancing your skills with a professional degree or certificate will support your career progress. Many benefits come with furthering your education, which may also help you change your career according to your development goals.
Furthering your education can be a short-term or long-term development goal, and it has been made easy as some schools offer evening programs that marry perfectly with your day job.
Also, some employers have professional development programs to better their employees. It is wise to ask your company’s human resource manager whether they have such career development programs to polish your profession-related skills.
2. Seek Promotion
Seeking promotion can also be either a short-term or a long-term objective, depending on your level of qualification.
You’ll need to assess the level of expertise needed for the promotion. If you nearly meet the requirements and only need additional capabilities like leadership skills, it becomes a short-term goal, but if a few years of experience is needed, it becomes a long-term goal.
A promotion that comes with additional responsibilities aids you in acquiring new skills leading to the development of your career. When you feel confident in applying for one, prepare thoroughly for the interview with your manager.
3. Improve Your Communication
Your communication skills determine how fast or slow you’ll progress with your career development goals. Effective communication increases workflow efficiency significantly. Majorly, written and verbal are the commonly used forms of communication.
It is wise to set career development goals on your written communication; before sending official letters or emails, you must always proofread them before pressing the send button; also, use spell checkers to minimize errors.
And for improved verbal communication, it is wise to invest in career development programs such as public speaking lessons for ease of delivering speeches and effective verbal relay of messages to your colleagues or seniors.
4. Master New Technology
Embracing and learning new technology related to your field is a step in the right direction for your career development goals. It shows that you are willing to learn new ways of solving challenges while maximizing productivity.
5. Develop a Personal Website
Creating a personal website is an excellent way to sell yourself professionally and grow your career network. Your site hosts your executive portfolio, blog, resume, and mission statement.
When searching for jobs, sending your website’s link to hiring managers has proven effective and gives you an upper edge in securing a job over other job seekers without a personal website.
6. Improve on Your Networking Prowess
Improving your networking skills enables you to increase your business knowledge related to your field and also aids you in building a profitable professional network.
Networking starts with your colleagues in your department, and then it advances to socializing with workers from different departments. It enables you to learn from other people’s experiences and gain knowledge.
You can also network by attending networking professional events to meet people with the same interests. These symposiums help you learn about a specific type of industry or improve on certain skills in your area of expertise.
7. Request for Feedback
It is vital to get a second opinion on what your colleagues think about you and your performance. Always set a goal to inquire about your performance, and this will help you identify areas of weakness that will help you improve professionally.
In Summary
It is essential to set your career development goals as a profession, for it will help you constantly improve your skills and performance efficiency.
Short-term goals aid you in achieving long-term objectives efficiently, and with proven tools like the SMART process, you are a stone’s throw away from attaining your career development goals.
FAQS
- What are three goals for your career development?
- Increased revenue
- Become a leader
- New experiences
- What is a personal development goal?
It is a goal you generally set for your improvement.
- What is your career development plan?
It is a short-term and long-term goals list that employees create for their current and future jobs.
- What are the types of career development?
Organization, employee, career, and management developments
