Your Career Objectives: Who's in Charge?

Your career objectives: Who's in charge of your career?

If you've worked for several employers and possibly in more that one career you know how important it is to keep up with technical changes in your career, new advancements in your industry and your continuing career growth and development.

Although many companies realize how important it is to stay competitive through added training of their employees many do not have the resources to cover all the needs of their staffs.

So the proper obligation to advance and grow your career and keep up with the related knowledge rests with you. Here are some ideas to advance your professional and career growth:

Life-time learning: The key to reaching your career objectives and building your skills is a robust plan of life-time learning and self-study.

With the internet the source of information is almost limitless. Briefly, here are some starting points to consider:

1. Keep up with your career and industry by reading at least one all-purpose business magazine and one industry publication. Use your down time, like waiting or your lunch hour, to keep current with your reading. Whenever you come across something of interest, summarize it and send it other members of your department and your boss.

2. Plan to read at least one career or business related book each month. Whenever possible add another book of topical interest.

3. Discover on-line learning. There are literally dozens of distance learning courses. Many are free, on video and podcasts. Make it a point to keep abreast of what is available and build this important learning resource into your plan. The positive impact on your career will be swift and immediate as you learn new skills, improve your strengths and eliminate areas of weakness.

4. Your learning should never stop. Your local junior college and university has a roomful of continuing education courses. Many can be completed with only one classroom session a month with the balance online. Moreover, some can lead to career related certifications. Others include learning a new language, expanding on computer systems and software skills or just exploring information for a possible career change.

Learning from others: As you get more involved in your professional association look for someone who can advise you about your career and your overall career objectives. Be considerate of their time and plan on meeting periodically to review your progress and to work through issues that may have cropped up.

Within your company, your career association or in your volunteer work you will be working with and observing others who are very successful in one or more phases of their careers. Whenever possible ask them for some time to explain and show you how they reached the top of a particular skill.

If it's some study or practice they suggest add the items to your study plan. Keep them involved in your progress.

In addition, if you see someone who is routinely unsuccessful at some activity that of course is something to stay away from.

If you get stuck in some aspect of your career, you can always find someone who can give you advice and counsel on that particular issue. Career coaches are everywhere, talk to others and get their recommendations.

Get your boss involved: When you have an outline of your career development plan drafted; plan a meeting with your boss. Discuss your overall goals and how and when you expect to achieve them. Get feedback on your priorities and carefully consider any suggestions your boss may have.

Going forward keep your boss informed as each planned milestone is reached and any other achievements related to your career plan.

Learning from outside activities: If your career has a local career based organization, you can profit in a variety of ways. It's a great opportunity to network. Local meetings have speakers where you can learn more about your career and industry related trends.

You should be able to participate on committees and assist in membership drives and conferences. Many professional groups have training courses and possible certifications.

Newsletters, emails and websites will keep you current on news important to your career. Also, there will be opportunities to write articles for the newsletter and website.

Another valuable outside activity is volunteering and working with others. You expand your network of contacts and build important skills such as; leadership, teamwork, marketing and communications.

Summary: Your career plan is a long-term commitment. Stay flexible and adjust your goals as your interests and skills change. Your career success goes beyond a particular job as you are constructing both a career and a life.

John Groth has changed careers seven times during his working life. Learn more about changing careers and career planning at http://careersafter50.com. Discover how others over age 50, built winning career plans and found the right careers by career growth after 50.

Setting Career Objectives - 9 Steps to Achieve Career Goals

How to Set Career Objectives & Achieve Career Goals

Many people find that the pressures of juggling with work, family and everyday life means that our career goals and career plans are more difficult to achieve than we had hoped. Well-intended resolutions such as setting up new career objectives are soon given up. However, when goals aren't achieved many of us can feel useless and frustrated. This is particularly so if we are giving up on our career goals for a better job. This drains our energy and limits our potential. What I have observed, whilst working with organisations and people going through change is that everyone's approach to handling change is very different to anyone else's.

The key to greater success in setting career objectives is having a better understanding of where you're regularly stuck, and apply new steps at these stages in the cycle to achieve what you truly want in your career. Have a look at the cycle of change. What stage are your career goals at?

Career Goal Awareness Stage

This is the starting point for any change or goal. First there is awareness of dissatisfaction or a new need in your life. Think about the simple need to have a drink. You might feel a little thirsty but can you ignore it? Perhaps for a while if you're busy. Eventually though you get a headache and can't concentrate until getting a drink becomes the most important thing you must do, until your thirst is quenched. It is the same with setting career objectives. The more dissatisfied you are in your current career and the stronger your need for change the more compelled you will be to act. You might feel that you want to a promotion or a more challenging job, but if you feel fairly comfortable where you are, there won't be sufficient motivation to energise change and achieve a career goal.

1. Remove the career goal 'shoulds'. Remove all the resolutions that are being driven by your family or friends. These are the sort of goals you feel you should be doing. For example, 'I should get another job'. 'I should get paid more for the job I do'. All these might be well-meaning goals but unless they are your goals then you're not at the awareness stage of change with these goals. What this means is that any positive results are going to be very unlikely.

Career Goal Mobilisation Stage

This is the stage where you feel the most excited and energised for what you are about to do, and you'll be thinking about all your options and options and ideas. If you start off really excited about a new goal and then all that motivation and energy fizzles before you have made any real progress, the chances are you're being over ambitious. Too much excitement can colour our judgment on our choices and direction. Equally, if you're one of those people who say 'I don't want to get too excited in case it doesn't happen', then you could be draining the energy from the project before you've had a chance to create it. You need to mobilize energy to create change.

2. Remove unrealistic career goal options. You can make progress if you're making unrealistic demands on yourself. Break down your career goal into smaller steps which can be achieved more easily. This will help create more confidence and a belief that you can achieve what you really want to.

3. Find a career supporter. Try to find someone in your circle of contacts at home or at work who will support and encourage you in achieving your career goals. If not, join a related self-help group or find a career mentor who can help you to focus on the positive changes, however small. Their excitement can help you keep up your momentum.

Career Setting - Goal Action Stage

This is when you start to experiment with different types of actions to achieve your career goals. So many resolutions are lost at this stage when the reality of achieving the goal becomes clear. It is often much harder and takes longer to achieve than first thought. If you are getting stuck at this stage the chances are that you're being too much of a perfectionist and expecting to get great results all the time. It's easy then to feel demoralised and give up too soon. To achieve satisfaction requires lots of action!

4. Experiment & be flexible with your career goals. Be prepared to try many different ways to achieve your goals. Ask yourself how many different options can you try to make this happen. View these approaches as experiments to be carried out rather than solutions. Inevitably some approaches will work better than others. Thomas Edison, the renowned electric light inventor was supposedly asked by a New York Times Reporter, "How does it feel to fail seven hundred times". He answered that "I have not failed seven hundred times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those seven hundred ways will not work."

5. Face your career fears. Sometimes we give up very quickly not because our resolutions are really impossible to achieve but because we feel scared of trying to achieve them. It is easy to procrastinate and let day-to-day pressures get in the way of following our dreams. This is why some of the most fundamental life changes such as starting a new business or a new career are only made when change is forced upon us, such as following a divorce or redundancy.

6. Be kind to yourself. We are often harder on ourselves than we would be with our friends. Try and reframe your results so that there is no such thing a failure or mistake, just a need for new approaches. Ok, it can be scary but looking for failure is not going to help. For example, an unemployed man has applied unsuccessfully for over a hundred jobs! He now works actively as a volunteer three days a week, and has been on a training course to upgrade his skills. He could panic and give up. But his proactive approach means that he is increasing his chance of finding suitable paid work. It's essential to find alternative options to improve your chances of success.

7. If it's not working do something else. If something isn't working there is a tendency to look for something or someone to blame. 'I haven't got the new job I wanted because of the children'. If you want to achieve something new in your life you will need to take responsibility for where you are, and then try to take some small steps to do something different.

Career Setting Satisfaction & Career Goal Celebration Stage

This is the stage when the project or goal is completed and satisfaction is reached. If you are the sort of person who has many half finished projects still open waiting to be completed then you probably feel that your career goals never get completed. However, you might have achieved more of your career goal than you think. Many of us have the tendency to look at what hasn't been achieved rather than savouring the pleasure of what has. For example, 'I've got a new job but at a lower salary than I wanted' It is also very British to talk-down our achievements. None of us want to be seen to 'be a show off' but celebrations are good for our morale, confidence and give closure to projects which help us to achieve new dreams.

8. Appreciate completion of career goals. Appreciate how far you've come so far. It may not have been exactly what you had in mind when you started out, but good enough might be all that is needed now. It's OK for your goal to change and develop over time.

9. Celebrate your career successes. A desire for perfectionism can get in the way of celebrating your achievements. Identify what you've achieved and find ways to celebrate your success regularly. A bottle of champagne, a meal out or a trip out can do wonders for your self-esteem and happiness. Go for it and enjoy.

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Is Setting Personal Career Objectives Necessary, and What Are the Advantages?

Whichever career you may be considering as a student, or that you might already be involved in, it is sure to be competitive. The level of competition will vary greatly at the entry stage; it is all a matter of supply and demand. If your desire is to be an astronaut or a veterinary surgeon, the competition to get those coveted places is enormous. If you have chosen nursing, then entry will be easier. However, whichever career it is, once you have entered that career, there will be competition to progress to a higher level, and it is here that having clear career objectives will be necessary.

It is true that some people may have a successful career without ever having set themselves any personal career objectives; at least, any written objectives. However, as with any competition, those who plan their success the best do give themselves an advantage over those who do not. This applies as much to career objectives as it does to as it does to business objectives and other personal objectives.

Advantages of Setting Career Objectives

There are numerous advantages to setting career objectives, at the various stages in the pre-career and career cycle. Ideally, career objective setting should begin late in school, college or university, at some time prior to applying for any jobs. Thereafter, it is worth reviewing those objectives regularly, even annually as you would normally with business objectives.

The following are some of the more obvious advantages of setting career objectives for yourself:

1. The process of objective setting forces you to, among other things, think clearly about your future career, and consider in detail the field in which you wish to work, the position you would aim to hold, the skills you need to acquire, and the work you need to plan.

2. By going through such a detailed thought process, you may identify before it is too late that a particular career is not for you, or you may in fact reinforce your decision to follow a particular career path. Either way, you are more likely to end up in a career that suits you, at least for the time being.

3. Once you have set your career objectives, they give you a structure on which to pin your career development. You can put together a career plan based on these objectives, and then monitor progress and carry out regular reviews of the way your career is developing.

4. Establishing career objectives, and writing them down, shows you are somebody who has clearly thought deeply and into the future about your career, and what you want to achieve. Not only will this help you to keep track of your career progress, it will also impress employers and potential employers.

5. Regular monitoring of your career objectives will help you to discern when you are not making sufficient progress, and help you to pinpoint why that is so. That can enable you to take corrective action to put yourself back on target for your goals, or to reassess the goals and make them more achievable.

6. Having career objectives may also help you decide that a certain career is not for you, if you have set reasonable objectives and then found you could not reach them and felt no further motivation to do so. You may therefore be in a position to switch to another career sooner than someone who was not monitoring their progress against objectives.

Other advantages to setting career objectives may no doubt be cited, but those above are some of the most common. Generally speaking, though, taking the trouble to set objectives for your chosen career is likely to benefit you in more ways than one.

This career development article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner and part author of the Routes To Self Improvement website.

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Career Objectives - Overlook Them at Your Peril!

Importance of Career Objectives

Companies adapt operating models to achieve pre-defined targets and objectives. It is also crucial for companies to plan for the future by benchmarking employee performance, developing skills, managing talent and succession planning.

Good employers usually provide the necessary infrastructure for encouraging individuals to train, develop and progress in their careers, but much of the emphasis and hard work has to come from employees themselves. This facilitates the need for individuals to plan their careers by establishing a clear career path and an effective strategy. A fundamental part of creating a career plan is having a strategic vision or target role. A career objective is essentially a clear statement of intent for reaching the vision or target job role.

'SMART' components...

Specific: A clearly defined target role. Candidates need to be focused on achieving a specific job role or attaining a level of progression. Maintaining a clear focus on the overall objective is important, though career objectives may change slightly over time.

Measurable: Candidates must be able to monitor progress effectively by benchmarking performance against pre-defined criteria. For many, this is often done through performance reviews with line management. More senior career-minded professionals may use career mentors to outline stages of progression and evaluate performance against set objectives.

Achievable: They must be realistically achievable with clearly defined stages of progression. Objectives and action plans can be set at each stage of progression. Unrealistic objectives can be de-motivating, unhelpful and will ultimately lead to a sense of failure. More important objectives maybe harder to achieve and will generally take longer.

Relevant: Career objectives must have a clear context by being relevant to current situations, intended career path and aligned to a planned strategy. A relevant objective gives clear sense of direction and additional focus.

Time Focused: Specifying timescales and deadlines are important otherwise career objectives may never be met. Effective career plans should have clearly defined time periods. A well-structured plan with realistic timescales ensures a sense of urgency and purpose.

Objectives and Career Progression

Successful career progression is often based around an effective and well-structured career plan. Achieving the overall career objective should be the final outcome of any career plan.

Career plans should be flexible enough to take into account the need to improve skills, take on board additional training, projects and development as well as fitting in the necessary time and commitment to drive forward and meet desired objectives. A skills and gap analysis is often required to identify areas of weakness to work on ready for achieving progression. Career progression should be the deserved outcome of any personal and professional improvement activities.

Measurement of Success

Reaching or exceeding career objectives should give an important sense of achievement. The stakes get higher as people progress through organisations with increased management, budgetary and staffing responsibilities. Rewards can also be reaped through a higher salary, additional benefits and a higher professional profile within the company. At higher levels, further professional recognition can be gained through companies looking to headhunt for particular skills and experience.

Setting Objectives

Career objectives never be determined in isolation. They should always be openly discussed and periodically reviewed to ensure they remain 'SMART' and ultimately successful. Objectives should be written down, clarified and clearly aligned to any career plan.

Getting a second opinion through a line manager, career mentor or another career-minded professional always helps to gain a different perspective, resolve any oversights and allows for career plans to be structured effectively. Very often career mentors and line management will have established processes and resources to help people set career objectives and determine viable career plans.

Selling Objectives

Getting across career objectives is important. Conveying career objectives to line management will help in the creation of future development plans and a career path may result. Selling career objectives to prospective employers is also important, as this can show ambition, drive and focus when selecting candidates for job interview. Objectives should therefore be clearly mentioned in a CV or marketing document.

CV Writing and Career Objectives

A career objective in a CV is crucial because it tells recruiters exactly what the candidate is after. It focuses the CV towards a specific job role. Many candidates fail to state what they want and so come across as rather vague. A clear, specific and carefully targeted career goal shows a statement of clear intent. This often reassures the recruiter that the candidate really wants the job, is focused on a particular career path and makes for a stronger application.

In Conclusion

Career objectives carry much weight in terms of defining a career path, a vision and motivation for success. Good objectives will be easier to follow and understand if they are SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time focused. Objectives may evolve and change over time but must always form part of a wider career plan.