Over time, many professionals struggle to answer the question "What are your career goals?" As you move through your career, your priorities will inevitably shift. Your professional goals from three years ago, for example, might not match what you want for yourself today.
When you feel out of touch with your goals, you’re far more likely to begin thinking that your career trajectory has lost some of its momentum. And this kind of thinking can lead down a slippery slope.
Related: Is Your Career Off Track? Four Ways to Tell
Luckily, there’s a simple solution to this problem: take the time to regularly update your career goals. Updating your goals helps you understand where you’ve been, where you are now and, most importantly, where you’d like be in the future.
Here are three key questions to ask yourself as you begin updating your career goals:
1. What Do I Professionally Value?
Anyone with a few years in a career under their belt can identify their workplace likes and dislikes. But as you start to update your career goals, take the time to really reflect on what your professional values are. What types of organizations do you admire? What kind of work environment makes you truly satisfied? Do you prefer a highly collaborative workplace, or one where professionals spend most of their time working independently? Determining your core professional values will help you focus your goals in many different ways.
2. How Do I Define Success?
Success means something slightly different to everyone. Moreover, it means different things to us at different points in our lives. You may have aspired to a certain type of position earlier on in your career, but perhaps you’d like something slightly different for yourself moving forward. Be sure to update your goals based on your current definition of success. You’ll be much happier for doing so.
3. Whose Career Do I Envy?
We all know someone with our dream job. The kind of career that we’ve always aspired to but haven’t been able to achieve quite yet. As you update your career goals, think of who this person is for you. What makes their career so appealing? How did they get to where they are now? What could you do to model your own path after theirs? Use their success as a great example of how to refocus your goals.
Finding a new job can be challenging for job seekers of all levels. If you are currently conducting a job search or interested in exploring job opportunities, you may consider using a recruiter in your job search.
Sparks Group is a nationally awarded, certified diverse, full-service staffing and recruiting firm that offers temporary, direct, and contract-to-hire opportunities for job seekers. Our staffing experts help candidates access open positions, salary negotiations, and provide advice on improving your resume, skill set and interviewing skills to get your dream job.
To learn more about our open opportunities, contact us today to speak with a member of our recruiting team
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