Earning stacks of money, starting a family, and going on expensive vacations are goals that we can all probably relate to but they are not the right answer when asked about career goal examples. It is very easy to combine your personal goals with professional ones as it can feel like success in one area must equate to success in another. However, this is not always the case. Professional development goals are an entirely separate category of aspirations and they need to be prioritized if you aim to succeed in them.
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Examples of career goals are those that mark milestones in your work trajectory so that you can progress step-by-step toward success in your area of expertise. There are endless examples of professional goals that you could set for yourself based on your own preferences and the field that you work in. Some are short-term, meant for immediate action and achievement. Others are long-term and involve multiple stepping stones to get there. These allow you to work towards something specific in your career whether that’s a better job role or a project that inspires you.
How to Find Career Goals Examples
There are many employee professional goals examples that you might find online or from career coaches telling you what they’ve observed, but it is essential for these to be decided by you. Attending a conference in your field might be a goal for someone who is passionate about sharing their expertise with others. You, however, might prefer getting hands-on experience with a landmark project that you’d love to work on. Still, it is difficult to know what you want when you don’t know what is possible.
Finding Professional Goal Examples from Professionals
There are many career goals examples that educational institutions try to chart out, highlighting a career path for those curious about what they can expect. These are good starting points but they are often quite limited in their scope and only a few have access to them. Online articles are also ways to shape your expectations from a field and organize where and how you want to begin working. But the best place for ideas on professional goal setting is to talk to those in the field.
Seniors and colleagues in the field have already made great strides in the career path you plan to take. Looking at their experiences, achievements, certifications, and past roles is an effective way to understand how they made it to their current positions. Reaching out to them can give you even greater insight into how they did it and what they’d like to do differently. Capitalize on the resource. Platforms like LinkedIn make it even easier to reach out to those you admire and ask for advice on things you’d like to understand better.
Learn by Looking at Yourself: Professional Goals Designed for You
Knowing what others have achieved tells you what is possible so far in the field but that shouldn’t limit your growth. Consider the career and where it merges with your own priorities to see what is important to you. Listing your current skill sets can tell you what is currently possible for your professional development goals. Listing the career goals you want to achieve will tell you the skillsets you’re currently missing to make it happen immediately. There are many questions that you can ask yourself as you do this:
- What are my passions and interests?
- What are my strengths and weaknesses?
- Where do I see myself in the short term (1-2 years) and long term (5+ years)?
- What skills or qualifications do I need to achieve my desired roles?
- Can I learn these skills on the job or will I require external certifications?
- What aspects of my current job do I enjoy, and what would I like to change?
- What is my preferred work environment and company culture?
- What are some benefits I want from my job?
- How do I define success in my career?
- What opportunities for growth and learning does my current job offer?
- Is there a way to combine my interests and still work in the field?
- What are the potential obstacles I’m going to face? Do I have the resources to handle them?
- Am I open to exploring new industries and roles, or do I want to stick to this specific job description?
- How does my career align with my personal life?
- Is my time frame realistic?
An honest open review of your abilities and interests can thus help you assess what career goals may be right for you. The next step will involve making it happen.
Career Goals Examples and How You Can Achieve Them
While you work on answering these questions and understanding yourself, we have a list of goals that you can consider too. These can be goals to set for yourself at work immediately or to use as support while crafting your list of career goals examples.
1. Professional Certifications
Your personal example of a career goal might center around your expertise in the field. The reason why people invest in additional degrees and certifications is that it can provide them with a better chance to get a job or secure higher pay. This might be an end goal for those who want to hold multiple titles or gather an array of knowledge. This could also be a short-term goal towards securing a new job that requires specific expertise. Upskilling is never a bad idea.
- Read about the different certifications that are available and the institutes that offer them
- Be thorough—read about the learning points of every course and see if it is right for you
- Be realistic and choose what certification you can work on while balancing your other responsibilities
- Talk to experts and review their profiles to see what kind of courses are relevant to you
- Consider adjacent fields and how the courses might help you. For example, a marketing professional might benefit from courses in psychology
2. Continuous Learning
Stagnancy, no matter what the industry, is never an option. Continuous learning is an example of professional goals that will always remain ongoing as the industry evolves. While some might treat it passively, continuous learning requires active investment if you want to stay at the top of your game and find success in your career. In fast-paced fields, staying up-to-date with the latest trends and skills lies at the core of their business model, and ensuring you bring relevant skills to the company can help you secure your position in the field.
Even apart from it being key to other career goals, you might find that you are a learner who is passionate about your field and truly interested in witnessing the latest developments in it. Prioritizing learning might then be the perfect goal for you.
- Subscribe to magazines, journals, newsletters, and other material that can provide you with the latest information
- Allocate time to read these updates rather than letting them sit in your inbox
- Attend events and conferences where the latest technology and trends are being discussed
- Conduct skill assessments to see how your skills match up to industry standards
- Talk to seniors and experts and get their insights regularly
- Take certification courses that can reshape your abilities
- Learn about associated fields and how they are linked to your industry
- Constantly practice and review existing skills to ensure they are not rusty
- Talk to juniors and team members to get fresh insight into how they do things
- Be adaptable and open to change
3. Building a Vast Network
Professional goals do not have to be about your solo progress from role to role. While establishing goals to set for yourself at work, you can also consider how you would like your circle to expand and how this might be beneficial to you. Some careers focus heavily on having good contacts and access to resources. Even without a specific need for expansive networks, building contact can be an example of employee professional goals because it allows you to build a reputation for yourself while also building a support system.
Zippia reports that 79 percent of professionals believe in the connection between networking and career success. Especially for entrepreneurs to note, 78 percent of startups find success through networking. There are many ways to expand on this career goal example:
- Build a presence on professional sites like LinkedIn by keeping your profile up to date, sharing your professional opinions, and engaging with others achievements
- Use social media if possible – especially for creative fields, it is a great way to build a portfolio and assess engagement
- Attend seminars, conferences, workshops, roadshows, product launches, and other events in your field
- Initiate conversations and try to engage people at the events
- Convey confidence in your identity and indicate your industry-specific knowledge when relevant – Build a brand
- Join professional associations where people with similar experiences and interests can build a network
- Engage with alumni networks that can provide you with mentors, and contacts, and also help you give back to future professionals in your field
- Maintain your contact with these professionals through emails, business deals, sharing of resources, assisting with their needs, etc.
4. Leadership Development
Are you someone whose professional development goals involve being a leader and taking charge of the field? Then it might be important for you to prioritize leadership development while setting career goals. Depending on the field, there may be varying opportunities to take the lead and make a difference.
If you would prefer to be a leader in terms of starting and supporting projects, then your leadership goals could focus on bringing in innovation, organizing resources, and finding funding for your company projects. If leadership means decision-making roles and general governance, then you might be better suited to aim at managerial positions where your work can shift to overseeing tasks instead. Assess what leadership means to you and look at career goal examples that fit you best.
- Find a mentor who can provide you with guidance and help you define your leadership style
- Show initiative at work and make your presence felt through your work
- Share ideas with those who can help develop them rather than staying silent
- Pursue leadership development courses and attend relevant workshops
- Prioritize skills that can help you take on leadership roles—communication, conflict management, delegation, time management, negotiation skills, etc.
- Develop empathy and emotional intelligence to better your connection with people
- Read books, interviews, papers, etc on prominent leaders and their ideologies but maintain your own individual perspective
- Accept leadership roles, even if it’s on a small scale, and practice the relevant skills
5. Industry Recognition
It is very easy to see you’ve made an impact in your field when your industry begins to recognize you and your contributions. To become an expert in a domain, however, you will have to build up your reputation and perform exceptionally. By optimizing the short-term goals you set for yourself at work early in your career, you will be able to drive toward recognition with greater ease.
- Identify the basis for your desired recognition. You may want to lead a company, be responsible for a new product, design the next big campaign, be the go-to person for a specific skill, etc.
- Find a niche for yourself and work on projects where you can build your presence in the area
- Present at conferences, publish articles and papers, attend events, make educational videos, or take any other opportunity to share your expertise with people
- Make yourself known on professional platforms as well as social media
- Build a brand identity for yourself and commit to shaping and developing it
- Interact with customers and clients regularly as they will be best placed to vouch for your skills
- Use industry forums to make meaningful conversations and share your perspectives
- Network and build your community identity
- Be aware of the changing trends and try to find ways to contribute to the change
- Seek to innovate and bring in new ideas as frequently as possible while maintaining a central identity
6. Community Engagement
While an unusual employee professional goals example, community engagement is a very rewarding professional goal. It can indicate a preference for industry recognition by being well-known in the community, but if this is a priority, the recognition goal may be better for you. Instead, community engagement can be a goal that focuses on how you can ingrain yourself in a community and give back to it. Community engagement can be facilitated in the field that you work in, or in any other capacity that you want to contribute to a community.
This aspect can boost your resume, that is true, but it can also be personally rewarding to make a change and help your community develop into the best version of itself. It can also help you encounter diverse perspectives, develop your empathy, find areas of growth, improve your people skills, and make you a more balanced individual overall. Some community engagement career goals include:
- Research what CSR activities your employer is associated with and get involved
- Find volunteering events and contribute in any capacity that you are able
- Provide mentorship and guidance to others trying to enter your field
- Teach and share knowledge with those who do not otherwise have access
- Initiate community outreach programs to ask people what they need
- Embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives that give more people an opportunity to work at the company
- Support and promote local businesses, community colleges, youth programs, community campaigns, etc.
- Work with local governments and NGOs to support their initiatives
- Promote environmental sustainability initiatives
7. Global Experience
For many of us, the value of experience outweighs anything that money and success can provide. If you are someone who wants to travel the world, gain diverse perspectives, experience global practices, witness your industry from the understanding of outsider perspectives, etc. then adding global experience to your career goals is an option for you.
Not every career path is suited to such global travel and perspective, but there are ways of introducing this element in your life in some small way or making it one of the main long-term goals of your career.
- Participate in international conferences and conventions
- Learn additional languages to increase your survivability in new areas
- Work with organizations that function across borders
- Pursue certifications that are internationally accepted
- Volunteer abroad
- Explore business opportunities with international clients
- Join global professional networks and social forums
- Stay informed about international affairs and sensitize yourself to external issues
- Check for collaborative projects that are looking for contributors
- Match your qualifications to requirements at companies abroad to improve your chances of working with them
8. Health and Wellness
For those in stressful roles, currently on the precipice of burning out, this might be a good career goal to work towards. Finding a good balance between work and life should be a given but there are often many barriers to finding the right balance. You can decide on your health goals, whether mental or physical and then find small ways to improve towards them one step at a time. Stabilizing your health will make it easier to keep pursuing your other goals without losing your breath halfway through the process.
- Be aware of the wellness support your organization provides and make the most of them
- Set a routine for yourself before and after work to prioritize your health in the present
- Review companies that provide benefits that match your expectations and work toward employment
- Create a list of benefits and try to negotiate for it in your next role or during promotions
- Engage with wellness initiatives and try to establish similar practices in your organization
- Advocate for mental health awareness and encourage acceptance within your organization
- Assess roles that give you sufficient time away from work and utilize that time efficiently
- For those running organizations, prioritize wellness retreats, collaborate with mental health professionals and health tech companies, promote mindfulness within the organization, etc.
9. Entrepreneurship
A career goal can also lead you away from your current career or company, towards starting a business of your own. For many individuals who set becoming an entrepreneur as one of their professional development goals, it often means working for someone else until you can build up your own skills and resources. Alternatively, you might be at the start of your career and ready to build your own business and identity. However you choose to proceed, you should begin with a career plan and goal in place to better mark your journey in the right direction.
- Pursue formal education in entrepreneurship, business management, or a related field
- Identify a niche or problem you’re passionate about and develop a unique business idea
- Outline a comprehensive business plan that includes your business concept, target market, revenue model, marketing strategy, and financial projections
- Connect with fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, and professionals in your industry
- Gain hands-on experience by working in a startup, joining entrepreneurial programs, or engaging in internships
- Acquire financial literacy skills to manage budgets, forecast revenues, and make informed financial decisions for your venture
- Hone your marketing and sales skills
- Develop resilience and adaptability to navigate setbacks, learn from failures, and pivot when necessary
- Cultivate a strong work ethic and instill a similar commitment within your team
10. Financial Security
The most obvious goal of employment is financial security. While chasing the other examples of career goals that provide meaning and fulfillment to your life, there will always be a concern for money and sustainability at the back of your mind. Planning for financial security can free you to focus your energy on other tasks without distraction. It can also put you in a better position to take risks and make more confident business decisions that might be the next step for your career or company.
- Develop a comprehensive budget that outlines your income, expenses, savings goals as well as your projected income fluctuations
- Establish an emergency fund that covers three to six months’ worth of living expenses
- Save a portion of your income regularly and consider long-term investments
- Start planning for retirement early. Contribute to retirement accounts such as 401(k) or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
- Ensure you have adequate insurance coverage, including health, life, and disability insurance
- Explore opportunities to diversify your sources of income. This could include side gigs, freelance work, or passive income streams, reducing dependence on a single income source
- Invest time in enhancing your financial literacy. Understand concepts like investments, taxes, and personal finance
- Explore tax-saving strategies to optimize your financial situation
- Set specific and measurable financial goals and review them regularly
- Anticipate major expenses and save accordingly
These are 10 career goal examples but taking a deep dive into your interests and preferences will give you many more that you can seriously consider to set for yourself at work. The format and feasibility of professional goals will vary according to the field, but if you put your mind to it, you will be able to find a way to make it work for you.