Importance of Career Objectives
Companies adapts 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 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 the 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 organizations 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 wants the job, is focused on a particular career path and makes for a stronger application.
Five Ways to Get Your Career on Track and Keep it There
If you want to get promoted and achieve sustained success in your chosen career, you need to do more than just “a good job.” Career success in any field is a combination of skill, sustained performance, and an ongoing personal marketing plan. Most people who succeed are focused on doing more than just showing up at work and doing a good job. They are self-promoters who know what they want and go after it. Self-promotion can be offensive to some, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you don’t promote yourself, no one else will. So here are some basic tips on how to advance your career more quickly than simply showing up for work and hoping someone will notice you:
Be clear about your career objectives: Many people find themselves in jobs by some quirk of circumstances. They either took the job because it was the best available opportunity at the time, or someone referred them to their current employer. So if you find yourself in a job that is not exactly what you want to do for the rest of your career, then the first step to career success is to define exactly what you want to do. Only then can you define the next steps to advance your career in a new direction.
Find a mentor: A common myth is that many successful people are self-made. To the extent that they took responsibility for their career choices and pursued opportunities, then this is a true statement; however, most successful people also have support from a mentor or even several mentors who helped them along the way. A mentor who has “been there, done that” and who may be in a higher organizational position to make opportunities available is invaluable to career success. Most successful people have had at least one or more mentors to coach them and help them along, even if they won’t admit it. So once you have decided on a definite career path, find someone who has already succeeded. See if they might be willing to be your mentor. If not, keep on looking until you find someone who is willing to help you.
Be an expert: Being an expert is about developing your “brand,” you professional reputation. Ideally, you want to position yourself as the “go to” person in your field. How can you develop your brand? Do what all experts do: they write articles, speak at conventions, write blogs, and continually develop their expertise. Today there are many more ways that you can share your expertise by using web-enabled tools. Some simple things you can do are write and publish an article on a web based publishing site like EzineArticles.com or start you own blog to share your expertise with peers in your industry. You doesn’t need to blog every day, but you do need to do it with consistency over time at regular intervals. A blog is not only a good way for you to share your own expertise, but to also learn from colleagues who comment on your posts. Whatever method you choose to use, you need to do some of these typical activities that will establish you as an expert in your field.
Network, Network, Network: Networking is another vital key to a successful career. The more people you know in your industry, and more importantly, the more people who know you, will determine whether opportunities come your way. Although technology has changed, human nature is still the same as it has been for years. One fundamental human tendency is that people like to avoid risk. They prefer to go with what is familiar. Thus, they look to people they already know when they need to hire someone new. If you have a strong network of industry colleagues who know you, you can count on being contacted when opportunities arise. Keeping track of your network is easier than ever using tools like “LinkedIn” to stay in touch. Start expanding your network now in advance of your need to find a new opportunity. It will pay a big dividend on your investment of time.
Keep looking at new opportunities: It takes some discipline to keep abreast of new opportunities, but by staying in tune with what is going on in your company and your industry, you will come across opportunities when you are not expecting it. This will allow you to choose the best opportunities rather than simply settle for what might be available.
These five simple strategies are fundamental to career success. They take time and discipline to implement them; however if you take a look at how successful people have advanced their careers, you will find that they have used most or all of these techniques. You can use them too, and they also pay off with promotions, enhanced compensation, and satisfying career positions. If you want to have your career take off, even when the economy is not, then decide which of these strategies will work best for you and get to work!
