After moving from the stage of being a job seeker (either after school or you just landed a new job) to the stage where you plan to build a career, I think it is important you map out what your short and long-term career goals are as well as understand what it takes to achieve these goals and plans.
I assure you that some issues and uncertainties are bound to come up, you will likely need these career plans earlier put in place, to contain the habit of slacking behind, because falling behind will lead to poor career consequences.
How to Achieve Career Goals
These are some of the many methods to map your career path, execute good career plans, and provide your future with a guide map to your long-term career growth. When you start a new job as an employee at a company, these steps will outline important steps to achieving your laid-out career goals;
1. Evaluation and Observation
I believe that the first step to drafting a career goal is to first evaluate yourself. Part of the self-evaluation is getting to observe certain relevant information about your past and current work experiences and skill level. You need to ask yourself relevant questions such as, are you the finance or account type of person? Are you comfortable in the tech field, how good are your presentation skills? In terms of sales and marketing, are you sound? Asking yourself some of these questions and more will help you avoid getting into the wrong field in the first place.
Before getting a job or once you get a new job, you need to find out what is best for you about your mindset and skills to avoid a psychological breakdown in the future.
2. Strengths and Weaknesses
After your self-evaluation, you can then make a proposed list of your plans and goals for your target field or chosen industry. We all have our places of strengths and part of weaknesses. It will only be fair for you to acknowledge that you don’t know it all, and I believe that knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are and how to balance these two equations can go a long way to growing your career. Let me be clear, your target field or chosen industry might require skills you are not just good at.
Observing factors such as your mindset and tolerance weakness level helps because it enables you to know the sections of your life you need to work more on. If you want to go into a field where you are weak or don’t have the skill capacity to back you up, I will advise you to improve your skills as you work day by day. Until you feel confident enough to take up tougher tasks at the new job, work to learn and not just to earn.
3. Be Current about the Labour market
Being current about the labor market news also involves staying up to date with the latest industry standards in your chosen field. I will not advise you to apply to a job field without first studying and analyzing the change in status and job demand in the career field. Make sure you properly observe the job you want to take up.
Look at it this way, let’s assume you are applying for a job that requires software programming at a tech company, you might be sound at coding in Java, C++, and HTML. If the industry is moving towards Python and Artificial Intelligence software like Chat GPT, you will look disappointed if in a job interview, you were asked to code in Python and you failed. Make sure you improve on your required skill levels for the job positions you want to apply for now or might apply for in the future.
4. Improve skill level
If you wish to climb higher in your career life and have higher pay grades in the future, it really necessary to take steps such as learning the skill you lack by taking lessons from colleagues who are experts and know the job well.
In any new job role, it is easier for people with past work experiences to adapt quickly to the new job by using past job experiences and the skills they learned in those positions. However, if you are a fresh career seeker, you can start on internship programs in the field where you wish to build your career. This will help you gain first-hand practical knowledge of what career life looks like and what skills you need in that field.
5. Execution
I know it is good to make a detailed checklist of goals and set career goals, but I believe it is even better to be willing to use all the skills you have acquired to achieve success. Part of executing your career plans is boosted when you build new connections both at work and outside work.
Make sure you are focused on your plan and be ready to adapt to any possible changes. Remember, the faster you adjust to new changes the better you grow.
