How to Establish Your Short Term and Long Term Career Goals?

Setting goals for yourself in a career or even before that can never be easy. Especially when you do not even have the slightest idea of how you should do it or better yet, what are career goals?

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To put it simply, your career goals are kind of outlines you draw for yourself. You add your objectives in them and then you try to hit that mark one by one to progress towards ultimate success.

However, there are two types of career goals. It is vital that you differentiate between the two to establish them for yourself.

What are Short Term Career Goals?

Short-term career goals are those baby steps that you take at the beginning of your career. You set easy targets initially, which you are sure you can achieve. The fundamental purpose of these career goals is to give you a head start. You establish them and you do not take long to acquire them.

Examples of Short Term Career Goals

1. To enter in a software industry.

2. To be enrolled in the language program of Bachelor’s.

3. Acquiring a certain set of skills in business.

4. Move from Sales to Administration.

5. To be recognized with leading organizations in Finance.

What are Long Term Career Goals?

Your long-term career goals help you in the long run. They interconnect with your short-term career goals and they conclude final achievements. They help you carry out a full fledge plan that you design for yourself in order to reach certain goals. Let us connect some long-term career goals with above stated short-term career goals.

Examples of Long Term Career Goals

1.Breaking into a software industry. For this, I will pursue my bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering to get a better understanding of the software. I will find an internship with a software house to polish my skills.

2. To be enrolled in a Languages program for Bachelor’s degree. This will help me with the linguistics of international languages. By acquiring translation skills, I will then find a job of an interpreter with a famous organization.

3. Achieving a certain set of skills in business. For this, I will try to get scholarship for MBA in an international university. Afterward I will set up my own business in a particular file.

4. To be promoted from Sales to Administration. To be able to achieve this, I will get a thorough knowledge of administrative tasks from a certain program. I will watch YouTube lessons to enhance my knowledge of this. I will help my boss with office work in my part-time to get a better procedural knowledge of the workaround.

5. To be recognized with leading organizations in Finance. For this purpose, I will pursue a degree in Finance at a well-known university. I will work under banks in Finance and I will start making a name for myself from there. When I have enough experience, I will leave my resume at every leading firm in Finance.

How Do You Differentiate Between the Two?

It is quite easy to tell the difference between your short-term and long-term career goals. Your short ones will often point towards a thing that is doable in near future. Things that will not take long to begin with. Your long ones on the other hand will take time. They can take from months to years to finally reach your desired destination.

How Do You Explain Your Short Term and Long Term Career Goals in an Interview?

Interviewers always throw several questions at you. One of them will be about stating your career goals. Now it is crucial that you define your short term and long-term goals separately. However, bear in mind that both short and long-term goals must be indicating towards one another.

If your short-term goal is to enter the finance industry but in the long run, you want to end up being a lawyer, the story will just not add up. This will give your interviewer the impression that you are not clear about your career.

Take your time and shed light on both of your goals. Short ones are those that will help you with a start. Opposed to this, long ones will help you reach your final goals.

Top 5 Tips to Establish Your Short Term and Long Term Career Goals

Here are some pro tips to establish your goals.

1. Be precise. Do not wander off with fantasies. Think drastically.

2. Be open to new opportunities. The world keeps on evolving and with it evolve every business and industry on earth. It is important that you be diverse towards your priorities and change them according to the needs of your career.

3. Do not revolve around money when writing your goals. Money could be one of the factors but you should keep balance between it and success. Success is not always associated with huge paychecks.

4. Get your heart into it. The reason why it is important because if you design a plan which you do not even like and you are just going to follow it because it is what needs to be done, you will not attain what you planned. For this reason you need your heart in it as much as you need your brain

5. Create a time-lapse. Assign your short and long-term goals a particular time. Note what changes take place in achieving your targets.

Planning your goals can be a handful but you really enjoy doing it if you know what you are doing, Now that you know, get some hustle into it and get your career goals straight.