Saturday 23 April 2011

Guide to Assessing Your Long Term Career Objectives Article Source

It is prudent at some point in your ascend up your career to take some time and analyze your long term career goals and objectives. This activity not only gives you a direction but also helps you to proactively plan for your future. This guide addresses several well-researched topics in which you can apply while you go through this process.
Factors to consider
When you access your long-term career objectives, there are several factors that have to be considered. One part of this assessment involves evaluating the activities that you are currently doing and those that you will be doing in future. By asking questions, such as,
  1. Do I enjoy what I am doing to do it for the rest of my life?
  2. How will this job be affected by potential downturns and upturns in the economy?
  3. What are you career goals, obstacles and challenges to getting there?
  4. If money was not longer an issue, what would you do?
  5. Is what you are currently doing fulfilling and purposeful?
... you create a way for you to be able to expand more on a truly insightful analysis of your career objectives.
The other part of this process involves exploring your knowledge, skills and abilities.
  1. What are your strengths?
  2. What weaknesses do you have?
Answering these questions provides you with an opportunity to perform a better assessment of your career objectives.
SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat) Analysis
Always remember that you are a brand. Conduct a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat) analysis of your personal brand. How do people view you as a professional? How do you want to see yourself as a professional? Explore the career opportunities once the strengths are identified. Keep asking questions regarding the sustainability of the options you have chosen.  Always be open-minded and always look at both sides of the coin. What will happen if there is an economic downturn? These are the threats to the options you choose.
Once the SWOT analysis is completed, make a list of aspects of the job that you would like to work in the long term. To achieve the long-term objectives, of which the most important is the type of job, you need to create short-term career objectives. If you need to acquire a skill to achieve the long-term objectives, the acquisition of the skill becomes the immediate short-term objective. Even if it is called the long-term career objective, the look-ahead period is generally five years. The objectives need to be reviewed every five years. After the review, if there are skills to be attained further, an action plan needs to be drawn out to achieve the long-term objectives.
Long-term objectives
While assessing long-term career objectives, many people tend to draw out plans for the position. It may be worthwhile to consider the field rather than a position. If your skills as a mechanical engineer are in design and engineering, you may not want to build a career in construction even if it means you achieve your objective of a position. Similarly if you are an expert mechanical engineer in the field of rotating equipment, you may not want to accept a senior management role in piping area.
Identification of your skills and expertise is vital in drawing out a meaningful long-term career objective. In the examples above, consider yourself as a design engineer having interests in the construction field. You must assess your long-term objective of becoming a field engineer and draw short-term action plans to achieve it. If your current organization does not support policies of changing roles, you may want to consider joining another organization.
Assessing your long-term career objectives against the skills, knowledge and abilities you have is required at an interval of, say, five years. Gaps in skills and abilities should be bridged to achieve the objectives. Long-term career objectives may also undergo fine-tuning according to external factors such as market scenario. In a scenario where oil and gas industry is likely to do well in the long run, you may want to gain skills related to rotating equipment in the oil and gas industry. Self assessment of the objectives against internal and external factors can a go a long way in building a successful career.

Friday 22 April 2011

Setting Career Objectives - 9 Steps to Achieve Career Goals Article Source

How to Set Career Objectives & Achieve Career Goals

Many people find that the pressures of juggling with work, family and everyday life means that our career goals and career plans are more difficult to achieve than we had hoped. Well-intended resolutions such as setting up new career objectives are soon given up. However, when goals aren't achieved many of us can feel useless and frustrated. This is particularly so if we are giving up on our career goals for a better job. This drains our energy and limits our potential. What I have observed, whilst working with organisations and people going through change is that everyone's approach to handling change is very different to anyone else's.

The key to greater success in setting career objectives is having a better understanding of where you're regularly stuck, and apply new steps at these stages in the cycle to achieve what you truly want in your career. Have a look at the cycle of change. What stage are your career goals at?

Career Goal Awareness Stage

This is the starting point for any change or goal. First there is awareness of dissatisfaction or a new need in your life. Think about the simple need to have a drink. You might feel a little thirsty but can you ignore it? Perhaps for a while if you're busy. Eventually though you get a headache and can't concentrate until getting a drink becomes the most important thing you must do, until your thirst is quenched. It is the same with setting career objectives. The more dissatisfied you are in your current career and the stronger your need for change the more compelled you will be to act. You might feel that you want to a promotion or a more challenging job, but if you feel fairly comfortable where you are, there won't be sufficient motivation to energise change and achieve a career goal.

1. Remove the career goal 'shoulds'. Remove all the resolutions that are being driven by your family or friends. These are the sort of goals you feel you should be doing. For example, 'I should get another job'. 'I should get paid more for the job I do'. All these might be well-meaning goals but unless they are your goals then you're not at the awareness stage of change with these goals. What this means is that any positive results are going to be very unlikely.

Career Goal Mobilisation Stage

This is the stage where you feel the most excited and energised for what you are about to do, and you'll be thinking about all your options and options and ideas. If you start off really excited about a new goal and then all that motivation and energy fizzles before you have made any real progress, the chances are you're being over ambitious. Too much excitement can colour our judgment on our choices and direction. Equally, if you're one of those people who say 'I don't want to get too excited in case it doesn't happen', then you could be draining the energy from the project before you've had a chance to create it. You need to mobilize energy to create change.

2. Remove unrealistic career goal options. You can make progress if you're making unrealistic demands on yourself. Break down your career goal into smaller steps which can be achieved more easily. This will help create more confidence and a belief that you can achieve what you really want to.

3. Find a career supporter. Try to find someone in your circle of contacts at home or at work who will support and encourage you in achieving your career goals. If not, join a related self-help group or find a career mentor who can help you to focus on the positive changes, however small. Their excitement can help you keep up your momentum.

Career Setting - Goal Action Stage

This is when you start to experiment with different types of actions to achieve your career goals. So many resolutions are lost at this stage when the reality of achieving the goal becomes clear. It is often much harder and takes longer to achieve than first thought. If you are getting stuck at this stage the chances are that you're being too much of a perfectionist and expecting to get great results all the time. It's easy then to feel demoralised and give up too soon. To achieve satisfaction requires lots of action!

4. Experiment & be flexible with your career goals. Be prepared to try many different ways to achieve your goals. Ask yourself how many different options can you try to make this happen. View these approaches as experiments to be carried out rather than solutions. Inevitably some approaches will work better than others. Thomas Edison, the renowned electric light inventor was supposedly asked by a New York Times Reporter, "How does it feel to fail seven hundred times". He answered that "I have not failed seven hundred times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those seven hundred ways will not work."

5. Face your career fears. Sometimes we give up very quickly not because our resolutions are really impossible to achieve but because we feel scared of trying to achieve them. It is easy to procrastinate and let day-to-day pressures get in the way of following our dreams. This is why some of the most fundamental life changes such as starting a new business or a new career are only made when change is forced upon us, such as following a divorce or redundancy.

6. Be kind to yourself. We are often harder on ourselves than we would be with our friends. Try and reframe your results so that there is no such thing a failure or mistake, just a need for new approaches. Ok, it can be scary but looking for failure is not going to help. For example, an unemployed man has applied unsuccessfully for over a hundred jobs! He now works actively as a volunteer three days a week, and has been on a training course to upgrade his skills. He could panic and give up. But his proactive approach means that he is increasing his chance of finding suitable paid work. It's essential to find alternative options to improve your chances of success.

7. If it's not working do something else. If something isn't working there is a tendency to look for something or someone to blame. 'I haven't got the new job I wanted because of the children'. If you want to achieve something new in your life you will need to take responsibility for where you are, and then try to take some small steps to do something different.

Career Setting Satisfaction & Career Goal Celebration Stage

This is the stage when the project or goal is completed and satisfaction is reached. If you are the sort of person who has many half finished projects still open waiting to be completed then you probably feel that your career goals never get completed. However, you might have achieved more of your career goal than you think. Many of us have the tendency to look at what hasn't been achieved rather than savouring the pleasure of what has. For example, 'I've got a new job but at a lower salary than I wanted' It is also very British to talk-down our achievements. None of us want to be seen to 'be a show off' but celebrations are good for our morale, confidence and give closure to projects which help us to achieve new dreams.

8. Appreciate completion of career goals. Appreciate how far you've come so far. It may not have been exactly what you had in mind when you started out, but good enough might be all that is needed now. It's OK for your goal to change and develop over time.

9. Celebrate your career successes. A desire for perfectionism can get in the way of celebrating your achievements. Identify what you've achieved and find ways to celebrate your success regularly. A bottle of champagne, a meal out or a trip out can do wonders for your self-esteem and happiness. Go for it and enjoy.

If you would like more career advice sign up for my Interview Tips newsletter which is packed with interview techniques & how to answer interview questions. You'll immediately be sent a free video 'know yourself' coaching session which will help you identify your unique strengths to promote in an interview.





Thursday 21 April 2011

Career Objectives - Overlook Them at Your Peril!

Importance of Career Objectives
Companies adapt 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 clearly 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 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 organisations 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 really wants the job, is focused on a particular career path and makes for a stronger application.

In Conclusion
Career objectives carry much weight in terms of defining a career path, a vision and motivation for success. Good objectives will be easier to follow and understand if they are SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time focused. Objectives may evolve and change over time but must always form part of a wider career plan.