Cultivating Career Success
Career Goal Setting
Before you go too far down the path, make sure your path takes you where you want to go. This module will help you look at where you have been in your life and will help you discern where in the world of work you might find the most success and satisfaction.
Objectives
Here is what you’ll be able to do when you have successfully completed this module:
- Describe an approach to job search that is grounded in self-knowledge, networking, and employer interests.
- Identify your "motivated abilities."
- Set practical employment goals that will guide job search efforts.
Download this module.
Download the paper-saver version (2 pages on one sheet).
Additional Resources
These optional resources can take you beyond the core of the Career Goal Setting module.Setting your Employment Goals
Researching the Possibilities – Library Work
Setting your Employment Goals
"Personality Test"
Many career counselors have their clients take a temperament sorter. These assessments give clues to the client's personality that help the client not only in setting your career goals, but in relating to supervisors, co-workers, parents, children, spouses, friends. You may have come across assessments like these with names like "Meyers-Briggs," or "Keirsey Bates;" The psychological theory behind these instruments is attributed to Carl Jung.
We have found a free online test for you to use. To take the test, answer the questions quickly, without taking a lot of time to mull over the answers of any item. (There are no wrong answers, though if you answer dishonestly, the exercise is less useful.) Then follow the links to learn about the results. Go to the Online Personality Test.
More Values Clarification Exercises
Below are four more exercises that allow you to use your imagination to help you clarify what you want in a job, or indeed, in your life.
Ideal Work Week
Your time is your life. How do you want to spend your working hours? What sorts of activities would you like to engage in during the course of a work week? Use the Ideal Work Schedule worksheet to map out a 40-hour week of activities that would match your ideal. Fill your schedule using the skill-clusters vocabulary you came up with in other exercises.
Write Your Ideal Job Description
If you’ve been on the job market for a while, you’ve seen plenty of job descriptions. Some of them might have looked good, while other job descriptions were unappealing. I’ll bet the “good” job descriptions were ones that “matched you.” That is, they seemed right down your alley. In that job, you could flourish. That job “looked like you.”
Just once have I had such an experience with a genuine job description. In this exercise, you attempt to write a job description that looks like you. Your ideal job description should include the elements below, minimally. It may include additional items if you wish.
- Job Title
- Skills required
- Duties
- Schedule (days/hours)
- Reporting Lines
$10 Million Gift
In this three-part exercise, let your imagination run a little wild. At the same time, for this to be helpful in your self-knowledge, you must take the two scenarios seriously.
In part one of this exercise, imagine you have been given a gift of $10 Million. Thee are no requirements on how you spend the money except for one: You cannot spend any of it on yourself. Write down what you will do with the money.
In part two, again, you have been given a $10,000,000 gift. But the requirements have changed. You must spend all of this money on yourself. Write down what you will do with the money.
Part three: read what you have written with these questions in mind:
- Am I spending these gifts on things I believe in? If not, maybe my values are different that what I have thought them to be.
- Am I engaging in activities that let me use my motivated abilities? If not, maybe I should reassess the conclusions I reached about my motivated abilities.
Write Your Obituary
You’ll find them in almost every issue of almost every general newspaper: obituaries, summaries of the life of someone recently deceased. These are usually written by the surviving family of the deceased. In the obituary the family attempts to communicate the most important things about the life of the deceased. It usually includes information about the jobs the person held, hobbies, and relationships with family. For many, writing the obituary can be a valuable exercise in reviewing the life of their loved one.
Don’t wait until it’s too late! Write your own obituary. Write imagining a time 10, 30, 50 or more years in the future. Let your obituary record what you accomplished in your work and personal life. Record the life practices that demonstrate some of your highest values and priorities. How do you want others to remember you?
Researching the Possibilities – Library Work
Print Resources
Many public libraries have their card catalogs online, available through the library's website. Use a search engine or phone your local library to find its website. (On the other hand, most staff in public libraries are delighted to help library users find what they are looking for. Just ask a librarian for help. It's good practice of assertive communication!)
Some bookish people want to learn more about a book before they actually go to the library. Amazon is a great source for reviews of books. You can find what you want at Amazon, then ask your library to arrange inter-library loan so you can read it without buying it.
General Web Sites
America's Career InfoNet is a resource for making informed career decisions to support a demand-driven workforce investment system.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a broad resource with information on hundreds of kinds of jobs form the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Industry-Specific Web Sites
You can also find many industry-specific websites giving information about work in their respective careers. The ones listed here are just a small sample. You can find many others by using an Internet search engine (Google, AltaVista, Yahoo, etc.) and searching for “career information” or “professional organization” and the career or industry you are interested in.
- Accounting
- National Society of Accountants
- Broadcasting
- National Association of Broadcasters
- Business
- International Association of Administrative Professionals
- Computer Graphics
- ACM SigGraph
- Design/Graphics
- Communication Arts
- Flight Attendants
- Flight Attendant Corporation of America
- Massage
- American Massage Therapy Association
- Medical Assistants
- California Medical Assistants Association
- Nursing
- Choose Nursing
- Pharmacy
- Pharmacy Technician Certification Board