How to Set Meaningful Career Goals

This guest post is from one of my favorite workplace advice authors, Alexandra Levit. Here she provides tips on how to develop goals for your career--and how to set yourself up to ace the performance review.

Types of career goals vary, depending on the specific job and company, but every new college grad should aim to build a wide range of transferable skills(such as public speaking, client relations, project management, and budgeting) that are useful in many different types of careers and are not likely to become obsolete.

You can develop goals that focus on these skills and also pertain to your current position through a collaborative process with your supervisor.

Start by drafting your ideas for career goals and noting the obstacles you’re likely toencounter, knowledge you may need to acquire, and people who can support you.
 
Next, sit down with your supervisor and ask for feedback. In this meeting, you should make sure that your career goals are aligned with your supervisor’s goals for you and that the expectations set are reasonable and practical. For instance, if you’re in sales, your supervisor may or may not agree that you will be ready to make cold calls on your own by the end of your first year of employment. Before you leave, work with your supervisor to prioritize two or three career goals so you aren’t spreading yourself too thin, and create an immediate to-do list so that important goals don’t fall off your radar in the daily work/life grind.
 
If you arrange to meet with your supervisor every other month or so to revisit your career goals, you will be in great shape when it’s time for your performance review.

A few weeks before the review is slated to occur, gather facts to support how you’ve progressed on each goal. Identify concrete examples that illustrate outstanding performance and contribution, and practice communicating them so they’re on the tip of your tongue.

Your primary goal in the performance review process should be to demonstrate how you have made measurable contributions to the organization. If you are able to succinctly answer the question, "Why is the organization better off because you work there?," you will be well positioned for a productive discussion about your career potential as well as rewards and recognition. 

There's more where this came from.  Are you a student or young professional who wants to learn how to be successful TODAY?

Check out JobSTART 101 (www.jobstart101.com), a free online course Alexandra developed!

The Six Reasons You'll Get the Job (Learn 'Em in NYC 10/14)

My friend and former colleague Elisabeth Harney Sanders-Park has just co-written her second book, the 6 Reasons Why You'll Get the Job (Penguin). I am pleased to announce that the NYC Job Seekers Group, the grassroots job search group that I host in Manhattan, will be offering a special four hour workshop with Elisabeth and her co-author, Debra Angel MacDougall, the morning of October 14, 2010.

There is no cost to sign up. For additional details--including hours and location of the event--please sign up for the MeetUp group and RSVP.

Hope to see you there!

On the Job Hunt & The Listening Effect

I am pleased to announce that I've joined Susan Joyce and a host of other career management professionals on Job-Hunt.org.

I'm serving as the New Grads Job Search Expert on Job-Hunt, and will be writing a monthly column for the site. If you haven't checked out Job-Hunt.org before, I encourage you to do so. The site is very easy to navigate and includes comprehensive information to help you throughout your job search process--from getting started with your first job search to how to work with recruiters and deal with a tough career transition.

In my first piece for Job-Hunt, I shared stories from my own first job, work in career management, and lessons learned from rocket scientists as well as the proverbial "water under the bridge."

This month, I focus on the importance of listening. It's not a skill that you find frequently in a position description, but your ability to be a strong active listener can make all the difference in the interview process--and once you get hired.

For the past year, I've been taking classes in storytelling from Narativ. I'm learning how to tell stories that make an audience lean forward. I'm learning strategies to tell what happened instead of how I feel about a situation. The Narativ methodology is helping me to become a better storyteller. But mainly, I am learning how to be a better listener...without listening, you lose impact--in your job, in your ability to work with others, in your ability to communicate.

The process of finding your first job--and positions after that--can be fraught with anxiety, self-doubt, and doubt: Am I really qualified to do this job? Do I have the experience that it takes? All too frequently, you may miss a really obvious skill---one that can make all the difference--and that you already have. The skill I am referring to, of course, is listening.

Several years ago, I watched an Ivy League senior with a 3.98 GPA from a relatively unpopulated state (let's call it Nebraska) participate in the selection rounds for a Rhodes Scholarship interview. He had a long list of organizations he'd been involved in as well as measurable achievements for his extracurricular efforts. But there wasn't a single activity that he was involved in that he didn't hold the top title--President, Captain, Chair. As he told the committee, "I just prefer to be in the leadership role."

He didn't get picked. The committee went with other candidates who had experience in simply serving as a committee member, a participant, a team player.

In the midst of everything, never forget: Employers are looking for great listeners who can follow directions! Often, they will hire you for this singular ability--and then teach you the rest.

That's my two cents on listening. Now I want to hear what you have to say...

Your Career & The "Premium Rush"

I live one block off Broadway on New York City's Upper West Side. This morning I was on the way to brunch with a friend, and I saw something unusual: two and a half blocks of cabs and cars all lined up on the street. Parked. Only a few of them were there. The street corners were packed with police officers, people wearing orange reflective vests, and people with microphones and wires in their ears.

I heard one of them say, "How do you spell brunch?" as he typed out a message on his iPhone? And then, many of them came inside the restaurant to join my friend and I. We sat at separate tables.

I asked a few questions and learned that the crowd I saw had gathered together for a common goal: They are shooting stunts for a movie, Premium Rush. The movie is about a bike messenger, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who gets involved in a chase around the city. You can learn more about it on this blog, or via IMBD.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt wasn't in my neighborhood this morning. Apparently the shots that are being filmed are what you will see as he zooms through traffic, but he won't be shooting the stunt.

But before I left the scene, I did take a couple of mental pictures that I do want to share with you. It takes many staff to film a movie...more than I imagined. Did I mention there was an entire side street filled with trailers and production vehicles, too'?

Despite all the job reports--the stories about lack of jobs in entertainment, for recent grads, etc.--there were people of all ages taking place in the shoot. There were people moving large scale equipment, people working to direct traffic, people who specialized in communication, videographers, technicians, and security. If I were in the movie industry, I could tell you who else was there, too. But that's not what I do.

The mental picture I left with is just how many jobs there are--to take part in a big project. Not everyone gets to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt and star in a movie,or to perform stunts, or to work as a senior producer. But if you're in a rush to land the career you want, perhaps a good way to start is by finding out all the task that go into producing the finished product of your dream job--and then look for a side door.

Do you have any experience with this? Share.

To Your Success,

Chandlee