Career Change Goal Setting – Part 2 of 2

In part 2 of the article series Career Change – Goal Setting, we will go over how to format your goals into a five year plan. We will also discuss how obstacles may come up, but that they can be dealt with accordingly when you prepare for them.

Out of all the occupations you explored, at some point in the process you narrowed your choices down to one occupation. That is the one you plan to pursue. You may even have two occupations — one to pursue in the short term and one to pursue in the long term.

They should be related, the second being one that is a step up from the first. For example, you can say you want to first become a nurse’s aide, and then after you get some experience you will pursue a career as a registered nurse.

You should break your career plan down into goals you can reach in a year or less and goals you want to reach in five years or less. You can use increments of one or two years in this five year plan as well. This breakdown will make your plan easier for you to follow.

You should also include your goals for education and training. Your occupational goals and your educational goals should correspond to one another, since reaching your occupational goals will usually be dependent upon reaching your educational goals.

If your long term occupational goal is to be a lawyer, here’s what your short and long term plans might look like:

- Year One: Complete my bachelor’s degree (12 credits left to go), apply to law school, get accepted to law school (a positive attitude is a good thing)
- Year Two through Year Four: Enter law school, study hard and earn good grades, graduate from law school with many job offers
- Year Five: Begin working in a law firm

You are likely to encounter barriers along the way to realizing your goals. This is normal and to be expected. You will have a better chance of overcoming those barriers and obstacles if you try to ascertain what they might be and then come up with a plan to defeat them if they do arise.

For example you may be the primary caregiver for your children or elderly parents. This may interfere with your ability to complete your degree. You can deal with this barrier by enlisting the help of your spouse or another relative. Perhaps you can arrange for child or adult day-care.

Some might say that going through so many steps just to choose a career is wasting time and doesn’t serve any purpose, but nothing could be further from the truth. A well-thought-out career action plan will prove to be a very useful tool.

You’ve gone through the career planning process carefully choosing a suitable occupation. Setting goals and planning what you need to do to realize them will insure that you reach your career destination.

So you’ve got a career action plan and it’s time for you to quit your present job. You’ll want to do this in the right way. Look for further articles on this subject, coming soon!