When goal setting, you can sit on the sideline or you can play in the game. I personally prefer to play in the game. That is what goal setting allows us to do. It enables us to create our life instead of letting life be something that just happens to us. Career interest continually changes in a person's life. By defining my career objective, possible career objectives for my future, taking an inventory in my current career attributes, and identifying what makes me happy and barriers to reaching my career goals, I will develop a five-year career development plan.
When I was younger, I measured my success by how much money I made. More recently, I measure my success by a balance between my work life and the amount of quality family time I can obtain. When I started the University of Phoenix, last January, I wrote a paper similar to this discussing my career goals and why I was returning to school to obtain my degree. My goal was to become a sales manager in the New Home Building Industry. I wasn't sure how I was going to get there, but I wanted to make sure that I had all of the needed qualifications to achieve this goal. Obtaining my degree was one of these qualifications.
I determined my career goal about five years ago. When I obtained my real estate license and started selling new homes I knew where I wanted to be and where I wanted my career to go. I had so many questions and it seemed that no one had the answers. I decided then that my short-range career direction was to become a lead sales agent, because I was a junior sales associate at the time.
My strategic goal was to become the sales manager and the one with all the answers. I started my career a little late in life so my strategic goal seemed out of reach. I was married with two small ...