After reading this segment, you will be able to:

• Set new short term career and personal goals that satisfy immediate needs and lead to long-term goal achievement
• Set long-term goals based on characteristics that lead to positive outcomes
• Handle performance reviews more confidently
• Take steps to obtain a promotion
• Know when you need to make a career move

Introduction
Knowing how to continually respond to change is essential for success. Managing your career involves developing a set of new short term and long term goals to guide your professional and personal development. It also involves handling feedback about your work from your employer and identifying the right time to make a move to advance your career.

Managing your career also involves

1. Adapting to the new technology
2. Learning about other developments in your career field
3. Reading journals, books, and articles related to your work
4. Creating a professional development plan with your employer

Setting Goals

At the beginning of your career planning, you probably identified some long-term goals and a plan to achieve those goals through short-term projects. You took the necessary courses, you earned your diploma, and now you are starting a new job.

However, planning for your short term and long term objects doesn’t end here. To achieve success in your personal and professional life, you need to set new goals and take the steps to achieve them. When your goals are realized, your self-esteem will be enhanced and you will feel motivated to plan and attain further goals.

Characteristics of Positive Goals
Discovering Life Skills (Volume VII), a series of career planning manuals and videos published by the YWCA of Greater Toronto, describes effective goals in the following ways:

1. Specific
Goals need to be clearly understood and easy to remember. A vague goal is unlikely to be accomplished. A complex goal needs to be broken down into smaller goals to ensure success.

• Is your goal specific and can it be broken into smaller goals?
• Is it a short-term goal or a long-term goal?

2. Measurable
The only way to know whether you have accomplished your goal is if you have some way to measure its accomplishment. Ideally, you can use numbers to evaluate your progress and achievement.

• Is your goal measurable?
• How will you know you have achieved your goal?

3. Attainable
An impossible goal guarantees failure. To ensure success, make your goals realistic and achievable.

• Is your goal realistic?
• Can you obtain the abilities and knowledge needed to achieve your goal?

4. Results
State your goals in terms of expected outcomes. This helps prevent defining tasks or steps without clearly identifying what you intend to achieve.

• Does your goal state clearly what you hope to achieve?

5. Realistic
Without a realistic deadline or time limit, it is too easy to procrastinate. A time limit helps you stay focused on your goal. A long-term goal may be broken down into several shorter-term goals.

• Have you set a time limit for your goals?
• Is the time limit realistic?

6. Shared
Few of our achievements are accomplished alone. Your chance of success increases when your goals are shared with others who will support your efforts. Telling others about your plans also increases your level of commitment when you make your goals known to others.

• With whom can you share your goals?
• Who will provide emotional support?

Make a goal-oriented action plan to ensure your short term and long term success and happiness at work and in your personal life.

Handling Performance Reviews

A performance review consists of a meeting between you and your immediate supervisor or manager. Although these meetings can occur more frequently, they generally are conducted periodically, say every four months to six months. The purpose of the meeting is to review your contribution to the department and to set new objectives and goals.

The performance review enables you to know what you can expect from an employer and what the employer expects of you. Being aware of the tasks you are to perform, the ways in which they are to be done, and how they contribute to the overall growth of the department or the organization is critical to how successful you’ll be in the workplace.

The emphasis of performance reviews should be on developmental goals. That is, the interview should be constructive rather than judgmental. There should be an opportunity for you to learn about your strengths and weaknesses and discover how you can improve upon the work you do.

Here are some tips on handling the performance review:

• Be prepared. Privately review your work and accomplishments before the interview. Clearly identify your goals and assess how you have accomplished them.
• Honestly describe your responsibilities, how well you carried out them out, and how you contributed to the organization’s goals.
• Listen to your interviewer closely as expectations for future work may be revealed both explicitly and implicitly.
• Use the constructive criticism to set new short-term and long-term goals. Look at areas of weakness as opportunities for growth.
• Keep a record of your new goals, and reward yourself when achieved.

Working towards a Promotion
 
Today’s job market is very competitive, and to obtain promotions, you must continue to demonstrate and highlight your abilities to your employer. More importantly, you must convince the employer of the benefits you bring to the organization and how you can fulfil the added responsibilities involved in the new position you hope to obtain.

Here are a few tips on how to strengthen your chances of obtaining a promotion:

1. Find out what other types of work you would like to do in the organization.
2. Pursue the necessary professional development needed to become qualified to achieve your goal.
3. Expand your skill sets and provide more value to your employer by learning the work duties of another colleague. One way to do this is to talk with colleagues about their work and find out if they would like to have assistance.
4. Contribute to the organization, not just your department. To do this you can:
5. Volunteer for new assignments in different areas
6. Participate in working committees
7. Discuss with your supervisor the opportunities for advancement that exist now as well as future potential opportunities for advancement.

Deciding to Move On

Jobs do not last forever. In fact, if you are building a career, you will most likely be taking on jobs that are steppingstones to your ideal position.

When opportunities for growth and advancement are not available in one company, employees must leave so they can advance in their careers. You will feel more self confident and in control of your career path if you choose when to leave company and where to accept a new position. Being forced to leave or being fired can be a disappointment from which it is difficult to recover.

Help yourself by identifying the factors that would make you start seeking work elsewhere.

Ask yourself the following:

• Is the work that you are doing valued by your organization, manager, and co-workers?
• Are your applications for advancement getting the attention they deserve?
• Are you being paid fairly? Have you gotten raises when they have been due?
• Do you get along with your co-workers and manager?
• Are your opinions considered and respected when you present them at meetings?
• Does your lifestyle and work ethic correspond to the cultural expectations of the company for which you work?
• Do your values correspond to the mission and values of the organization?

Remember, it is always easier to move from one job to another than to move from being unemployed to being employed. Think ahead; think about your life’s goals; make the move when necessary.

Sourced: http://ilearn.senecac.on.ca/careers/succeed/moving_succeed.html