Importance of Having Long-Term Career Goals
Having a long-range plan when it comes to your career helps you to take a more direct route to career success. Many if not most people advance through their careers in a somewhat haphazard fashion, a journey that can be interesting but that isn't very efficient if you're interested in accessing higher pay and greater responsibility.
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Skills
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In a workplace that is changing ever more rapidly, you want your skills to be relevant in the future. Globalizing business practices, intertwining communications technology and accelerating trade combine to create a business environment that is difficult if not impossible to predict. Nevertheless, you need to make an attempt to determine what skills will be most useful in your field in the future and make those skills a priority. In other words, becoming proficient with the business applications of social networking sites will serve you better than your slide projector repair skills.
Networking
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View everyone you meet in the business world as a potential ally on your road to the top. This means not only assessing how they might help you to achieve your goals, but treating them well and with respect. You can never have too many friends when it comes to advancing your career, and if you step on people they will not be eager to help you when you need it. Stay in touch with as many people as possible, and take an interest in their careers as well as your own.
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Goals
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Your long-term goals will determine the nature of your long-term career planning. Clearly, you need to focus on your day-to-day work, but if you don't look beyond it to where you want to be in 20 years, you are less likely to get there in the end. Identify your ultimate goals within the field that you have chosen, but at the same time keep those goals flexible. Both you and the field you work in will change a lot in 20 years, so you need to allow yourself the freedom to change your goals.
Interests
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Your goals are your career-focused intentions. Your interests are a broader field encompassing both career and noncareer involvements. If you are interested in wilderness and hiking, adjust your career goals so you end up living in Colorado rather than Los Angeles. If you love Asian culture, tweak your career to allow you to live in Thailand for a few years. It's these kinds of large plans that generally don't happen if you're only planning for the month. You need to gain control of the long-term arc of your life so you can turn it to land where you want to be.
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References
- Photo Credit BUSINESS GIRL WITH LAPTOP image by Sundikova from Fotolia.com
