Career Goals: Here’s How to Help Candidates Thrive in the World

This post was updated to bring you the most current tips and information in October 2020.

Goals are powerful tools for all of us — they act as a compass to help us navigate our way toward success. Setting them can be a challenge, and sticking to them and staying on course, is even more difficult.

Job seekers need to set career goals as they take steps on their journey through the job market. It helps with finding a good employer who will be a strong fit for them. A 2017 study from Gallup found that employees who can link their goals to the organization’s goals are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged.

Good news — sharing goals leads to better opportunities because it gives potential employers a vision for the candidate’s future and shows their motivation. But this all starts with creating a strategy of goal setting.

This is how you can help your candidates set career goals and find their target:

Make SMART Goals

The popular acronym SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) is popular because it works. Specific goals give candidates a target to aim for, a definable, tangible result that determines success.  

The measurable quality allows them to know how they’re progressing. Breaking larger career goals into smaller steps helps maintain a sense of motivation and engagement, enabling job seekers to celebrate the little wins along the way.

If there are no timeframes or deadlines, productivity tends to wane. Kill procrastination by setting up a schedule of tasks and smaller projects. It drives them to action and holds them accountable.

Assign Accountability

One of our most significant motivating factors is the people around us. Assign accountability partners or create teams for candidates to join. They can discuss updates on their work, share motivating insights to stay engaged, and create a safe place to celebrate wins.

A Dominican University study from 2015 found that 70% of the participants who sent weekly updates to a friend reported successful goal achievement (completely accomplished their goal or were more than halfway there), compared to 35%  of those who kept their goals to themselves, without writing them down.

Write Everything Down

Writing down goals helps people organize their thoughts and emotions, allowing them to flow with their stream of thoughts and transform those thoughts into actionable guidelines. 

According to the same study from Dominican University, you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams simply by writing them down every day.

Writing goals taps into the growth mindset, allowing candidates to see themselves not as a stagnant person, but rather as someone developing new strengths. These types of writing exercises can help them visualize obstacles they may encounter. 

Using mental imagery and visualizing what success looks like is a valuable, meaningful practice that helps professional athletes win games and earn gold medals. Candidates are no different. Create writing assignments to encourage these visualization techniques.

Know When to Change

Career goals are so difficult to commit to because people change over time. We burn out, get bored, lose interest, and second guess. The good news is that second-guessing is part of the process. 

It’s ok to change goals. It doesn’t mean the candidate is failing or giving up — it’s a sign of evolution. For example, if they wanted to enter a small startup in IT but realize they work better in a larger company and prefer better job security and more mobility, they can reroute and see how that impacts the long term.

Advise them on identifying the intent behind the change and help them revisit the first step of goal setting. They should write down the new vision, share it with their accountability support system, and track progress toward success.

How do you help your candidates follow their career goals?