Career Goals for 2015

As you begin the new year, it’s a great time to set some career goals for 2015. Whether you want to find a new job or get a promotion within your organization, career goals can help you achieve those objectives. But, how do you go about setting goals and sticking to them? Just like with New Year’s resolutions, it can be difficult to stick to your career aspirations. Here are a few steps you can take to set your goals and stick to them:

Define Your Goals

As you begin thinking about what you want to accomplish professionally, in 2015, it helps to actually define those career goals. If you want to find a new job in 2015, then you need to set that as your career goal. If you simply want to get better at you current job or want a promotion in your current organization, then define that as your career goal for 2015. No matter what you hope to achieve, define that as your goal and share that goal with someone who can help you stay on track.

Create a Strategy

Now that you have defined your career goal for 2015, you need a strategy to accomplish the goal. For example, if your goal is to get a new job, then your strategy should revolve around making the best resume and applying to a certain number of jobs on a weekly or monthly basis. Remember, as you’re filling out application and submitting your resume, don’t just apply to any job. Only apply to jobs that you’re qualified for and actually can see yourself taking in the future.

Set Deadlines

The only way to really stick with your goal and strategy is to set deadlines for yourself. In the example above, applying to so many jobs a week or month is a great deadline to set for yourself. If you need to update your resume, then include deadlines to have certain parts of your resume edited until you are completely finished updating the whole document. When you have deadlines, you are able to keep yourself accountable and reach your goals.

What are your career goals for 2015? How do you plan to achieve them? Let us know in the comments section below!

Positioning for Success: Creating Purpose

When you feel like you’re down on your luck and having trouble finding your next job opportunity, it can be hard to find purpose in anything. From filling out job applications to filing unemployment, you may be pretty discouraged. One of the best ways to combat this feeling is to position yourself for success. It’s easy to give up and settle, but you won’t find success by doing that.

Positioning yourself for success can be difficult and is certainly a journey. However, by creating purpose you may just find the success you are looking for. Even if you are currently unemployed, that doesn’t mean you have to be purposeless. Here are a few ways to position yourself for success by creating purpose:

Brand Yourself

No matter what type of career or industry you work in, knowing who you are is important. Branding yourself can be broken down into just that. While companies use brands to tell consumers and customers about their products and services, you need to create a personal brand that tells potential employers about you. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need a logo or a website. It does however mean you need to evaluate your goals, lifestyle, and your professional persona.

Develop Passion

Without passion, much of life will seem pointless and purposeless. If you aren’t excited about what you do for a living, then you’ll have a much harder time finding a job. You need passion in order to make a difference, make a change, or improve your career. Without passion, you are far more likely to remain stagnant in life. By making conscious choices and decisions to develop a passion for what you do, you’ll find increased results in your job search.

If you want change to happen in your life—if you want to find a new or better job—then you need to focus on these factors:

  • Your mind
  • Your attitude
  • Your appearance
  • Your words
  • Your follow-up

When you focus on these things and make efforts to improve them, then you’ll start to see positive changes happening in your life.

Do you have any suggestions for creating purpose in your life or career? Leave your stories and suggestions in the comments section below!