Right now, you are taking the first and perhaps most necessary step in achieving your personal career goals. You are settling down and considering what might be the most necessary in outlining and making successful moves toward upward mobility in your chosen career. The truth is that there will never be one clear answer as to how best to achieve these goals. 

However, by spending due time and attention to the following areas, you are certainly preparing and pushing yourself one step further in making these goals a reality. 

Focus on Your Direction

Direction is one of the most vital steps in your path toward achieving any goals set forth. It is the reason for the age-old interview question, “where do you see yourself in five to ten years?” Without a direction, a destination, you begin to wander aimlessly. Taking misguided steps, and ultimately ending up lost. 

Direction is the key source of power behind discipline and motivation. When first outlining your goals it is imperative you take a step back and look at the grand scheme of where it is you want to arrive at. The advice to follow in this case is to search for role models. 

This does not necessarily mean you must follow precisely in their footsteps, their careers, or imitate every aspect of their lives. Instead, it is a matter of understanding their motivations and habits and finding ways to apply those same habits and standards of being to your own life. 

Focus on Your Network

While developing the skills that most directly relate to your chosen profession, it is just as crucial that you focus on developing your skills in networking effectively. Opportunities often come in the form of others. So it is important that you begin meeting people who already occupy the industry you plan to progress in, especially recruiters.

The connections you make today are the offers and promotions you may be accepting tomorrow. Why special attention to recruiters? Easy. By finding those recruiting in your field, you are connecting with the major players who have the most insight as to what exactly companies are on the lookout for. By making sure recruiters are included in your regular network of professionals you are opening the door to have your name, knowledge, and skills within the know.

Always remember that networking is meant to be a practice of mutual benefit. When engaging with a recruiter, be mindful of their perspective. Keep in mind not only what they may offer you but also think hard about what you may offer them as a potential hire. Recruiters want to make it possible for you to reach your next goal. Make sure you give them a reason to help you get there. 

Focus on Your Education

The topic of furthering your education may perhaps feel the most daunting. It is, by all means, a very long-term effort for a very long-term goal. But when deciding how to make yourself most marketable and how to propel yourself furthest in your career it is definitely worth heavy consideration. 

This of course heavily depends on the field you’ve chosen. But it is worth noting that most of America’s highest-earning CEOs have obtained, in one form or another, a college degree. This isn’t only true for those who work in a white-collar or office setting. It is true for those in the blue-collar industries as well. Often, the highest-earning laborers need either a formal apprenticeship or certification in order to reach the heights of their careers. 

When outlining your goals it is best to research your options in higher education and plan accordingly in conjunction with the direction you’ve decided upon. 

Focus on Your Resume

What have you accomplished in the last five years that may be applicable to your current career? If you were a recruiter would your resume stand out to you? When did you last update your resume? These are all questions you might want to consider when outlining how exactly you will begin ascending to the next steps of your career. 

Resumes are one of the single most effective ways to sell yourself to potential employers and open doors for higher positions. In order to serve as a meaningful tool, your resume has to elaborate on the best aspects of your professional history. Your resume should be insightful, but not overwhelming.

Most people have sat at a blank word document trying to figure out the perfect combination of words in order to make themselves appealing to potential employers. Or they have sat and revised and revised until they could no longer recognize the document they have before them. Creating the perfect resume is not always the easiest task in the world and when pressed to brag about yourself it’s easy to come up short. 

So instead of driving yourself mad, try using a pro resume service, in order to ensure that you are submitting only the very best version of your resume and keeping a competitive edge. With so many services to choose from you can decide on those that will work with your budget and that can focus on highlighting qualities and experience that are most desired in your field.

 

Focus on Your Speciality

Did you know that in 2020 the highest-paid medical specialists earned 45 percent more than their general practitioner counterparts? While the difference may be staggering, the fact that experts and those who specialize in their fields get paid more is not.  

Simply put, industries will always be willing to pay more for knowledge and experience. Employers at every level want to hire individuals who are experts in their field. They want to have confidence in your abilities.

By becoming an expert in your selected field you gain the opportunity to market yourself better and prove that you are not only a valuable asset but a necessary one at that. 

Set the Goals, Stay Consistent, and Apply Yourself

It is by no accident that each section of this article has been titled by the word, “Focus.” The goals you set for yourself require one thing in common above all else, focus. At times it may seem hard, impossible even. However, it is the focus that makes the goals you hope to achieve possible. It is the focus that helps you devise a plan. And it is the focus that helps you maintain the consistency to act upon these goals and plans that you have manifested in order to move forward and onto success.

Regardless of your career, set your goals, stick to the behaviors and practices that help you achieve them, and do not wait to apply your skills and tools in order to elevate yourself to the next step. Good luck out there!