Setting Operational Goals in Career Development

Career Goals and Planning

• A vague operational goal is difficult to compare to a conceptual goal, whereas a specific operational goal is more useful (e.g., "to become a market research analyst in the consumer goods industry").
• Preoccupation with instrumental elements of an operational goal can create tunnel vision, leading to forgetting why the goal was set in the first place and resisting new information that contradicts the goal's value.
• Maintaining an equal concern for the present and the future is essential to avoid this.

Goal-Setting Challenges

• Goals that are too easy or too difficult may not provide a sense of accomplishment and success.
• Goals must be challenging enough to produce feelings of real success, but not so difficult as to be virtually impossible.
• Inflexible career goals can lead to a failure to reexamine and adjust goals, which is essential for effective career management.
• Flexible goals are essential for the boundaryless career perspective.

Career Indecision

• Selection of a career goal is a difficult task, and individuals who have not established a career goal or experience significant uncertainty or discomfort are considered career undecided.
• Career indecision is a common issue, affecting 10-30% of college students.
• Sources of career indecision include lack of information about oneself, the work environment, and self-confidence in decision-making.

Overcoming Career Indecision

• Engaging in various forms of career exploration can enhance awareness of oneself and the environment.
• Developmentally undecided individuals can benefit from learning more about themselves and their environment.
• Chronically undecided individuals may need to break the "paralysis" caused by fear and anxiety and find ways to accumulate more information.

Career Decidedness

• Types of career-decidedness include hypervigilant (made with insufficient information or anxiety) and vigilant (made with low levels of stress and anxiety).
• Career exploration can help individuals become career-decided.

Effective Career Appraisal

• Guidelines for effective career appraisal include:
  • Willingness to see the world clearly and make revisions in goals and strategies when necessary.
  • Using career strategies to provide benchmarks of accomplishments.
  • Periodically reviewing the appropriateness of career goals in light of what has been learned.
  • Sharing experiences and feelings with trustworthy people.
  • Seeking feedback from non-work sources.

Unit Summary

• Career exploration involves assessing the importance of work, family, community, self-development, and leisure roles in one's life.
• Career goal-setting involves setting a conceptual goal that incorporates one's desired balance between work and other important parts of life.
• Career strategies involve recognizing the implications of specific career strategies on family and personal life.
• Career appraisal involves seeking feedback from different people regarding various parts of one's life and examining the effects of career strategies on work and non-work lives.

Learn how to set specific and useful operational goals, avoiding vagueness and tunnel vision, to achieve success in your career. Understand the importance of conceptual goals in career development.