Practice answering the question, “What are your career goals?” in an interview by using these examples of career goals. There are many people who might be interested in your career goals, but two people, other than you, will be especially invested in your idea of success: your current employer and any potential employers.
In an interview, a potential employer might ask you directly about your goals or use the popular question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Knowing your goals can help a potential employer understand how a position fits into your career vision and how well it matches the needs of the company.
From the moment you were hired, your current employer started investing in your career goals, and the topic may come up during performance reviews. It has been demonstrated that a supportive employer takes an active interest in assisting you in achieving your objectives, which is advantageous for both you and them.
We’ll take a closer look at these common examples of career goals in this article:
- Advancing to a leadership position
- Becoming a thought leader
- Working toward professional development
- Shifting into a new career path
- Experiencing career stability
- Creating a career goal
6 career goals examples
You will find a few examples of possible career goals below, as well as some suggestions for how to organize your short-term and long-term goals around these ultimate objectives.
We’ll also give you an idea of how to talk about each goal. Try to include these three pieces of information when discussing your career objectives during an interview or performance evaluation:
- Your objectives for the short and long term.
- The means by which you are achieving them
- How those objectives relate to your job and company (in an interview, your future job and company would be discussed, and in a performance review, your current job and company would be discussed).
1. Advancing to a leadership position
It can take many years to complete your specific path toward a leadership position, which is greatly influenced by your industry and your starting point. Along the way, you might intend to achieve a portion of these objectives:
- Short-term goals: Acquire important involvement in section and mid-level positions, go to authority stages of preparation, set up enlightening meetings with likely tutors and group pioneers, network with cross-utilitarian partners
- Long-term goals: Work toward a specific title, obtain a professional certificate or advanced degree, or achieve a promotion.
“What are your career goals?” sample response: I am currently working on a project to identify and address pain points by liaising with representatives from each department to unify our internal analytics processes across the data analysis, data science, and data engineering departments. In addition, I am participating in weekly leadership training sessions to enhance my managerial abilities and acquire the abilities necessary to eventually become a Director of Analytics.
2. Becoming a thought leader
Thought leaders are found in every sector, and their expertise can be broad or specialized. You might set out to achieve some of these objectives, depending on the kind of thought leader you want to be:
- Short-term goals: Go to specialty instructional meetings, take pertinent classes, go to industry gatherings, fabricate an online entertainment following
- Long-term goals: Write a book, publish articles, earn a professional certificate, or speak at a conference.
“What are your career goals?” sample response: As I collaborate with community organizers to achieve our team’s objectives, I’ve been taking online courses in social work from the University of Michigan. I’m also writing about our progress for our company blog. I hope to apply for Michigan’s MSW program in the coming years to have a greater impact on our company and the community.
3. Working toward professional development
In relation to your career objectives, personal development is all about bringing your best self to work. Remember to tie any of the following topics back to the work you’re doing for your organization whenever you talk about them:
- Short-term goals: Take on a new project at work, network with leaders you admire, and find a mentor to fill in gaps in your skills.
- Long-term goals: Practice work-life balance, learn a new skill, lead by example, and change careers.
“What are your objectives in life?” sample response: I’ve been meeting with people from various departments to figure out how our lean IT team can better respond to their needs because I want to be seen as a valuable connector within our organization. I would like to lead more formal research into the subject and test a new request ticketing system over the next few months.
4. Shifting into a new career path
During a performance review, discussing one’s desire to change careers can be challenging. You don’t have to tell your manager everything about your career objective; It’s fine to stick with the skills that can be used anywhere. As you get closer to a career shift, you might work toward the following goals:
- Short-term goals: Participate in a career bootcamp, conduct research on your desired career, acquire the necessary workplace and technical skills, earn a professional certificate, and request informational interviews.
- Long-term goals: Pursue a particular work title.
“What are your objectives in life?” sample response: I hope to be selected to assist with our team’s presentation at the upcoming annual report meeting. I see myself as a good communicator. I’ve been sharing monthly progress recaps on our team’s Slack channel to improve my skills. In an online Microsoft 365 Fundamentals Specialization, I am also practicing my PowerPoint skills.
5. Experiencing career stability
It’s possible that you’re more concerned with sustaining your career than you are with developing it. It’s important to have a job that helps you reach your bigger life goals. Assuming that you are pursuing profession security, a portion of your objectives might be:
- Short-term goals: Develop time management abilities, strengthen relationships at work, and hone skills that support role stability.
- Long-term goals: Procure a particular compensation, find a new line of work areas of strength for with, practice balance between serious and fun activities, construct major areas of strength for an at work.
“What are your objectives in life?” sample response: My objective is to be regarded as a trustworthy and attentive coworker by others. In an effort to welcome our newer employees, I have been compiling their inquiries into an employee playbook that they can refer to and share and have made myself available for any questions they may have regarding our procedures.
6. Creating a career goal
As we gain more knowledge about ourselves and the world around us, goals tend to change over time, and you may not always know what you want to accomplish. That is not only normal, but it is also a great time to investigate your interests and consider your life priorities. Consider the following objectives:
- Short-term goals: Find a career coach, attend seminars and training sessions, take a class, investigate a hobby, learn a new skill, investigate various career paths, request informational interviews, network with people in various industries.
- Long-term goals: Find a mentor, learn a new skill, and incorporate it into your career.
“What are your objectives in life?” sample response: I’m currently looking into ways to incorporate my love of design and my psychology degree into my professional life. I’ve started taking courses on basic UX design and reading popular UX blogs. Over the next few months, I hope to meet some UI designers at the company to learn more about their jobs and experiences.
Why employers ask this interview question?
When an interview question like “What are your career goals?” is asked by the company. They want to know if this job will keep you interested now and possibly in the future! People who will stay with a company for a long time and help it grow or advance are highly sought after.
Because you will be less motivated and more likely to leave the job quickly, businesses do not want to hire you for a position that is not advancing your professional goals.
It is acceptable to accept a job that does not fulfill all of your career goals. Even though you are not being considered for a leadership position in this interview, you can, for instance, state that you would like to eventually hold a position of leadership.
However, in your response to the interview, you should explain how this job is bringing you closer to your goals and plans for the future. You can accomplish this by saying something along the lines of: As a result, I was eager to apply for this position because the job description listed a few leadership-related responsibilities and skills, such as training new team members. I’ve been eager to get started on that.
How to Answer “What Are Your Career Goals?”
It is not a good idea to say, “I’m not sure” or “I haven’t thought about that.” You always want to appear goal-oriented. That will not win over hiring managers. However, you must also ensure that your stated career objectives are compatible with the position you have applied for.
This is the way this can hurt you if not:
Assume you are attending an interview for a position in customer service. Additionally, the hiring manager inquires about your long-term career objectives. If you state, “My objective is to leave customer service and find a job that doesn’t involve as much working with customers,” If you respond, “I prefer to work behind the scenes,” the hiring manager will not employ you.
Because then you are more likely to be motivated, to have a great attitude, and so on, employers want to hire someone who really wants this particular job. So, make a list of a few goals and aspirations that you can talk about, but make sure that your goals are in line with the job for which you are applying.
If not, adjust the objectives you intend to discuss during the interview. Don’t say anything that suggests you’ll be bored, frustrated, or want to leave this job quickly; instead, be strategic and consider what will get you hired for the job you want.
A final note: Similar to the inquiry, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” It is not expected of you to be able to accurately predict the future. No one will mind you in two years and check whether you’re following what you said in a couple of years.
Managers in charge of hiring simply want to know what interests you and whether or not you have considered this. Additionally, they want to make sure they aren’t hiring someone who will be bored at work. That is the reason businesses pose inquiries about your drawn out vocation objectives and desires in a meeting, and how to reply.
“What Are Your Career Goals?” – 3 example answers
Let’s look at some word-for-word examples of responses now that you know how to respond to interview questions about your career goals. First, an illustration of a job seeker at an entry level. After that, we’ll look at an example for people looking for jobs who have more experience.
1. Entry-level example
I recently received my bachelor’s degree in finance, and I am eager to begin working in the industry right now. My long-term objectives are to acquire knowledge in a variety of finance-related fields and work toward selecting a field of specialization. Although I am aware that the first step is to establish a solid foundation and learn the fundamentals in an entry-level position, I would love to eventually become an expert in a single area of finance. I liked that this job gave me exposure to a wide range of subjects.
Take note of the line at the end of this example response explaining why you are interested in their job. You can use this strategy with a variety of your interview responses. Answer their inquiry, but at the end, return attention to their job and explain why you want this position! This is not done by most job seekers.
This strategy will really make you stand out and reassure them that you will love your job. Even if you have the necessary experience, employers are extremely wary of hiring someone who won’t enjoy their work. Since it costs a ton of time/cash/energy to recruit and prepare somebody, and that is undeniably lost in the event that you leave in the primary year).
2. Mid-level example
For many years, I wanted to be a manager. That’s what I did last year. As I look ahead in my career, I would like to continue developing as a leader and building and managing larger teams. I’ve discovered that mentoring and leading a team amuse me even more than working as an individual contributor in the beginning of my career. Whenever I saw your expected set of responsibilities specifies an opportunity to recruit and lead a group of five, I realized I ought to apply.
This is a sample response for the question, “What are your career goals?” does much more than just respond to the fundamental question. First, you mention a previous accomplishment, then you respond to the question, and finally, you describe something about their job that impressed you. If you’re looking for a job at a mid-level or senior level, this is a great formula to follow when answering this question.
3. Senior/Executive-level example
My current career objective is to integrate my 12 years of experience in leadership and management into a Fortune 500 company. This, in my opinion, would present a brand-new challenge while simultaneously bringing out the best in me. I’ve done best in positions where I led cross-functional teams with multiple departments, and I think I’ll get more experience in this in a Fortune 500 company. I noticed that this is mentioned as a part of the role here in your job description. Could you elaborate on that further?
A great way to make the interview more conversational is to end your answer to the job interview with a question directed back at the hiring manager. Instead of simply responding to one question and then waiting for the next one, try to do this at least a few times. This can be a genuine huge advantage in your meetings as far as the stream and how certain you feel and show up.
Final words on career goals
Working toward any objective necessitates ongoing education. Take into consideration earning an online Professional Certificate through Coursera if you discover that your career objectives necessitate specialized knowledge. Learn from experts in the field like Google, Meta, and IBM to become job-ready in areas like data analysis, social media marketing, and user experience design. You will be able to work with the skills you are learning and learn at your own pace from anywhere with an internet connection.
We hope that by the time you reach the end of this piece, you have at least some ideas for your next career development goals.
What’s significant – you can, and ought to, have more than each profession objective in turn. That will give you more leeway and something to work on even if you have to put off another goal for a while. Therefore, you are free to combine short-term and long-term career objectives to develop a personalized strategy for ascending the career ladder.
Hey, I am Sachin Ramdurg. I run and manage futuredecider.com website that helps students, graduates, and professionals, to find and decide on their future career with ultimate future career advices and future career guides. I have an overall 12+ years of career guidance experience in multiple domains which has helped multiple students, graduates, and professionals to find the best career path for their future.