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As we mentioned in a previous post, you really don’t need a college degree to have a great career. (You do need to have earned a high school diploma or taken the GED.)

But you do need a plan.

It doesn’t need to be the type of plan you follow exactly. After all, life doesn’t work that way. Things come up. They always do. But it’s good to have an idea of what you want to accomplish and potential steps to get you there.

In fact, you have a far better chance of getting where you want to go when a) you know “where” that is and b) you have a least an outline/idea/plan – whatever you want to call it. (At least to get you started because, you know, “things come up.”)

Outlines and plans start with an end goal.

You can’t end up somewhere without knowing where you’re going

In short: you need a goal.

Potential career goals

No one can dictate your career goal. Your goal may be far different from a friend or family member’s, and that’s OK. It’s up to you and only you to set your goal.

Some career goal ideas:

• Moving into management.
• Learning an in-demand skill and then finding a better-paying job.
• Exploring jobs that provide more flexibility.
• Learning skills you can use traveling around the country or the world.
• Learning remote-work skills so you can work part-time and stay at home with your children/elderly parent.

You get the idea: your “career” goals can be whatever you want them to be, whether they are “traditional” (become a manager) or “non-traditional” (be able to work online and become a digital nomad”).

Making your goals happen

Thinking that you want to do such and such, or earn such and such, or experience such and such never happens by just thinking about it.

You must do…something.

The good news is that even just the smallest of steps starts building momentum, and reaching your goal steadily becomes easier and more likely to happen.

Let’s take the goal of learning an in-demand skill and finding a better-paying job.

• Your first step would be to research in-demand skills in which you might be interested.
• Your next one is to find out how much you might earn as a newly skilled worker.
• Research to see how in-demand this skill actually is.
• Then you research if the skills are taught at schools near you or online.
• You find out the cost.
• You check to see if your current employer may help pay for the skill training.
• If not, you check your finances to see if you have the money.
• If not, you consider saving money each week toward the cost.
• Perhaps family members could help with the cost?
• You talk to people who use the skill themselves now.
  • What’s it like to do what they do? What’s the best part about the job? The worst? How hard was it to find the job?

And you continue writing down steps (as a guide for yourself).

You may decide a particular career goal isn’t for you.

And that’s OK.

You actually should do something similar to the above for just about any career goal you can think of: talk to people doing it now. You may find that a lot of people doing what you’re thinking of doing hate it. You may find that it’s not as great – or as high-paying – as you’d thought. You may decide that the “cost” to you – in time, money, etc. – isn’t worth it.

That’s really OK.

Yet the happiest people are those who have something they’re working towards. It doesn’t matter if it’s a career goal, a personal desire or something else: working for or towards something you feel is “bigger” than yourself is one of the two most important keys to a successful, fulfilling life. (The other is having solid, loving personal and family relationships.)

Helping you reach your career goals

If one of your career goals is getting a job, Hire Dynamics can help you.

Take a look at our current opportunities and apply to those that appeal to you.

We also recommend that you register with us even if you don’t see anything today: we’re always receiving assignments from our clients, and if you’ve applied with us, we can contact you quickly when they come our way.

Looking for your next job?
Whether you’re a company looking to fill administrative support positions, or a job seeker looking for administrative assistant jobs, Hire Dynamics can help!