Career goals are goals that you set for your career path. They can be anything from your career choice to where you want to be in your career in a certain number of years. A career defines how you want to spend a large part of your life, so career goal setting is something that everyone should be doing regardless of what career they choose.

If you don’t already have a career that you want, finding the career that's right for you is the first step of career planning. Your career should suit your life's purpose and passion as well as rely on your best skills. To set good career goals, think about what you want to get out of your career. Some people may think that money and seniority are their most important career goals, so they may choose a well-paying career where they can advance into management. Others may define flexible hours and work they can do from home as their most important career goals.

Once you've figured out what your talents are and what you really want out of your career, you can research careers that meet your requirements. Of course, job prospects in that field are a necessary consideration as you want to be able to find work in your chosen career. You can conduct informational interviews with prospective employers to get an idea of what they're looking for in employees and approximately what types of jobs they'll need filled in the near future.

Remember that career goals don't stop when you've landed a job in your dream career. In order to keep your career goals on track, you'll probably find that you need to keep setting new career goals. For example, if the next step in your career is a supervisory or managerial position, you'll need to set goals to reach that level. You would have to understand how your new career goals fit in with your present job, so setting both short term and long term career goals may be necessary.

Short term career goals would apply to your current position, but those goals would have your long term career goal in mind. For example, if you know that to reach your long term goal of becoming a supervisor or manager you'll need to learn a specific computer software program, learning that program could be one of your short term career goals. The thing to always be aware of is what you want out of your career, because when you focus on that your career goal setting is greatly simplified!