Career Goals

[KMC]

Responding to a previous post got me to thinking about career goals and how well having goals has served me personally in my career. 

Do you have 3, 5, and/or 10 year career goals? 

Does having goals have a positive effect on you?  If so, what are they?

How does having career goals keep you focused on your personal advancement?

Look forward to hearing your responses, after we get a few rolling in I'll throw in my responses as well!

[Maribeth]

I do have a 5 year plan. It's broken down into shorter term goals (3-6 months, 6-12, 1 year, 5 years, long-term). The act of breaking down my long-term goals and putting them to paper forces me to think more clearly and specifically about how to achieve them. It makes them manageable for me.

The things on my "5 year plan" that really have helped steer me in the direction I want to go are these:
Skills to develop
What I care about in a work environment
Personal Goals

The "skills to develop" section helps me to be honest with myself about what I need to work on. Having these things written down forces me to be honest with myself about what kind of things I need to improve.

"What I care about in a work environment" is a list of values that I have and that I want the companies I work for to share. It helps me determine what kinds of jobs I should take- if a company doesn't share those values (like the need for a liveable wage) then I probably don't want to work for them.

In the "Personal Goals", I try and make sure that the things that are important to me outside of work are being taken into consideration.  (For instance, planning to take a vacation). It's the hardest part for me- to make sure that I'm looking out for myself as a person and working toward what I want out of life, not hyper-focusing on my career.

I think the act of writing these goals down forces me to think about them honestly. It can be a big factor in deciding whether or not to pursue a certain position ("Does this job help me advance towards where I want to go?"), or go in another direction.

I don't revisit the plan frequently, but every few months I'll re-evaluate, and see if my goals are being met, or if I've lost focus. Sometimes I've decided that what I've written no longer applies. But in writing this post, I've been looking at an old 5 year plan, and I can say that it helped me a great deal in deciding what path I want my career to go, and how to get there.

[Amie]

Great question.  I don't have a plan in terms of 3/5/10.  I just make goals and go for it.  My philosophy is that everyone's journey it different and I will land where I am supposed to land if I keep just plunging ahead.

In response:

Q: Does having goals have a positive effect on you?  If so, what are they?
Absolutely!  Goals keep me striving toward.  They are always changing too.  One of my goals was to go to graduate school and work professionally.  These are goals I am accomplishing! Each goal I strive toward (and eventually achieve) make me feel more well-rounded and satisfied with life. (That might sound cheesy, but it is true). That's just one example, of course.

Q: How does having career goals keep you focused on your personal advancement?
It always gives me something new to work for, improve upon, and gives me a foundation. The only way I can be the best I can be is to make goals and go for it!

In the past few years, goals have been the basis of how I operate.  And the more I achieve my goals (though some take time, hard work, or alter as time goes on and new experiences happen), the more willing I am to set new, higher goals.

The only word that holds us back personally is "never."  I am working hard to abolish this word from my personal-goal setting-vocabulary.

[Bwoodbury]

I have found my five year plan to be extremely useful. Even between the version I did 3-4 months ago to now, there are things I was opposed to including that I am definitely interested in now, as well as things options available to me that I hadn't be aware of. It was of the most help to me, so far, when I was deciding whether to join AEA and AGMA. The offers for the two came in quick succession and I wasn't sure how viable an option it was for me to join so quickly after college. By comparing the work I had done (I also keep a master list for that: what show, where, with who) to my five year plan goals, it became much easier to make a decision.

[missliz]

I make a plan every year, based on the year before and what seems like reasonable accomplishments for the upcoming year. Then I break that down with a month-to-month "how to get there" plan. So far so good!

[Rebbe]

I’m more into ideas and aspirations than long-term career goals.  I feel like the future is such a moving target…every time I have thought I have a career goal I’m working toward, the dynamics change, as does what I’m aiming for.  I do find some satisfaction in achieving shorter-term goals that play out with 3 months to a year.     

[MatthewShiner]

I think the issue with long terms goals in this field, is we tend to do outward goals, where we actually have no control over "I want to be a SM on a national tour", "I want to work XXX theater", and the ever popular "I want to be a Broadway Stage Manager" - and all of these might be great career goals, but you have almost no control of some of these situations . . . a stage manager can go they entire life WANTING to be a stage manager on Broadway, and never achieve it - or just achieve for a small percentage of their career.

I strongly want people to have goals, to keep forward momentum, even career dreams . . . but I think it's always nice to balance things you have control over ("Learn Vectorworks") with things you might not have control over ("Make 75,000 a year").

[MileHighSM]

Honestly I have never set a long term goal.  For the most part I just keep searching out work and hoping to get shows!    I do a mailing annually to theatres I'm interested in working with, and I keep up with what's going on in the industry thru a variety of trade websites/publications.  I read and see a lot of plays so that I'm familiar with shows I may be asked to do.  This business is very fluid, and it's often hard to plan ahead.  I did go to grad school and have worked in New York-both things on my "list".  At the moment I've decided stability is needed, so I'm gunning for resident PSM position somewhere.

[Mac Calder]

I don't really set career goals... I set life goals - and my job is just a part of what will help me to achieve those goals. I don't really have many life goals at the moment - the main one is to just be happy - when I get bored with my job or how my life is, then I look to change it. So long as I earn enough to pay the bills and maybe save a bit for any holidays or stuff I want to buy, I'm content.

I figure in 5 or so years I will look at some career goals... but for now, I am happy just seeing where life takes me.

[P3NGU1N]

I have a 1 and 5 year goal.

1- To get accepted into Ball State's Production- Stage management program.
5- To have completed my SM degree from Ball State and be in the job market, hopefully have a job.