Learn about long-term career goals and how to create and pursue your own goals.
As you progress through your career, there may be times when you find yourself thinking about your career goals. You may be asked about them during a job interview, your manager may bring them up during your performance review, or you may independently decide to assess where you’re heading.
Often, when you think about the direction your career is going, you’re considering your long-term career goals. This article will discuss long-term career goals and how to create and work toward your own.
Long-term career goals are the things you hope to accomplish in your career over time. While your career aspirations relate to your ambitions, your long-term goals are concrete achievements that you’re working towards.
There’s no set time frame to differentiate between long-term and short-term career goals. In general, you can accomplish short-term goals more immediately, while long-term goals take six months, a year, or even longer to complete. You'll often accomplish several short-term goals as you work towards your long-term goals.
Before we discuss recognising your goals, here are some examples of long-term career goals. Take notice if any of these goals spark your interest—that may indicate that your long-term goals share some characteristics with these samples.
Long-term career goals examples:
Secure a promotion
Earn a new credential
Change careers
Increase your salary
Master a specific skill
Speak at a conference
Whether setting long-term career goals for yourself or looking for a response to the question “What are your long-term career goals?”, it can help you turn inwards to find your answer.
Here are two things you can do to start recognising your long-term career goals:
Know your values. Typically, people are most motivated to achieve goals that connect to their values. Broadly, your values are the things that are important to you. You may value financial success, authenticity, your well-being, or the well-being of others. What keeps you going?
Picture your ideal future career. With your values in mind, imagine your dream career. Try to recognise the specific aspects that attract you to that vision and play around with various scenarios in which you can achieve them. For example, you may imagine being a successful business executive. What, to you, makes a business executive successful? Are there other ways to achieve a similar type of success? What is alluring about business?
Getting a clear picture of your ideal future career and the values it’s grounded in is one way to determine your long-term career goals.
Once you have clarity on your long-term career goals, you can start figuring out how to achieve them. At first glance, some goals may feel out of reach—that’s okay! You’ll likely have to grow into your long-term career goals by breaking them down into more manageable short-term ones.
To get started, take inventory of your skills. Research the skills you’ll need to achieve your long-term career goals and compare that list to the skills you already have.
Through your skills audit, you’ll see exactly what you need to achieve to reach your long-term goals. You may recognise these necessary achievements as short-term goals. Your pathway to long-term success can be a stacked series of short-term goals.
You may find it helpful to organise your goals with a career development plan, a document outlining your goals, skills, and resources to generate your path forward.
One common way to frame your goals is to make them SMART:
Specific: Is your goal absolutely clear?
Measurable: Can you quantify your success?
Achievable: Is your goal realistic?
Relevant: Does your goal directly relate to your big-picture dream?
Time-bound: When will you achieve your goal?
The SMART criteria can help guide your success and keep you on task as you work towards your long-term career goals. However, there are many ways to work towards your goals.
Working toward big goals can feel overwhelming. To navigate those emotions, it’s important to remain flexible in your approach to success. Identifying the root cause of your discomfort can help you figure out your best path forward.
Get specific. What about your goal is giving you pause? Consider whether there are any other ways to work around those roadblocks. You may have more options (and opportunities) than you initially thought.
Continuing your education is one way to gain new skills while working towards your long-term career goals. Become job-ready for a career in data analytics, project management, cybersecurity, and more with a Professional Certificate from industry leaders like Google, Meta, and IBM. Or explore thousands of courses from leading universities and institutions on Coursera. Get started today by browsing our popular free courses.
Give your team access to a catalogue of 8,000+ engaging courses and hands-on Guided Projects to help them develop impactful skills. Learn more about Coursera for Business.
Editorial Team
Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...
This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.
Whether you're starting your career or trying to advance to the next level, experts at Google are here to help.
Save money and learn in-demand skills from top companies and organizations.