6 Tips for Developing Internship/Career Goals

By Victoria Robertson on September 8, 2018

It’s very important to have goals that you work towards throughout your college career and beyond. But not only that, you also have to ensure that your goals are realistic and yet still push you beyond your typical capabilities.

What this essentially means is that, when goal setting, you’re looking into your future plans, such as your career and/or internship path, to ensure the goals you’re setting are ones that are going to help you in your future.

With that all being said, there’s a relatively easy way to develop goals for yourself, so long as you’re aware of these six tips. So here are six tips to help you develop your goals.

Photo Via: Pixabay.com

1. Be Specific

When it comes to setting goals, it’s very important to be specific and detailed. Vague goals aren’t helpful in that they could mean anything. For instance, “Be a better person” is a vague goal and one that you therefore can’t measure/control.

Instead, using the above example, you would want to use a goal such as “say thank you three times/day,” as this goal is measurable, achievable and clear/specific. The more specificity you can add to your goals, the better off you are!

2. Be Realistic

More often than not, people set goals that just aren’t achievable. For instance, those that wish to quit smoking say “I’ll quit smoking by next week” and then, soon after, have begun smoking again. While this may be realistic for some, for most, it’s not.

When setting goals, you want to set them in stages so that they are realistic. So with the above example, you may not quit smoking entirely in a week, but you can probably cut back your daily smoke breaks by quite a bit by then. So while you can have a broad, overarching goal, be realistic in terms of timelines as well as what you think you’re capable of.

3. Reach

That being said, don’t be afraid to push yourself. For instance, if you know that you can already do 10 push-ups, wanting to do 11 push-ups by the end of the month is a given and not a very strong goal. However, wanting to do 50 push-ups by the end of the month is achievable and a bit of a reach at the same time, so you will be pushing yourself in order to achieve that goal.

You always want to set goals that are realistic, but you also want to push yourself. Don’t set goals that you’re easily going to accomplish – set goals that it will take a bit of time and energy to achieve. It’ll be much more satisfying when you’re successful as well!

via Pexels.com

4. Set a Timeline

While internships/career paths can’t exactly be timed perfectly, it’s a good idea to have a rough timeline of when you wish to achieve your goals. No, you won’t be able to say “by my third year in this company, I want to be the VP,” because there are too many variables and it’s not realistic. However, saying that after 3 years you would like to be moving up towards that goal is realistic.

Timelines are good because they provide you with a sense of where you wish to go in your future, even if you can’t be too specific. Again, simply setting that timeline is a good starting point!

5. Have a Plan

Not everyone has a plan when it comes to goals, but you should. Know what you want your future to look like and set your goals accordingly. If you don’t have any rough ideas of a plan, it’s much harder to set goals for yourself.

Think about where you want to be in the future, think of the steps it will take to get there, and map out your goals accordingly.

6. Share With Others

Last, and perhaps seen as the least important, you should be sharing your goals with others. Letting others in on your goals/future plans is essential to ensuring you stick to your goals and can also help to push you to achieve them.

Friends and family can be useful allies when it comes to achieving your goals, and they may even be able to assist you in achieving them rather than simply cheering you on. But either way, it’s nice to have them in your corner!

Again, setting goals may not be the most fun item on your to-do list, but it’s going to get you the furthest when it comes to your future, whether that’s plans in terms of internships or in your career path. Goal setting is what will keep you on task and ensure that your future is the one that you’ve planned for.

Just follow these six tips and start setting goals for yourself from there, and your future is sure to be bright!

Happy goal-setting everyone!

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