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Setting career goals: where do I start?

A good starting point is to spend some time considering how you feel about your current job or course of study, your career to date, and your dreams and aspirations for the future, says RCN careers coach Julie Watkins. ‘It’s good to start with some reflection before setting career goals,’ she says. ‘Ask questions such as “Who am I?” and think about what you’ve enjoyed about your career to date.’

Ms Watkins recommends identifying what has worked, what has felt rewarding and any feedback you have received. ‘This can help you understand what your strengths and values are, and how these will align with your potential career aspirations,’ she says.

Remember, goals do not need to be huge. University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust lead nurse for safe staffing Pippa Clark says: ‘Social media can add another pressure that makes us think we all need to be achieving seemingly impossible goals all the time, but that’s not real life.’

Understanding our core values and the benefits of achieving a goal can help us to stay on track, says Ms Clark. Her own approach is to come back to core nursing values. ‘Having a continuous improvement mindset helps me. I ask myself: “What would be the best for patients? If something isn’t good enough, how can I make it better?”’

What should I consider when setting short-term and longer-term goals?

Once you have reflected on what is important to you, how your aspirations are linked to your values and what the benefits of achieving your goals are, the next step is to think about timescales.

Ms Watkins says: ‘It can be useful to set short-term and long-term goals.’ Depending on what you want to achieve, short term may be the next few months to a year, while long term may be anything from one to ten years in the future.

A big goal, such as aspiring to be a chief nurse, may take ten years or more, but you can set out steps along the way. The important thing is to know that you are taking the right steps.

Ms Watkins says: ‘Ask yourself, how will what you do now contribute to your longer-term goals?

For example, if your career goal is to become an advanced nurse practitioner, your shorter-term goals may involve courses to enhance your clinical skills or taking on additional leadership responsibilities in your current role.’

Ms Clark says: ‘Be realistic. I tend not to set goals like “I want to be a band 8 in a year” because life isn’t like that, there are too many variables that you can’t necessarily control and you can just end up feeling like a failure.’

Instead, she advises setting ‘getting ready for it’ goals.

‘If you want to be on band 7 and you are currently on band 6, get hold of some job descriptions for band 7 roles and write down the skills listed that you currently don’t have,’ she says.

‘For example, if they list project management then write that down and use it as the basis for your goal – this could be to manage an improvement project where you work within the next six months.

‘If you go through the skills lists like this and set a time frame, you will be getting ready for success at a band 7 interview when that opportunity arises for you.’

How can setting goals help with revalidation?

Getting organised by plotting a series of small goals can help you avoid last-minute stress when completing the revalidation process.

‘Shorter-term goals can contribute to revalidation and continuing professional development (CPD), and also give you a sense of achievement,’ says Ms Watkins.

The RCN has produced guidance on how to prepare for revalidation, including gaining practice-related feedback, finding time for reflection, and collecting and storing your evidence.

‘Break down the tasks and assign one per fortnight,’ Ms Watkins suggests. ‘For example, checking the hours of CPD you have completed, booking a training course, writing a written reflection or seeking feedback.’

How to set your SMART goals

The ‘SMART’ framework is a widely-used tool to help structure and define goals and is flexible enough to use for individual or team goals. Whether you are trying to get an initiative off the ground or want to create a stress-free path to revalidation, the ‘SMART’ emphasis on timing and measuring your efforts is useful.

• SMART stands for:

• » Specific: Define the goal in as much detail as you can. ‘I want to move on in my career’ is probably too vague. ‘I want to gain a prescribing qualification’ is better

• » Measurable: How will you know when you have achieved the goal? The key is to have something quantifiable to work towards, whether your goal is professional or related to well-being. For example: ‘Complete ten hours of CPD training’, ‘Write two reflective accounts’, or ‘Do 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week’

• » Achievable: Think about how much time you will need to work on the goal, then look at how you will fit this into your schedule. What will you need to stop doing to make time for it?

• » Realistic: Talk to a mentor or coach to stress-test your plan. Are you on the right track? If it is not realistic, what adjustments do you need to make?

• » Time-based: When will you achieve the goal by? If it is a longer-term goal you will need to set deadlines along the way, with specific tasks to complete

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What support should I seek out to help me achieve my goals?

‘Get a coach,’ advises Ms Clark. ‘This could be your manager or another senior nurse. I tend to like a coach who is external to my department, but has some relevant senior experience.

‘Many organisations run mentorship schemes, or you can just ask someone if they will be your coach, such as a senior nurse you have a good relationship with. It’s flattering to be asked, and you only need someone to meet up with you for half an hour or so every few months to run through where you are and offer support and advice.’