"Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?"

Of all the job interview questions out there, this has always been one of the most difficult.

These days, the next steps in your career aren't always linear. The age-old corporate ladder model of putting in a few years as an associate contributor, becoming a manager of a small team, and climbing your way to the senior management or director level is not right for everyone.

And considering you'll spend roughly one-third of your life at work, it's critical you take the time to reflect and choose the best career path for you.

To help you figure out your short and long term career goals, I spoke with four career coaches. Here, we'll explore how you can determine your own career goals for long-term professional fulfillment. Let's dive in.

What are career goals?

Career goals are any short or long term milestones you hope to achieve throughout your career to get you where you want to be. While your personal goals might include starting a family or buying a house, your career goals are entirely focused on the trajectory of your professional life. 

Your long term career goals are the adult answer to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Perhaps you hope to become CFO, business owner, or VP of Marketing. Alternatively, maybe you want to become a lecturer at a college, open your own private practice, write a novel, or own a yoga studio. 

Once you've identified your long term goals, you'll want to create a strategic vision for how to get there, which is comprised of lots of short term goals. For instance, maybe in your short term plan, you'd like to get your MBA, speak at conferences, take a writing course, or get your yoga certificate. All your short term decisions should be made, at least in part, with your long term career goal in-mind. 

Let's dive into the difference between short and long term career goals, now. 

Short Term Career Goals 

A short term career goal is any professional goal that will take you a few months or few years to achieve. Your short term goals should fit into the roadmap you need to follow to eventually reach your long-term goals. 

Short term goals can relate to education, professional development, personal development, or leadership. For instance, a few short term goals might include: 

• Taking an Excel course to become more proficient in data analysis
• Signing up for your company's professional development workshop to master new skills related to management 
• Enrolling in a Toastmasters class to become a more confident public speaker 
• Increasing your monthly sales by 30% 
• Collaborating more efficiently across departments 

From these examples, you can begin to see that short term goals are not the end-all, be-all of your professional development — they're just a starting point. It's often easiest to determine your short term goals by first discovering your long term goals, and then working backwards. 

For instance, if your long term goal is to become the VP of Marketing, you'll want to identify an appropriate leadership roadmap and start with relevant short term goals, like taking a public speaking course, strengthening your leadership skills, or networking within the industry to find appropriate mentors. 

When devising your short term goals, you'll want to ensure you're following the SMART framework: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. 

The SMART framework can help you create more specific goals that are typically easier to achieve — for instance, you might modify your short term goal, "I want to create a stronger team culture" to "I will improve our team's culture by implementing weekly team lunches and facilitating various ice breakers or games during these lunches. At the end of the quarter, I'll send out a survey to team members to measure employees' satisfaction levels with team culture."

Long Term Career Goals 

A long term career goal is your long-term vision that drives your career and professional development decisions, and typically takes years to achieve. 

Oftentimes, your long term career goals can be the motivating factors in your day-to-day. For instance, perhaps you don't love your current role as a content marketer — but it's necessary for you to learn the ins and outs of marketing, since your long term goal is to become a VP of Marketing. 

A long term goal should drive your professional decisions and career conversations with your manager, since long term goals are only achievable once you've crossed off a series of short term steps. Of course, you'll want to ensure the long term goals you articulate with your manager are possible at your current company. 

For instance, if you're in a marketing-related role, it's appropriate to communicate to your manager that your long term goal is to become a VP of Marketing. It's less appropriate to tell her that your long term goal is to write a science fiction book, since that demonstrates to your manager that you don't plan on staying at your current company for the long haul. 

A few examples of long term goals include: 

• Become an executive at a company 
• Lead the financial team at a start-up 
• Become a thought leader in the SEO space 
• Start your own company 
• Take courses to switch career paths and become a product manager 
• Build a consulting business

Ultimately, your long term goal is the desired end result of many strategic, short-term decisions. 

If your long term goal is to become a product manager, some short-term decisions might include taking a college course on product management, conducting informational interviews with product managers to learn more about necessary skills for the role, and taking a few courses related to the core requirements. 

If your long term goal doesn't relate to your current role, consider how you might level up outside of work to break into a new industry. For instance, if a long term goal is to become a novelist, perhaps you take some fiction workshops outside of work. Alternatively, if your long term goal is to start your own business, maybe you create your business plan on the weekends.

How do you know what your career goals are? 

It's the million dollar question, isn't it? Many of us hope to know what our career goals are as soon as we graduate college — but, as we try out certain roles and uncover our professional strengths and weaknesses, these goals likely change over time. 

To get some insight here, I spoke with Nicole Palidwor, a certified career coach and resumé specialist at Ama La Vida.

Palidwor told me she typically urges her clients to focus on the following five areas when considering a career change: 

• Values: What do I care about? What is important to me?
• Interests: What topics do I find fascinating or intriguing?
• Work Environment: What industry and/or company type interests me?
• Status: What is my desired professional recognition and achievement?
• Compensation: What is my long-term desired income?

Palidwor says, "Different priorities will lead you down different paths. For example, if interests rank highest, you'll look for careers that allow you to explore your passions or reflect your training. If overall compensation is your motivator, you'll pursue titles and qualifications that move the salary needle."

She adds, "It's also important to recognize potential tradeoffs. High compensation doesn't necessarily align with working for social causes. Ideal work environments may not always provide the status you're looking for. Non-profit work, tech startups, Fortune 500s, engineering firms, and executive opportunities all await you, but they may not all make sense."

Senior Director of Student Affairs for Penn State University and career development strategist for Mentor Me Ashley A. Adams, PhD, agrees that figuring out your values is a critical step in choosing a career path.

Adams told me, "The first step in determining career goals is to focus on your values. Values serve as a compass and should guide your decision-making in all things, but particularly in your career."

"For instance," She adds, "if you value family, identify industries that have structured or predictable work schedules that allow you to plan appropriate family time. Alternatively, if you value wealth, find organizations that have lucrative benefits, high % matching 401K, and above-average salaries. Once you've identified your values, then you can focus on your strengths and weaknesses."

Once you've made a list of your values and interests, you can begin to identify your most powerful professional skills. You'll then want to determine a career that aligns all three of these areas. 

Additionally, Sho Dewan, who was listed one of the top career coaches globally on LinkedIn's Top Voices list and is CEO of Workhap, recommends breaking down your goals into three parts: 

• What is the result I want? (Example: "I want to earn a promotion in six months.")
• What is the action I have to take every day or week to achieve that goal? (Example: "I will arrange feedback meetings with my manager, learn new skills, organize team-building events, etc.")
• What is the thought I need to remind myself to achieve that goal? (Example: "I am skilled at what I do, my manager wants to see me succeed, and I am a valuable asset to the team.")

Dewan says, "If you can think these thoughts consistently, then you will be motivated to take the required action — which will lead to you getting your desired results."

Heidi Siegal Kogon, Founder and Career Coach at Kogon Coaching, also encourages her clients to understand their core values and innate strengths. She says you can do this by asking those closest to you, leveraging personality or strength assessment tools, or thinking about what you most enjoy doing. 

She adds, "You'll want to take the time to figure out what you truly want — not what someone else wants for you, or what you think you 'should' do. Many people live their lives based on what other people think they should do. Those people may think they have your best interest at heart, but it still may not be the best decision for you."

If you currently work at a company, or you're interviewing for a new position, follow these tips to decide what your career goals are:

• Look at the organizational structure
• Know the company’s hierarchical lingo
• Ask what a typical career trajectory might look like in your role
• Consider long term goals such as becoming an executive or owning your own business
• Think about what motivates you

This means that you'll want to think about what motivates you and then consider what the next step would be at the company you're working for. You should know how the organization structures its hierarchy and the lingo that's used.

Then, you can lay out a basic plan for a career trajectory from one role to the next. Once you have an idea of the roles you want, then you can focus on deciding what skills and education you might need to get there.

5 Career Goal Examples

Now that we've explored what career goals are, let's put this into practice. Here are six examples of career goals to get you started writing your own.

Alternatively, here's how you might want to answer the question, "Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?" during a job interview. 

Example One: A Leadership Career Goal 

"Over the next couple of years, I'd like to enroll at a university to earn my MBA in finance. I hope to one day become CFO at a company, and I believe my MBA will help me achieve that goal. I have always been interested in a career in finance, and I also have strong leadership skills. Becoming an executive for a financial department would combine these interests well." 

Short Term Goal: Get an MBA in finance

Long Term Goal: Become CFO at a corporation

Use Case: Interview or performance review

Example Two: An Independent Career Goal 

"My ultimate dream has always been to write a book and become a novelist. To help myself achieve this goal, I am going to sign up for a local writer's fiction workshop so I can receive feedback on my writing from my peers." 

Short Term Goal: Take a fiction workshop 

Long Term Goal: Write a book 

Use Case: Personal 

Example Three: A Skill-based Career Goal 

"Over the next five years, I'd like to gain enough experience to transition into a role on the SEO team. During my conversations with SEO strategists, I've learned one weakness I have is minimal knowledge of Excel, so I'd like to take an Excel course to strengthen my skills. This excel course, along with seeking out collaborative projects with the SEO team, should help me achieve my goal." 

Short Term Goal: Learn Excel 

Long Term Goal: Become an SEO consultant 

Use Case: Performance review 

Example Four: An Outside-of-Work Career Goal 

"Within the next five years, I want to open a yoga studio. To accomplish this, I am going to start by getting my yoga teacher's certification. This will enable me to break into the yoga industry, and after a few years working at a yoga studio, I can learn the ins and outs to better equip myself to open my own studio." 

Short Term Goal: Get my yoga certificate 

Long Term Goal: Open a yoga studio 

Use Case: Personal 

Example Five: A Business Owner Career Goal 

"I've always dreamed of one day opening my own public relations firm. This goal influenced my decision to attend X University and get a degree in Public Relations with a minor in Management. In the short term, I'd like to join your team as a public relations associate and work my way up the ladder. Experience at your company would be invaluable to me as I begin my career." 

Short Term Goal: Get a job as a public relations associate

Long Term Goal: Open my own public relations firm

Use Case: Interview 

How to Write Career Goals 

Once you've determined what your career goals are, you'll want to write them down. Perhaps you'll mention them on your resumé if your goals align with the role for which you're interviewing.

Alternatively, maybe you write your career goals down before a performance review with your manager for a more constructive, guided conversation. 

Finally, even if your goals don't align with your current role, you'll still want to write them down for personal reflection. 

Here are four steps you can follow when writing your career goals:

1. Consider where you want to improve your career.

2. Use SMART goals formatting.

3. Write short term and long term goals.

4. Be detailed with your plan.

1. Consider where you want to improve your career.

Before you write your goals, think about the areas you want to advance. There are four main categories that I like to think about:

• Improving work performance.
• Developing skills that will help you become a leader/manager.
• Self-improvement focused goals.
• Learning about something new and different in your field.

When you write out your career goals, think about each of these areas. 

How can you improve your work performance? What kind of skills do you need to develop to get where you want to go? How can you improve yourself and grow? What can you learn about that's new in your industry?

Thinking about these questions will help you begin brainstorming if you're not necessarily sure where you want to end up.

2. Use SMART goals formatting.

An easy way to write out your career goals is to format it like a SMART goal, like mentioned above. Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

Being as specific and relevant as possible is important for you to communicate with your manager or a potential employer.

3. Write short term and long term goals.

When you're writing out your goals, write out a few short term and long term goals. It's important to consider what type of goals you want to achieve in the next few years, as well as goals for the distant future.

You can come up with a career trajectory, and then write out short term goals that will help you get there. Additionally, when writing out your long term goals, consider why you want to become an executive or own a company. Thinking about what motivates you can help you maintain focus.

4. Be detailed with your plan.

Writing out your goals doesn't just mean writing out a wish list. You should also come up with a plan of action for how you're going to achieve your goals. This plan will consist of a basic trajectory, and the short term goals you need to achieve to get there.

I asked Nicole Palidwor about the "do's" and "don'ts" when it comes to writing career goals.

Palidwor told me, "You'll want to write career goals that make sense for your current lifestyle, available bandwidth, and the urgency of a professional change. People often get ambitious, but come to realize sending out 50 applications a week isn't realistic."

"Instead, create action steps that reflect what you can and want to do by establishing smaller, but still relevant, achievable, and appropriately ranked goals."

Palidwor adds, "Don't make too large or ambiguous goals. Break them down. Additionally, I'd quantify your expected results to hold yourself accountable, and give yourself deadlines so that you stay on track to achieving your goals. The more you break down and organize your goals, the easier they seem (and are!) to accomplish."

When writing career goals for a resume, however, you'll also want to ensure you make it clear how you plan on helping the company hit its own business goals — not just your own.

As Marcy Williams, Founder and Career Coach at Coach Marcy Life Coaching Services, tells me, "When writing out my career goals for a performance review or for a resumé, I make talking points of what I contribute to the role within the organization first. I discuss how I love working as a team to improve processes and the experience for all versus speaking of just myself."

Williams adds, "Do not talk about yourself first when jotting down career goals because it will give the employer the feeling that you are only in it for yourself and not for the betterment of the organization."

And there you have it! You're well on your way towards creating more actionable, tactical career goals to get you where you want to be. Keep these tips in-mind, and don't be afraid to iterate over time as you learn more about what you like — and don't like — about your current career path. 

from Marketing https://ift.tt/3zcgw5Cdigital marketing agency

"Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?"

Of all the job interview questions out there, this has always been one of the most difficult.

These days, the next steps in your career aren't always linear. The age-old corporate ladder model of putting in a few years as an associate contributor, becoming a manager of a small team, and climbing your way to the senior management or director level is not right for everyone.

And considering you'll spend roughly one-third of your life at work, it's critical you take the time to reflect and choose the best career path for you.

To help you figure out your short and long term career goals, I spoke with four career coaches. Here, we'll explore how you can determine your own career goals for long-term professional fulfillment. Let's dive in.

What are career goals?

Career goals are any short or long term milestones you hope to achieve throughout your career to get you where you want to be. While your personal goals might include starting a family or buying a house, your career goals are entirely focused on the trajectory of your professional life. 

Your long term career goals are the adult answer to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Perhaps you hope to become CFO, business owner, or VP of Marketing. Alternatively, maybe you want to become a lecturer at a college, open your own private practice, write a novel, or own a yoga studio. 

Once you've identified your long term goals, you'll want to create a strategic vision for how to get there, which is comprised of lots of short term goals. For instance, maybe in your short term plan, you'd like to get your MBA, speak at conferences, take a writing course, or get your yoga certificate. All your short term decisions should be made, at least in part, with your long term career goal in-mind. 

Let's dive into the difference between short and long term career goals, now. 

Short Term Career Goals 

A short term career goal is any professional goal that will take you a few months or few years to achieve. Your short term goals should fit into the roadmap you need to follow to eventually reach your long-term goals. 

Short term goals can relate to education, professional development, personal development, or leadership. For instance, a few short term goals might include: 

• Taking an Excel course to become more proficient in data analysis
• Signing up for your company's professional development workshop to master new skills related to management 
• Enrolling in a Toastmasters class to become a more confident public speaker 
• Increasing your monthly sales by 30% 
• Collaborating more efficiently across departments 

From these examples, you can begin to see that short term goals are not the end-all, be-all of your professional development — they're just a starting point. It's often easiest to determine your short term goals by first discovering your long term goals, and then working backwards. 

For instance, if your long term goal is to become the VP of Marketing, you'll want to identify an appropriate leadership roadmap and start with relevant short term goals, like taking a public speaking course, strengthening your leadership skills, or networking within the industry to find appropriate mentors. 

When devising your short term goals, you'll want to ensure you're following the SMART framework: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. 

The SMART framework can help you create more specific goals that are typically easier to achieve — for instance, you might modify your short term goal, "I want to create a stronger team culture" to "I will improve our team's culture by implementing weekly team lunches and facilitating various ice breakers or games during these lunches. At the end of the quarter, I'll send out a survey to team members to measure employees' satisfaction levels with team culture."

Long Term Career Goals 

A long term career goal is your long-term vision that drives your career and professional development decisions, and typically takes years to achieve. 

Oftentimes, your long term career goals can be the motivating factors in your day-to-day. For instance, perhaps you don't love your current role as a content marketer — but it's necessary for you to learn the ins and outs of marketing, since your long term goal is to become a VP of Marketing. 

A long term goal should drive your professional decisions and career conversations with your manager, since long term goals are only achievable once you've crossed off a series of short term steps. Of course, you'll want to ensure the long term goals you articulate with your manager are possible at your current company. 

For instance, if you're in a marketing-related role, it's appropriate to communicate to your manager that your long term goal is to become a VP of Marketing. It's less appropriate to tell her that your long term goal is to write a science fiction book, since that demonstrates to your manager that you don't plan on staying at your current company for the long haul. 

A few examples of long term goals include: 

• Become an executive at a company 
• Lead the financial team at a start-up 
• Become a thought leader in the SEO space 
• Start your own company 
• Take courses to switch career paths and become a product manager 
• Build a consulting business

Ultimately, your long term goal is the desired end result of many strategic, short-term decisions. 

If your long term goal is to become a product manager, some short-term decisions might include taking a college course on product management, conducting informational interviews with product managers to learn more about necessary skills for the role, and taking a few courses related to the core requirements. 

If your long term goal doesn't relate to your current role, consider how you might level up outside of work to break into a new industry. For instance, if a long term goal is to become a novelist, perhaps you take some fiction workshops outside of work. Alternatively, if your long term goal is to start your own business, maybe you create your business plan on the weekends.

How do you know what your career goals are? 

It's the million dollar question, isn't it? Many of us hope to know what our career goals are as soon as we graduate college — but, as we try out certain roles and uncover our professional strengths and weaknesses, these goals likely change over time. 

To get some insight here, I spoke with Nicole Palidwor, a certified career coach and resumé specialist at Ama La Vida.

Palidwor told me she typically urges her clients to focus on the following five areas when considering a career change: 

• Values: What do I care about? What is important to me?
• Interests: What topics do I find fascinating or intriguing?
• Work Environment: What industry and/or company type interests me?
• Status: What is my desired professional recognition and achievement?
• Compensation: What is my long-term desired income?

Palidwor says, "Different priorities will lead you down different paths. For example, if interests rank highest, you'll look for careers that allow you to explore your passions or reflect your training. If overall compensation is your motivator, you'll pursue titles and qualifications that move the salary needle."

She adds, "It's also important to recognize potential tradeoffs. High compensation doesn't necessarily align with working for social causes. Ideal work environments may not always provide the status you're looking for. Non-profit work, tech startups, Fortune 500s, engineering firms, and executive opportunities all await you, but they may not all make sense."

Senior Director of Student Affairs for Penn State University and career development strategist for Mentor Me Ashley A. Adams, PhD, agrees that figuring out your values is a critical step in choosing a career path.

Adams told me, "The first step in determining career goals is to focus on your values. Values serve as a compass and should guide your decision-making in all things, but particularly in your career."

"For instance," She adds, "if you value family, identify industries that have structured or predictable work schedules that allow you to plan appropriate family time. Alternatively, if you value wealth, find organizations that have lucrative benefits, high % matching 401K, and above-average salaries. Once you've identified your values, then you can focus on your strengths and weaknesses."

Once you've made a list of your values and interests, you can begin to identify your most powerful professional skills. You'll then want to determine a career that aligns all three of these areas. 

Additionally, Sho Dewan, who was listed one of the top career coaches globally on LinkedIn's Top Voices list and is CEO of Workhap, recommends breaking down your goals into three parts: 

• What is the result I want? (Example: "I want to earn a promotion in six months.")
• What is the action I have to take every day or week to achieve that goal? (Example: "I will arrange feedback meetings with my manager, learn new skills, organize team-building events, etc.")
• What is the thought I need to remind myself to achieve that goal? (Example: "I am skilled at what I do, my manager wants to see me succeed, and I am a valuable asset to the team.")

Dewan says, "If you can think these thoughts consistently, then you will be motivated to take the required action — which will lead to you getting your desired results."

Heidi Siegal Kogon, Founder and Career Coach at Kogon Coaching, also encourages her clients to understand their core values and innate strengths. She says you can do this by asking those closest to you, leveraging personality or strength assessment tools, or thinking about what you most enjoy doing. 

She adds, "You'll want to take the time to figure out what you truly want — not what someone else wants for you, or what you think you 'should' do. Many people live their lives based on what other people think they should do. Those people may think they have your best interest at heart, but it still may not be the best decision for you."

If you currently work at a company, or you're interviewing for a new position, follow these tips to decide what your career goals are:

• Look at the organizational structure
• Know the company’s hierarchical lingo
• Ask what a typical career trajectory might look like in your role
• Consider long term goals such as becoming an executive or owning your own business
• Think about what motivates you

This means that you'll want to think about what motivates you and then consider what the next step would be at the company you're working for. You should know how the organization structures its hierarchy and the lingo that's used.

Then, you can lay out a basic plan for a career trajectory from one role to the next. Once you have an idea of the roles you want, then you can focus on deciding what skills and education you might need to get there.

5 Career Goal Examples

Now that we've explored what career goals are, let's put this into practice. Here are six examples of career goals to get you started writing your own.

Alternatively, here's how you might want to answer the question, "Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?" during a job interview. 

Example One: A Leadership Career Goal 

"Over the next couple of years, I'd like to enroll at a university to earn my MBA in finance. I hope to one day become CFO at a company, and I believe my MBA will help me achieve that goal. I have always been interested in a career in finance, and I also have strong leadership skills. Becoming an executive for a financial department would combine these interests well." 

Short Term Goal: Get an MBA in finance

Long Term Goal: Become CFO at a corporation

Use Case: Interview or performance review

Example Two: An Independent Career Goal 

"My ultimate dream has always been to write a book and become a novelist. To help myself achieve this goal, I am going to sign up for a local writer's fiction workshop so I can receive feedback on my writing from my peers." 

Short Term Goal: Take a fiction workshop 

Long Term Goal: Write a book 

Use Case: Personal 

Example Three: A Skill-based Career Goal 

"Over the next five years, I'd like to gain enough experience to transition into a role on the SEO team. During my conversations with SEO strategists, I've learned one weakness I have is minimal knowledge of Excel, so I'd like to take an Excel course to strengthen my skills. This excel course, along with seeking out collaborative projects with the SEO team, should help me achieve my goal." 

Short Term Goal: Learn Excel 

Long Term Goal: Become an SEO consultant 

Use Case: Performance review 

Example Four: An Outside-of-Work Career Goal 

"Within the next five years, I want to open a yoga studio. To accomplish this, I am going to start by getting my yoga teacher's certification. This will enable me to break into the yoga industry, and after a few years working at a yoga studio, I can learn the ins and outs to better equip myself to open my own studio." 

Short Term Goal: Get my yoga certificate 

Long Term Goal: Open a yoga studio 

Use Case: Personal 

Example Five: A Business Owner Career Goal 

"I've always dreamed of one day opening my own public relations firm. This goal influenced my decision to attend X University and get a degree in Public Relations with a minor in Management. In the short term, I'd like to join your team as a public relations associate and work my way up the ladder. Experience at your company would be invaluable to me as I begin my career." 

Short Term Goal: Get a job as a public relations associate

Long Term Goal: Open my own public relations firm

Use Case: Interview 

How to Write Career Goals 

Once you've determined what your career goals are, you'll want to write them down. Perhaps you'll mention them on your resumé if your goals align with the role for which you're interviewing.

Alternatively, maybe you write your career goals down before a performance review with your manager for a more constructive, guided conversation. 

Finally, even if your goals don't align with your current role, you'll still want to write them down for personal reflection. 

Here are four steps you can follow when writing your career goals:

1. Consider where you want to improve your career.

2. Use SMART goals formatting.

3. Write short term and long term goals.

4. Be detailed with your plan.

1. Consider where you want to improve your career.

Before you write your goals, think about the areas you want to advance. There are four main categories that I like to think about:

• Improving work performance.
• Developing skills that will help you become a leader/manager.
• Self-improvement focused goals.
• Learning about something new and different in your field.

When you write out your career goals, think about each of these areas. 

How can you improve your work performance? What kind of skills do you need to develop to get where you want to go? How can you improve yourself and grow? What can you learn about that's new in your industry?

Thinking about these questions will help you begin brainstorming if you're not necessarily sure where you want to end up.

2. Use SMART goals formatting.

An easy way to write out your career goals is to format it like a SMART goal, like mentioned above. Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

Being as specific and relevant as possible is important for you to communicate with your manager or a potential employer.

3. Write short term and long term goals.

When you're writing out your goals, write out a few short term and long term goals. It's important to consider what type of goals you want to achieve in the next few years, as well as goals for the distant future.

You can come up with a career trajectory, and then write out short term goals that will help you get there. Additionally, when writing out your long term goals, consider why you want to become an executive or own a company. Thinking about what motivates you can help you maintain focus.

4. Be detailed with your plan.

Writing out your goals doesn't just mean writing out a wish list. You should also come up with a plan of action for how you're going to achieve your goals. This plan will consist of a basic trajectory, and the short term goals you need to achieve to get there.

I asked Nicole Palidwor about the "do's" and "don'ts" when it comes to writing career goals.

Palidwor told me, "You'll want to write career goals that make sense for your current lifestyle, available bandwidth, and the urgency of a professional change. People often get ambitious, but come to realize sending out 50 applications a week isn't realistic."

"Instead, create action steps that reflect what you can and want to do by establishing smaller, but still relevant, achievable, and appropriately ranked goals."

Palidwor adds, "Don't make too large or ambiguous goals. Break them down. Additionally, I'd quantify your expected results to hold yourself accountable, and give yourself deadlines so that you stay on track to achieving your goals. The more you break down and organize your goals, the easier they seem (and are!) to accomplish."

When writing career goals for a resume, however, you'll also want to ensure you make it clear how you plan on helping the company hit its own business goals — not just your own.

As Marcy Williams, Founder and Career Coach at Coach Marcy Life Coaching Services, tells me, "When writing out my career goals for a performance review or for a resumé, I make talking points of what I contribute to the role within the organization first. I discuss how I love working as a team to improve processes and the experience for all versus speaking of just myself."

Williams adds, "Do not talk about yourself first when jotting down career goals because it will give the employer the feeling that you are only in it for yourself and not for the betterment of the organization."

And there you have it! You're well on your way towards creating more actionable, tactical career goals to get you where you want to be. Keep these tips in-mind, and don't be afraid to iterate over time as you learn more about what you like — and don't like — about your current career path. 

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Do you remember the last time you signed up for a webinar? Were you on the edge of your seat waiting in anticipation for the event?

If you're like me, it's more likely that you signed up and attended the first ten minutes, and then started flipping through emails or answering Slacks. Or, worse — you signed up for the event and totally forgot about it.

Let's be honest: most webinars aren't great. They're certainly not inducing Netflix cliff-hanger levels of anticipation and excitement.

But they're also an effective form of lead generation, nurturing, and sales enablement. In fact, if you do webinars right, you can attract new prospects to your business, establish your brand as a thought leader in the industry, and increase business revenue.

This article will cover the biggest mistakes to avoid if you want to build a world-class webinar program.

Here, I've included some lessons based off my own experience launching and revamping the webinar program at CXL, as well as insights and quotes from other successful marketers.

Let's dive into the top nine webinar mistakes — and what to do, instead.

1. Your webinar isn't valuable.

People will forgive a bad slide deck design.

They'll forgive a webinar hosted at an inconvenient day or time. They might not notice if you don't introduce your speakers properly — and you can even get away with forgetting to send a link to the recording afterwards.

But if you're not providing value, you can't possibly succeed with your webinar.

There's simply no point in hosting a webinar if it's not delivering something useful, or entertaining.

What is value? That's tough to answer universally. The best way to determine if your webinars are valuable is through qualitative feedback and quantitative proof.

On the quantitative side, are your webinars growing in attendance over time? If not, while there could be other reasons (such as lazy marketing), it's often because interest and trust is waning in your content. Ideally, you want not only new attendees, but repeat attendees. That's how good your content should be.

Qualitatively, if you're not getting any emails thanking you for your amazing content, that's cause for concern. At least one person should be raving about the content by the end of the presentation.

If you're not hitting that level of sentiment and response, it's time to go back to the drawing board and make sure you actually have something worth saying. You can collect feedback deliberately as well, using a survey like NPS or CSAT.

Examples of valueless content include:

• Pure sales pitches
• Basic, superficial information
• Misaligned content (i.e. the substance doesn't match the title of the webinar)
• Boring, long-winded presentations
• No actionable takeaways for your attendees

What to Do Instead

A good rule of thumb for me is to ask, "Would people pay for this?" If the answer is no, then I don't want to publish or promote it.

Granted, the webinar is going to be free. But the point is you want it to be good enough that people say to themselves, "How is this free? It's amazing."

If you're not creating value, your webinars won't deliver the results you're looking for.

2. Your webinar is too sales-y.

Your webinar should not be one big sales pitch. If it is, you're doing it wrong.

This is a poor way to interact with an audience, but it's still remarkably prevalent.

According to Virginia Zacharaki, Marketing Communications Associate at Moosend: "One of the main keys of a webinar is to raise awareness for a brand, feature, or technique using valuable content."

"The sales-y tone of your speaker can lead to the audience's loss of interest, whereas focusing on finding actual solutions and giving insights makes you a trusted expert."

"It is only logical that awareness enhances the consideration stage of decision-making and moves the prospect further along the buyer's journey."

In other words, people sign up for webinars to learn things — not to receive a hard sales pitch from a vendor.

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Granted, you can, and should, use webinars as an opportunity to increase sales. You just want to make sure you're leading with unique value first.

What to Do Instead

When I began designing webinars to promote CXL Institute, I made sure the content was product-relevant, but not a product pitch. Since CXL Institute sold expert-led courses, this was a relatively easy transition  — we simply asked those same experts to lead our webinars.

We chose to construct the webinars to be completely tactical. There were no slides — only screen shares. I didn't do a lengthy introduction of the speaker. Instead, they dove in and provided their valuable insights.

We only pitched their upcoming course at the end of the webinar by offering a 20% discount to attendees.

It's okay to pitch a product, but you'll want to do so in a way that blends educational content with a subtle product nudge.

A framework I like to use for this is "Product-Led Content." 

You want to design your content (and webinars) to center around a problem that your product or service solves, and weave your product throughout genuinely instructional content. This way, your solution is an obvious consideration, but the audience still gets value even if they aren't interested in your product.

3. You're marketing your webinar to the wrong audience.

How you construct a webinar is important — and so is the audience to whom you promote it.

How you approach your audience targeting depends on your company and webinar goals. For instance, if you're using your webinars for customer education, then you'll want to target your webinars to, well … customers.

In many cases, though, webinars are used as a lead generation tool to attract new customers to your product or service. In this case, many of the same general marketing best practices (customer research, buyer personas, customer journey mapping, and segmentation) apply.

Andriy Zapisotskyi, Growth Manager at Mailtrap, puts it like this: "Pay attention to where you distribute your webinar and focus only on your target audience. Irrelevant audiences may harm your email list, and an email with the invitation to the webinar will end up in the spam folder instead. Warm-up and validate every signed-up lead to improve email deliverability."

Beyond the simple hit to your attendance rate and open rate, if you market to the wrong audience, you'll find it hard to generate sales and ROI from your program.

What to Do Instead

First, take a step back and ask yourself where you'll be promoting your webinar and how you'll get attendees. When I host webinars, my team and I promote them on our Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, on our co-hosts' social media channels, and through our email lists. It's a limited audience, but the point is to slowly build trust and repeat attendees over time.

Many companies do paid advertising to get webinar attendees. In this case, you need to ask yourself if you're truly attracting the right attendees.

This can be deduced quantitatively. If you're getting sign-ups but no attendees, something is misaligned. Similarly, if you're getting attendance, but your attendees aren't becoming leads, you need to change your approach.

4. You're not making your webinar engaging and interactive.

If you've ever learned a second language, you know that immersion and interaction is more effective than passive consumption.

When you participate, you get to make mistakes or learn lessons in real-time. You get instant feedback, and you also use different parts of the brain when you trigger active participation.

Most webinars are one-sided. The attendees sign up and passively listen to the presentation (or, more likely, check their emails or scroll Instagram).

If you can disrupt that, you can drive greater engagement, learning, and retention. All of this helps to build trust, and yes, increase sales and ROI from your program.

What to Do Instead

The easiest way to trigger participation is to ask people to introduce themselves and where they're from at the start of the webinar.

I also like to give homework before the webinar, and a summary quiz after it's over. This ensures attendees will come prepared and excited to the webinar, and they'll also retain knowledge when it's over.

Chris Schelzi, Head of Growth at AppSumo, gives this sage advice: "Ask for what you want! Many people hosting webinars are demoralized by the lack of engagement — but so few people ask for it."

"I recommend, at the beginning of the webinar, starting with a few simple engagement questions for the audience: 'Where are you joining us from today?' 'What's the #1 thing you're looking to get out of this session?' etc. These questions will prime the audience to use the chat.

"Additionally, make sure to do this throughout the presentation. Don't be afraid of pausing while you wait for people to respond. A few seconds can feel like a few minutes, but people love to see and hear you interacting live with their questions."

5. You're ignoring the holistic marketing system.

A webinar doesn't exist in isolation.

Instead, you want to look at a webinar as being one piece to the larger puzzle of your entire marketing strategy.

Where does your webinar fall in your customer journey? Is it top of the funnel — and if so, what steps will follow this webinar to push the prospect further down the funnel? Or is it bottom of the funnel, in which case, what touchpoints preceded this one?

Mapping this stuff out is uncommon but absolutely essential. Similar to how you ensure there are CTAs on your blog posts, it's critical you use your webinar as an opportunity to move prospects further along the funnel.

What to Do Instead

This tip is less tactical, and more strategic. The number one thing I would do is map out your customer journey and define which webinars fit in at which stages of the journey.

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Adam Enfroy, blogger at AdamEnfroy.com, gives this advice: "Did you warm up your leads via consistent emails? Did you ask them to join a VIP list to prove they will take action? Are you matching the webinar offer to what your readers actually want?"

"While there are a lot of tips and tricks to running an effective webinar, don't forget that everything you do leading up to the webinar is just as important."

6. You're pursuing too many goals with one webinar.

One single webinar cannot possibly serve every business or marketing need you have. Webinars can be used for onboarding, customer education, support, lead generation, and lead nurturing — but not all at once.

This same principle applies to many areas of marketing. For instance, you can write a blog post that serves one or two purposes, but it shouldn't seek to serve all audiences at once.

Juliana Nicholson, Principal Campaigns Manager at HubSpot, gives this advice: "It's tempting to try to use one webinar for every part of your flywheel. Marketers want the biggest audience exposure possible, a tool for reps to use in their sales process, and a way to delight customers. This is hard to pull off."

"Unless you are putting on a multifaceted event, I recommend marketers focus on one goal at a time, and let that drive their strategy from start-to-finish, rather than attempting to boil the ocean."

What to Do Instead

Reverse engineer a webinar, starting with your goals. What's your KPI — new leads, total customers attending, increased NPS of attendees, or something else? Narrow the scope.

Choose one of these goals and construct your webinar with that purpose in mind.

7. You're not acknowledging the realities and limitations of the format.

Despite your best intentions, you have to realize that a webinar is a webinar.

It's not a live workshop, and people's attention will be scattered. You can do your best to keep people engaged through interactivity and high-value content, but you still have to acknowledge that most people will do the video equivalent of "skimming."

Shane Hedge, co-founder and CEO of Air, calls this the importance of "script-to-screen alignment." Essentially, it means highlighting the important stuff and making your presentation "skimmable."

Here's his advice: "A webinar is not an in-person meeting. It's not a standalone video. The audience likely has multiple tabs open and may only pay attention during key moments where the content draws them in.”

What to Do Instead

Summarize your presentation before you begin and after you finish with key points. Draw people in periodically with engaging questions and interactive workshop moments. Include multimedia and screen-sharing instead of just sharing slide-after-slide.

And make sure to send an email recapping the main points and linking to further resources.

8. Your webinar is poor-quality, or you don't have adequate equipment.

If you're serious about webinars, you'll want to boost the quality of the presentation. This comes in three forms:

• Video quality
• Audio quality
• Presentation quality

To start, presentation quality is the easiest to upgrade with little extra investment. Either work with a designer to spruce up your slides or use a platform like beautiful.ai to design them. Then, make sure your slides are publicly accessible to the webinar audience.

Video quality is the toughest to improve. For starters, make sure your webinar software is solid. I personally like Zoom, but there are other alternatives you can consider.

Here's an article on how to run webinars with HubSpot to help you with the tactical specifics.

Finally, almost all quality complaints will inevitably be about the audio. If you're going to invest in equipment, I recommend a good microphone (the Blue Yeti is popular). Any good USB microphone will be better than the default option on your laptop.

What to Do Instead

Don't skimp on quality, especially when it comes to audio and the details of your presentation.

Poor video quality — at least to a point — can be forgiven (remember, many people are going to be checking email in-between slides).

Get a good microphone and invest in a designer for your presentations.

The latter also helps if you want to publish the slides afterwards on a platform like Slides by HubSpot.

9. You don't follow-up with your attendees.

Finally, a common mistake companies make is put all this effort into a webinar — creating it, finding partners, writing copy, designing a landing page, promoting or advertising it, and delivering it — and then skimping on the follow-up.

First off, most people who sign up for a webinar won't attend. That's just the nature of the game.

But even those who do attend likely want to get a recording of the presentation. That's the bare minimum, but many companies fail to deliver that.

What to Do Instead

The magic is in the follow-up. Very few people will be ready to buy your product or services immediately after one webinar.

It's vital you schedule a nurturing sequence to execute immediately after the webinar is complete. The first email should be a recap with resources, notes, and a recording of the presentation. The second and third can be education or promotional, depending on the stage of the funnel at which you're delivering the webinar.

No matter what, don't make your webinar be the last touchpoint. You'll get much higher ROI if you think carefully about the follow-up.

Webinars don't have to be boring. In fact, they can be fun, valuable, and tremendously effective. Some marketing programs have been built on the backs of webinars.

While this article covered nine discrete tips to creating better webinars, at the heart of it all is good judgement and keeping in mind the value you're providing. If you do that, the minutia won't matter as much.

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