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Written career goals are hugely important tools for preparing for a successful job search campaign. Well thought out written goals provide unwavering direction and create a natural “organizing” factor to your search efforts. By committing to a journey or career path you will find yourself advancing faster and your accomplishments steadier than “the competition”.

Ask yourself if the time and effort involved in preparing written goals really matters. Check this out: Our consulting staff estimates that approximately 90% of “A” players come to their initial interview in our office with written goals, without any prompting on our part. At the other end of the scale we have found in the bottom 40% of talent we assess, or the “C” players, fewer than 10% will have any goals committed to paper. Any surprise the most frequent “reasons” offered by the “C’s” is they want to “remain open” and “not limit my search”?

This reveals a very important question to the second tier of candidates making up the 50% group of “B” players; could the “difference maker” of a successful career be something as small as written goals instead of undefined hopes? Educational background and results of “B’s” are often very consistent with the Top 10% or “A” players; many times we have actually found GPA to be indistinguishable between these 2 groups. Years of work experience on the job has also proven to be an ineffective tool for measuring success. Size of company worked in is also a poor area to measure success.

Many of the “A” players we represent honed their skills in smaller, more challenging environments than their big company peers. Fewer than 20% of evaluated “B” candidates were able to produce written career goals on their first meeting with our consultants. Take note of this groups most frequent “reasons” for not keeping written goals; “my goals are whatever the company needs me to do” leads with “wanting to remain open” as the second most frequent. What a classic example of sitting on the fence ready to fall either way.

Let’s review the math and you decide: “A” players in any given discipline make up 10% the talent pool and 90% keep updated, written career goals. The “B” player category represents 50% of the talent and less than 20% can produce written career goals. At the bottom of the talent pool the “C” players, representing a full 40% of total employees, we find fewer than 10% utilizing this powerful tool.

Coincidence or could written goals actually be a powerful tool for career success? What is the real cost of not “having enough time” to organize a written career plan for your future?

In future issues we will look at a simple 1-2-3 for creating compelling career goals.


www.HireOpportunities.com is a career resource written by Rick Marshall, president of Marshall Career Service, Inc. located in Fort Worth, Texas. Marshall and his staff are recognized as one of the leaders in the placement and recruiting profession specializing in career opportunities located in the North Texas area. Client companies and qualified candidates working with Marshall Career Service enjoy a true level of personal service not found in today’s resume driven times. To learn more about our areas of expertise please follow this link to our website. www.marshallcareerservice.com