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<strong>Prepare</strong> <strong>For</strong> <strong>Success</strong><br />
Education<br />
Habit Eight – Face Up To Reality<br />
Hopefully, you have got the message by now: it is vital that you<br />
set job search activity goals and you drive yourself to meet<br />
those goals. But, unfortunately, many job seekers aren’t<br />
very realistic when setting goals, which can often lead<br />
to disappoinTMent when the job search activity does<br />
not meet their expectations. This disappoinTMent<br />
can lead to demoralization, demotivation, and in the<br />
worst case scenario, despair and the job seeker losing<br />
faith in the process and giving up all together. This means<br />
there is a huge danger in setting unrealistic goals, as you may be<br />
setting yourself up to fail.<br />
So, how can you set realistic job search goals?<br />
Just Be SMART!!<br />
The SMART goal setting process should be applied to your job search activity (it can in fact be<br />
applied to every area of life). So let’s see how it works with particular relevance to your job<br />
search.What Does Smart stand for?<br />
Specific – target a specific area for improvement<br />
Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress<br />
Attainable – specify who will do it<br />
Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources<br />
Time-bound– specify when the result(s) can be achieved<br />
A specific goal is more likely to be achieved than a vague one. In terms of job-hunting, ‘getting<br />
a job’ unsurprisingly, is not a very SMART goal. It is vague. <strong>For</strong> example, what kind of job are<br />
you trying to get? In what location are you trying to get the job? How soon would you like to<br />
have secured the job? How much do you want/need to be paid? How many job applications do<br />
you want to make in a week? How many interviews? It is important that all the questions are<br />
answered when setting a SMART job seeking goal.<br />
We have described an example of a SMART set of job-hunting goals below. It is a good idea to<br />
break this up into Career/Job Goals and Job Search Activity targets as the latter will depend on<br />
the former.<br />
Career/Job Placement Goal<br />
‘I am looking for a job as an office manager within my local area and I am aiming to have<br />
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