Discussing your career goals with your boss is among the first steps to making progress toward achieving them. Once they know your professional objectives, they can provide you necessary insight, advice and opportunities to help you grow. Learn more with these tips for talking to your boss about your career goals:
Get on the Calendar
The topic of career goals is not something you want to tackle in an offhanded conversation. To get the most helpful response, give your boss time to prepare for the conversation by requesting a meeting and getting on their calendar.
Know What You Want
Take some time to reflect on your goals prior to meeting with your boss. Your goal should be to clarify exactly what you want – the more specific your career goals, the better feedback your boss can give.
Gather Examples
Have specific examples of past projects or situations ready for referencing during your conversation, and try to quantify your past accomplishments as much as possible to support your stance that you are capable of more.
For example, if one of your goals is to take on more leadership responsibilities, you could preference a time when you had to lead a project, realized how much you enjoyed it, and ask if your boss has any advice or opportunities for you to do more like it.
Practice What You Want to Say
Being prepared is essential to making the conversation go smoothly. Practice what you want to say to your boss during the career goal discussion. This ensures you are both on the same page and you do not get misunderstood.
Take the Right Tone
It is so important to frame the discussion in a way that cannot be misconstrued or not only will it not be personally helpful to you, it could hurt your relationship with your boss. Take a positive tone – let your boss know you have appreciated the opportunities you have had thus far and how you want to grow with the organization with their guidance. This prevents you coming across as dissatisfied with your current position or gunning after your boss’ job.
Ask for Input
Do not just talk at your boss about everything you want. If you want to get them on board with helping you grow and make progress toward your goals, ask for their input. This could include: specific tasks you should be doing; additional training you may need; soft skills that may need polishing; etc.
If your current job is not conducive to you making progress on your career goals, work with Nesco Resource to find your next opportunity. As one of the leading national staffing and employment agencies, our mission is to match job seekers with the available positions that are the best fit. Contact us today to learn more.
