As part of our career kickstarter program, EnPoint aims to help participants uncover their ideal career target. Whether it's working in a particular industry or entrepreneurship, establishing your career target is the first step in your journey to finding meaningful work.
Why Do You Need To Build A Career Target?
Your career target can be treated as your north star. While you may not currently be in your ideal career just yet, your career target can identify the milestones and criteria you may want to accomplish on your way there.
During this exercise you will answer the three categories of questions with your ideal answers and be as specific as possible. It’s important to be strategic and highly intentional with every answer. Think about the conditions under which allows you to do your best work and you’d be enjoying yourself (most of the time).
For those who are pursuing self-employment or a career in entrepreneurship, consider how these questions might somehow shift and reveal your ideal clients or partners and goals!
Don’t edit yourself, just let the thoughts flow.
First Set of Important Questions to Ask Yourself
In this first set of questions, specify by quantifying time-based questions with percentages, and suspending disbelief and self-judgements. The idea with these is to begin uncovering your passions and consider under what conditions you do your best work.
What are you passionate about? Or Interested in?
What would you do if you could do anything?
What are you most proud of to date? Why?
How much of your day do you envision interacting with people?
How much of your day do you want to work alone?
What are your “non - negotiables”?
Consider Your Environment
Envisioning the environment in which you work best can help narrow in on the industry, sector, and kind of organization that suits you best.
Where do you want to live - and work? What kind of lifestyle is most ideal for you?
Where do you want to be when you work? (Remote, in-office, in -field, etc.)
What kind of company would you work with/ for/ build? What words would you use to describe them?
What attributes would make up your best leader?
What kind of team do you want to work with?
What kind of environment do you work best in? (Consider how the organization works, what’s their culture, way of working, etc.)
What did you learn about yourself in previous work environments?
For those who are seeking out entrepreneurship or self-employment, as you go through this exercise, how might these questions shift for you?
What are the ideal clientele, communities or partnerships that you wish to serve or work with?
Rather than teams that you may want to work with, what are the attributes of a team you might want to build? And/Or the attributes of team members that you would like to hire?
What is the environment you would like your company to operate in? Fully Remote? In Office?
It’s important to note that you are free to edit these questions to reflect your ideal career target! Just as there is no write or wrong career, there are no write or wrong questions to ask.
If you get stuck at any point in this part of the exercise, leave it for a few days, and then come back. You can also seek input from trusted advisors if truly stuck; remember only you will decide what makes the cut into your target!
What's Next?
As you build your career target(s), be flexible and adjust as you continue to uncover what you like or don’t like in your existing opportunity, as you gain new experiences and as you learn from people around you. Consider any experience, academic, volunteer, mentorship relationships as learning opportunities to build on and/or evaluate your target.
When completed, share your target with your most trusted peers/family members/ etc. for feedback, but remember it is your career. You carry the final decision.
Interested in a Career Kickstarter workshop for your organization? EnPoint would love to hear from you! Or do you want to read more? Check out the full Career Kickstarter PDF here!
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