Was there a time in your life wherein you were expecting for something and it did not happen? It could be a pay raise or a promotion that you had anticipated for months only to find out later on that it wasn’t going to come true. These things are not something anyone would want to look forward to but nonetheless they are a common reality. If you don’t prepare yourself for such drawbacks, if you fail to set proper expectations on yourself, you could end up disappointed, hurt, or worse, you might just give up your career goals altogether!
However, it doesn’t have to be this way! You can fully prepare your mind, heart, and body for hurdles that come your way by setting proper career expectations. The good news is that this part of our training will focus primarily on how to set career expectations and if you are all set, let’s get started.
What Are Your Expectations?
I will now guide you with the right way to set expectations to help you identify what it is that you are hoping to get in the career path that you have decided on. Basically, a person’s expectation would only revolve on 5 things and these are:
- Job security
- Career growth
- Skills and knowledge enhancement
- Work-life balance
- Workplace culture adaptation
Job Security
When you talk about job security, it pertains to a person’s trust and confidence of being able to keep his or her job despite certain circumstances. In order to set proper career expectations on this aspect, you must carefully study the trending of a particular job. There are reliable online resources that will tell you the growth and prospect of a career and knowing the numbers can help you find out if it will offer security or not.
Career Growth
Among the usual reasons, why people quit their current job and seek employment elsewhere is the realization that their previous employer just didn’t provide them with opportunities for career growth. This is something you must discuss with a prospective employer during interviews and even in the first few days, of been employed with the company. By communicating this aspect to your boss, you will more likely be prepared for what the future holds in terms of your career growth.
Skills and Knowledge Enhancement
You may not realize it now but later on in your career, you will hunger for continuous development in terms of your skills and knowledge. You will want to join trainings and seminars because these things will be instrumental to reaching career success. Find out what programs you would need in order to better yourself and assess if it would be feasible as you work your way towards solidifying your career.
Work-Life Balance
Even if we try to avoid it, there will be times when our work will get in the way of our personal life and vice versa. We may be too preoccupied with tasks that we are no longer able to spend time with family and friends. This is something you need to be ready for and you should be able to make plans on how to go about it in the instance that they do happen.
Workplace Culture Adaptation
In any company, there is always such a thing called workplace culture and this will have a huge impact on you. To prepare yourself for this, there are two things you can do. One is to spend some time to research more about the company and the culture that they have in order to see if it matches your values and aims, and second is to adapt and adjust.
Now that we have discussed how to set career expectations and why it is important to do so, next we will talk about your career vision. This aspect is critical if you want to climb the echelons of success.
Chandra Vennapoosa, B.S Arch Graduate, Managing Director – Exforsys Inc, Founder of exforsys.com and geekinterview.com. Chandra’s mission is “to provide quality career coaching and interview advice for aspiring candidates”.
Chandra Vennapoosa – who has written 7 posts on Online Learning.
