Long-Term Career Goals: 15 Examples and How to Achieve Them

Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years? What about 10 or 15? Do you want to improve in your current field or try something new?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you might want to reflect on your long-term career goals. After all, you can’t get anywhere without knowing where you’re going.

But, if you set a destination, the path becomes clear. So in this article, we’ll talk about what long-term career goals are, go through some examples of useful career goals, see what challenges you might face, and talk about how you can overcome them.

What are long-term career goals?

Long-term career goals are objectives in your professional life that you plan to achieve within the next couple of years or decades.

These goals can help you define your career path and visualize where you want to be in the future. 

They’re neither easy to achieve nor set as they are susceptible to change. However, they can give you something to strive for that keeps you motivated as you pick out the skills and steps you need to take to achieve your goals.

Every long-term career goal is unique for each individual, so make sure to set the ones that fit your aspirations best instead of the most common or expected ones.

How are long-term career goals different from short-term career goals?

Their main difference is right in their names — long-term goals take a while to achieve, while short-term career goals are focused on the more imminent future.

A long-term goal is a North Star — a direction to follow. Short-term goals work as stepping stones that carve a clearer path toward your destination. 

For example, starting your own business can be a long-term goal, while getting a promotion at your current job is a short-term one.

Examples of long-term career goals

While long-term career goals are personal, they can be difficult to pinpoint. So, we’ve included some examples of common long-term goals to serve as inspiration for your own. 

Goal #1: Become proficient at a new skill

Learning a new skill will always help drive your career forward. It’s up to you, however, to decide on the skill that fits your career path best — be it leadership skills, data analytics, communication, character design, or anything else related to your field of work.

This is also a great starter goal because of its clarity. Picking out the short-term goals you need to achieve this long-term one is simple — for example:

• Decide which skill you want to learn, 
• Research relevant courses and classes, 
• Allocate an hour, 4 times a week to learning the skill, 
• Complete a course within the first month, etc.

Goal #2: Switch careers

There’s no worse feeling than getting tired of your job. If you’re feeling burned out, stressed, or simply bored of your current career, you might want a change of pace.

As this process can be stressful, setting a reminder for what you’re working towards can be a great motivator.

Think of a career that fulfills you, one where you feel you’ll fit in — and then determine a clear path toward getting there. What skills do you need to take that path? Are there any you already have? What can you use from your current career to help you get started in the next?

For example, you’re in sales and want to transition into project management. You’ve grown accustomed to teamwork and perfected communication but want to improve your leadership and organizational skills.

Goal #3: Obtain professional certification

If you wish to improve your career opportunities or test your skills in a specific field, you might want to try to get certified.

Obtaining certificates is a great long-term goal — not only do they offer additional, valuable knowledge of an industry, but they also improve your chances of employment. Some are almost seen as essential in their field, like project management certifications.

Goal #4: Gain a new degree

Whether you’re unhappy with your current degree or just have a passion for academia, this goal is great for increasing your skill pool and growing in multiple industries.

You might just want to get a master’s degree for a specific subfield, either for the purpose of furthering your career in your current field or in order to switch careers. Whatever the reason, consider the time and effort it will take to achieve this goal and how willing you are to put it in.

Goal #5: Grow your business network

Some of the benefits of a strong professional network include better hiring opportunities, building strategic personal connections, or just increased awareness of your brand.

For example, let’s say you have a good business idea for a new mobile app but no experience. In your personal circle, only one person is proficient in marketing. While you can get solid marketing advice from them — or help, even — there’s no one you can refer to on coding, design, or any similar questions you might have about bringing this idea to life. 

A wide business network is a goldmine of information and opportunities for finding experts and mentors who can help you on your career path.

Goal #6: Publish your work

If you’re working on a book, thesis, journal, research paper, magazine, or anything similar — you’ve undoubtedly noticed the long and difficult road to publishing your work.

Publishing can bring more credibility to your thoughts on specific topics or research, so it’s a worthwhile goal to set.

Goal #7: Complete an innovative project or product

Sometimes, you like your career but feel like it has gone stale or repetitive. That’s a good time to introduce a bold goal that requires some risk-taking.

You might want to create something revolutionary or just something new. In any case, achieving such a goal takes time and may not be successful, so take that into account when deciding on giving it a go.

Goal #8: Start a business

This one is similar to the “switching careers” goal — only the career you’ll be switching to is entrepreneurial. If you’d like to work in a leadership position and feel comfortable with a high-risk, high-reward career path, this goal might be for you.

Like with switching careers, carefully research the skills you need to start a business in your desired industry. Add leadership skills, a knack for innovation, and critical thinking, and you might just find success.

Goal #9: Increase your income

If you’re unhappy with your current salary, or there’s a specific lifestyle you want to be able to afford, you might want to set this goal. 

It’s a good idea to determine an exact financial goal — like being able to afford a new car or a home. This way, you’ll know how much of an increase would be ideal for you.

Goal #10: Become a thought leader 

As opposed to some previous goals, if you’re satisfied with your current career, you might want to strive to become a thought leader in your field.

This will make you a prominent figure in your desired industry, which creates great work opportunities. However, it takes a lot of time and effort, as you’ll need to understand the industry problems and work on the solutions.

It’s best to find a suitable platform and share insider tips and unique insights that would single you out as an authority in your field.

Goal #11: Achieve a desirable work-life balance

It goes without saying that working non-stop is not productive — or healthy. Burnout and serious medical problems are real modern-day consequences of overwork — which is precisely why proper rest is so important.

In reality, rest can boost productivity, as it allows you to “refresh” and work more efficiently when you start over. 

This goal is different for everyone — learn what it means to you and think of ways to achieve that. A common solution is to find a job with flexible hours or a remote work option. This way, you could be less time-bound to work and able to rest whenever you need it.

Goal #12: Become a mentor

If you feel like you’ve already become an expert in a certain field and wish to help out and tutor others who are interested in it, this is a good goal to set.

Becoming a mentor is a fulfilling role, as it allows you to guide the next generation of industry experts. It can also increase your skills and expertise, as you might be able to view your career from a different perspective. 

Goal #13: Earn a promotion

Whenever you start working for a company, it’s good to think about the direction you want to progress in. Odds are you’re in a relatively low-level position at first, and you’ll want to progress as time goes by. So, think about the position you want to end up in.

Make sure your managers and superiors know what you’re aiming towards. Set that goal and make sure to acquire the skills and experience to achieve it.

Goal #14: Take a step back

If you’re looking to start a family, work on a personal passion, or just rest for some time, you might want to work on this goal.

Obtaining job security to a level that allows you to step back is invaluable. Similarly to achieving a work-life balance, if you need to work fewer hours or with more flexibility at some point, make sure to strive for that.

Goal #15: Boost your brand

Whether it’s about a company you started or building a personal brand, this goal is a career essential.

Building your personal brand can make you stand out to potential employers. Building your company brand improves your chances with potential customers.

This involves a lengthy process of growing your brand’s reputation as an expert in the desired field. You can do this by improving your marketing efforts, working on getting good reviews, or coming up with a catchy company slogan.

Challenges to reaching long-term career goals

As we said, chasing after long-term goals is a challenging journey. Here are some of the most common obstacles to look out for.

Challenge #1: Changes in personal life

Your personal life will always influence your professional life, and the other way around. A sudden change can always happen in your personal life, and it will surely affect your goals.

Even positive changes, like getting married, can put off professional goals. So, whenever this happens, you need to reassess and update your goals. 

Challenge#2: Self-doubt

This challenge not only affects how you approach your goals but also how you set them. Don’t be afraid to aim high — you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve in a couple of years.

Challenge #3: Time

An issue that easily comes to mind is finding the time to achieve your goals. Time is easily spent, especially on your job and chores.

When you also take into account the need for rest, it seems like there’s very little time for much else. Yet, taking even one hour to work on your goals every few days will slowly get you closer to reaching them.

Challenge #4: Unclear goals

Going towards an unclear goal is similar to trying to find a path on a highway — sure, you’re going in the right general direction, but are you in the right lane?

Make sure to set concrete goals, ones that you can visualize. For example, “I’d like to make an impact in my field” is a vague statement, whereas specifying it as “I’d like to start a mentorship program” is much better.

Challenge #5: Burnout

Long-term goals take a while to achieve, but that doesn’t mean they can’t overwhelm you.

Each long-term goal requires short-term goals as steps to complete it. So, having too many long-term goals means you will also have too many short-term ones.

Besides, focusing on multiple things at once is counterproductive and spreads you too thin to achieve anything of value. This can easily lead to burnout. 

While it’s good to be ambitious, try not to go overboard with the amount of long-term goals you set.

So, mind the symptoms, as they’ll point to what you need to change to overcome this challenge.

Tips and strategies for setting and achieving long-term career goals 

Now that we’ve gone through the difficulties of goal setting, let’s discuss some tips that can help you overcome them.

Tip #1: Set SMART goals

The simplest way to avoid unclear goals is to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that represents what your goals should be:

• Specific,
• Measurable,
• Attainable,
• Realistic, and 
• Time-bound.

If your goal checks all of these boxes, your goal is clear, and there should be no confusion going forward. 

A SMART goal example could be: “Get my business’s social media account to 10,000 followers in the following 6 months”.

Tip #2: Be flexible

Your long-term goals should not be set in stone. After all, it’s silly to assume that they won’t change over time.

So, don’t be afraid to go back and change up some details of your goals or steps to achieving them — or even scrap some, if a new situation calls for it.

Tip #3: Share your goals 

Don’t be afraid to talk about your goals aloud and share them with those around you. Doing this, you’ll challenge yourself to take the goal seriously.

But more importantly, you’ll be able to grow your network of similar-minded people. And, whenever someone hears of an opportunity that’s a useful stepping stone to your goal, you can bet that they’ll let you know.

Tip #4: Track progress and celebrate milestones

When you’re working on a far-away goal, it’s easy to feel like you’re not making any progress. After all, when it’s been years and you haven’t achieved it, it’s easy to forget about all the progress you’ve made.

That’s why tracking your progress is so important. Try to determine important milestones on your journey, and make sure to celebrate reaching them. It will help keep you motivated along the way.

It also helps to use task management software to make the progress-tracking experience easier and more efficient.

Tip #5: Don’t forget about short-term goals

The biggest reason you should make long-term career goals is to make more coherent and unified short-term goals.

So, be thorough and determine the smaller steps that take you to the top.

Why are long-term career goals important?

Simply put — they give you a sense of direction. Without a final destination, your goal path would meander and never reach an actual conclusion. You’d learn skills that aren’t important for your career, go into an industry that won’t help your future, etc.

Long-term goals also influence your motivation and drive to improve. If the cumulative path of your short-term goals is taking you someplace, you’re more likely to complete them.

Consequently, long-term goals improve personal development, help you choose career paths, and give you plenty to work towards, with much time and flexibility.

This carries with it a feeling of personal fulfillment and purpose.

Track your long-term career goals with Plaky

As we mentioned earlier, you can use task management software to help keep track of your career goals. Plaky’s flexibility and versatility make it an excellent choice if you’re looking for a way to tailor your goal-tracking process. 

With many customization options, you can make your tracking board as personalized as you want it. 

You could create a board that has long-term goals listed as item groups, with specific steps you need to take defined as items in that group. This way, you can use the summary row at the bottom of every item group to visually track your goals. The summary row allows you to get a clear, color-coded overview of your progress at the bottom of every field.

You can use the date or timeline field to create a timeline for each goal and unlimited file storage to organize files by goals — like storing PDFs from a specific course.

All of these benefits are included in Plaky’s generous free plan, while more advanced features, like the Gantt view or advanced templates, are available in its paid plans.

Do you want a quick and easy way to track your goals? Would you like to use software that is easy to learn, customizable, and helps you organize both long and short-term goals? Get started right away, and sign up for a free Plaky account today.