short term and long term career goals mba essay examples

MBA Career Goals Essay Examples

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Career Goals Essay Samples

Almost every MBA application has a career goals essay. Here are some important resources to help you nail it:

Career Goal Guidance from Key Members of our SBC team

How to Structure your MBA Essays

Successful Examples of Career Goal Essays

One of the things I value most at Company X is the collaboration between teams to advance new technologies. As a Program Manager, I coordinate research and development (R&D) projects for the engineering department. R&D is an exciting field to me because we make quick decisions, progress at lightning speed, and focus on the future. Currently, I am directing a X project that impacts the future of autonomous driving.

Post-MBA, I will join the R&D group for a technology or automotive company as a product manager. I want to own the product lifecycle and effectively shepherd a product from inception to market. Ultimately, I aspire to influence monumental decisions like Porsche’s recent $6B investment in electric cars and electric charging infrastructure.

Product management capitalizes on my strengths: communication, teamwork, leadership, planning and organization. I enjoy the breadth of exposure through this role because successful new product development requires me to leverage resources from all over the company – R&D, finance, marketing, supply chain, and production.

But to achieve this goal, I first need a Goizueta MBA. Specifically, Goizueta’s extensive core coursework will teach me how to manage budgets and identify new product markets. Opportunities to apply my classroom learnings to real-world problems through an IMPACT 360 project and to further my leadership development through the Goizueta Advanced Leadership Academy will enable me to pivot to a R&D product manager role and advance my career.

Additionally, Goizueta’s culture of engagement will be instrumental to my development. Building camaraderie through extracurricular and social opportunities will enhance the shared learning I seek in my MBA program, as I envision gathering with my classmates every Thursday at KEGS and exploring Atlanta on the weekends. Essentially, Goizueta provides a business education that will not only facilitate my career progression, but also offers a lasting, lifelong community.

My immediate post-MBA goal is to secure a client relations position at a private equity firm, focusing on global expansion in Latin America. In this position I will hone-in on my knowledge of Latin American banking and finance, coupled with my Spanish speaking fluency, to apply the financial acumen gained at Kelley, to help drive firm’s expansion into the Latin American market. I know that a Kelley MBA would help me pivot into the private equity space and enhance my technical finance and analytical skills needed to excel while working in this unique investment class.

In my three years of professional experience, I have an increased understanding in interpersonal skills needed for a client relations position; however, I want to continue to advance my career in finance through a private equity role. A Kelley MBA will help me enrich my financial expertise and build technical skills needed to succeed in the industry. Additionally, I will acquire deeper problem solving and data analytics skills through courses in the Quantitative Analysis for Business Decisions and Financial Accounting disciplines. Specifically, I am excited how Kelley offers finance electives as early as my second semester, which I will take advantage of in preparation for my summer internship. Finally, Kelley’s Capital Markets Academy will be key to my development. The Capital Markets Academy, particularly Academy Fridays, will provide me with additional coverage into the financial services industry where I can gain the core finance skills necessary to grow, as well as delve into networking opportunities outside of the classroom.

My immediate post-MBA goal also includes being a business leader with global perspective. I anticipate enhancing my managerial skills through courses such as International Management and Organizational Behavior and Leadership in order to be a more effective manager and a stronger communicator. Because of my interest in working with a global financial services organization, I will pursue the Global Business Achievement certificate program. Through Kelley’s Global Business Achievement certificate program, I can further develop my Spanish speaking skills and potentially work on a global research project in hopes of enhancing my worldview, gaining exposure to other international companies, and expanding my global perspective; all key to leading international teams.

In summary, I believe my MBA from Kelley, coupled with my experience working in Latin American finance, will make me a competitive candidate for a position at a private equity firm. In the event I do not get an offer from a private equity firm, I would look for client facing roles at an international bank or hedge fund. Ideally, these opportunities will also focus on Latin American expansion, as I am interested in continuing to work in Latin American finance and improving my Spanish language skills. I know that Kelley offers exposure to diverse financial firms and opportunities in banking, ensuring my successful launch on a new path.

I am excited by the ability of technology to make tools and information more accessible. Television and libraries have been made available globally through internet distribution at virtually no cost. I too have leveraged data and technology to exceed expectations in my educational and professional experiences. For example, I spearheaded the development of Energy First’s iPhone application in 2008, and integrated Live Meeting as a collaborative tool in my retail territory. As I uncovered further applications of technology, I began aspiring to work on the strategic development of such advances, rather than merely their adoption. Having spent the last three and a half years with Energy First, a conservative organization, I look to further my career with more innovative organizations that drive change – such as Facebook or Google – before working in a strategic capacity for a startup venture.

I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. In the sixth grade I published a magazine on my home computer, seeking subscribers from classmates. In 2005, I ran a consulting service that provided computer training for baby boomers. As I look to shift my career path to the technology sector, a strategic roadmap is required to ensure I develop the appropriate skills to facilitate this transition. In the short-term, I plan to gain experience with leading providers of online solutions through internships and post-graduate work. Industry experience will help me apply strategic theory in practice, while I learn best in class marketing tools and processes. I will learn to apply my refined analytical skills in scenarios that are pertinent to preparing for my long-term goals. Having already worked in strategy and execution roles with Energy First, I see myself applying these complimentary foundations in a new sector. After gaining industry experience, refining my quantitative skills and learning to apply a rounded skill set with leading organizations, I will be prepared for a prominent marketing and strategy role in an innovative online service startup. I seek to work on leveraging technology to improve accessibility to information and services. Just as Google has leveraged data mining to launch Google Books and expand global access to literature, I believe further opportunities exist that I plan to uncover as I gain industry knowledge. Any organization in which I work will also need to have a significant focus on leveraging their resources to help the community. UCLA Anderson provides an ideal foundation for achieving both my short-term and long-term goals, as well as allowing me to continue developing a socially conscious mindset through various leadership opportunities.

In order for my career to take a crucial step forward, I need to put myself in an innovative environment where I can challenge and be challenged. I have developed a strong understanding of what my strengths are, and more importantly, what areas require development – financial analysis and business planning in a new industry. An MBA at UCLA Anderson will provide me with the best foundation to take that next step for three reasons. First, the culture of energetic and passionate students and faculty from diverse professional and geographic backgrounds will facilitate idea sharing from varied points of view. For example, the opportunity to learn from Professor Bob Foster on technological business plan development will be a crucial element of my graduate studies. Secondly, Anderson’s reputation for developing exceptional team leaders is evidenced by some of the inspiring alumni, such as Jim Stengel. Teamwork will be at the forefront of any business that I enter, and learning leadership principles that have produced success in the past will ensure that I am adequately prepared to lead a team-based organization. I will develop my teamwork and leadership skills in clubs such as the High Tech Business Association as well as community-driven endeavors such as the Challenge for Charity. Finally, Anderson’s Applied Management Research Program will allow me to build on the principles of the rigorous curriculum, as well as acquire knowledge firsthand about an organization in an industry that I am passionate about. The challenge of working with a team to develop recommendations will provide invaluable experience that will prepare me for business plan development in a method unique to a traditional class-based curriculum. I am confident that my experience at UCLA Anderson will help me target my current weaknesses, share my strengths and experiences with my colleagues, and develop my entrepreneurial skills so that I am able to play a key role in a venture that is both financially and socially responsible.

After several years as a Wireline Field Engineer, I am at a crossroads where I will start to define the future of my career. I envision becoming the VP of Strategic Marketing at a technical firm. Unlike most of my fellow engineers, I plan to merge my technical background with a marketing education to put myself in a position where I can be successful in such a career. A marketing position in a technical firm fits my interests and talents perfectly. Cutting-edge technology fascinates me, and with an engineering background, it is a language I speak. Most engineering jobs deal with technology, but few are primarily focused on human interaction, something that is an essential part of my vision. I enjoy dealing with people; while solving a complex engineering problem can provide great pleasure, it is no match for the satisfaction I derive through team interaction. Similarly, I have always enjoyed coaching others, whether it’s by conducting mock interviews at the high school where I volunteer or teaching nuclear theory to new engineers at a wellsite. The idea of taking a complicated concept and packaging it in such a way that the client clearly understands the benefits is highly appealing.

While my current technical position has many advantages, it is time for a change. I love the challenge of problem solving, and I thrive in such an international role, but I lack a strong business background. As I progress and move into an office job within Schlumberger, I do not see a career path allowing me to follow my goal without taking the initiative to gain further marketing knowledge. I have set my sights on this goal and will devote the necessary time and energy to put myself in a position to be successful.

Anderson is my choice in an MBA program for three reasons. First, it has excellent access to the Asia Pacific region, a market I am familiar with and would like to do business with in the future. My time spent in Thailand has been phenomenal, and I hope to work with such gracious, hospitable people throughout my career. Second, Anderson has a diverse student body from all over the world, something that is essential if I am to be multi-cultural upon graduation. Finally, Anderson is known to be an excellent all-around program, and being well-rounded is extremely important to me. With high quality training from Anderson, I am certain that I can succeed in the strategic marketing position I desire. I understand that a career of this nature requires a great deal of work. I embrace the challenge and look forward to a career which combines my professional skills and my enjoyment in working with others, but for the near future I look forward to an MBA program with exposure to the brightest teachers and young professionals from different business sectors across the globe. Learning to solve business problems, not just technical ones, is the next critical step toward a career in which I will thrive for years to come.

Growing up as one of five bi-racial students in a small farm town south of Dallas, I yearned to see the world outside of Texas. Looking for the first opportunity to broaden my horizons, I only applied to East Coast colleges to ensure that I would experience a variety of ways of life. At seventeen, I moved to New York to attend NYU where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and immediately after moved to the Midwest to experience another area of the country, attending Indiana University Law School. Further pushing my boundaries, I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain my first summer of law school and realized not only the joy of experiencing different cultures, but also my desire to have a career with a global impact. While interviewing for post-law school positions, I found I was not interested in the more traditional legal roles, but that my skills and passions were better suited for the business sector where I could combine the reasoning and analytical skills I learned in law school with my interest in marketing and travelling. My first job with Kaplan was a perfect balance of these qualities. My responsibilities as an account manager, including creating and implementing effective strategies, plans and promotions to increase preference at law schools, sparked my interest in discovering consumer needs. Last year, I accepted a position with Princeton Review as a regional manager, where I manage and analyze sales goals for over 100 representatives, work with outside corporate sponsors to increase revenue and brand recognition, and partner with cross-functional teams to drive growth. Additionally, this position has required numerous business travels, which, in addition to my international travels, has strongly piqued my interest in the hospitality and travel industry and I am now ready to make a career shift to this sector. My long-term vision is to become an innovator, developer and leader as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of a large hospitality company. The most rewarding aspect of my past two roles is bringing a product that I believe in to other people. As a CMO, the opportunity to share my passion on an international level is exciting and motivating. After three years of sales and account management experience, I have developed a thirst for understanding consumers and discovering their needs, their motivation to purchase products or services and ultimately how they become loyal to a specific company or product. Within the hospitality industry, specifically airlines and hotels, providing excellent service and a quality product makes travel easier and more enjoyable, increases travelers’ happiness and encourages future travel and brand loyalty. To reach this goal, in the short term I want to become an associate brand manager within the hospitality industry with a company such as Virgin America or Kimpton Hotels, helping grow their business traveler segment, while maintaining their current brand as a luxury service. Here I will learn the ins and outs of the hospitality industry, while receiving hands on experience managing a product, coordinating marketing functions, and leading cross-functional teams to ensure that the marketing plan is properly executed. After learning the basic skills of brand management, I expect to progress through the company as a marketing director and eventually my ultimate goal of a CMO. An MBA is essential to reach my goals. As I have only worked on the sales side with a legal research and a bar review prep company, I realize my limitations without more formal training. Without knowledge of how to read and analyze a profit & loss statement, bring a brand to market and position it for success, evaluate pricing patterns, synthesize market reports and understand consumer learning, I cannot be successful in a brand management role. An MBA will not only ease the transition, but will also help me gain the building blocks of marketing and business in general and gain broader strategic skills to effectively manage multiple large products. I look forward to my MBA putting me on the path to achieving my personal and professional goals.

Having the opportunity to observe the intricacies of private real estate operations in my current position, I have come to the realization that there’s a considerable gap in how sustainable design (planning strategies that minimize environmental impact and reduce energy consumption) is integrated with development/construction efforts. Consequently, I see significant promise in expanding green awareness to urban planning and wish to dedicate my career to support sustainable growth in the real estate industry. Therefore, in the short term after earning an MBA, I plan to take a position as a development manager for a national REIT and work to implement programs that derive economic gain from environmentally-conscious construction. In the long run, I will capitalize on these experiences by founding a consulting firm that will provide strategic expertise to support and improve private retail, real estate, and development firms’ sustainable initiatives.

My passion for green design began when I was a young painter growing up in an overpopulated Taipei neighborhood. As a boy, I often found the city’s monotonous gray backdrop insufficient for the contents of my canvas. The drastic Taipei urban expansion, resulting from rapid economic growth in the 80’s, drained many environmental resources and plagued the sky with pollution. During this time, I started recreating the city’s outlines into a more ideal community through imagination, and in the process found a passion to combine my artistic talents with my creativity to reshape the surrounding neighborhood. After moving to the US, I decided to make a leap from my imagination to reality and embarked on a career in sustainable design by enrolling in the School of Architecture at the University of Arizona.

After graduating, I took a position with Thompson Architecture in 2004 for the opportunity to work on program implementations that emphasized green construction. Recognizing the potential impact of my position, I consistently went beyond my defined technical roles to assume managerial responsibilities and became the youngest Project Architect in the 600 employee firm at the age of 24. In this new role, I was provided significant exposure to project delivery management, contract negotiations, and client interactions, and in the process deepened my overall interest in business operations. My increased client access also enabled me to initiate sustainability research proposals for them, an endeavor that resulted in landing new green design deals with retailers including Coffeeland, Clothestime, and Shoetown. However, in the process of analyzing the costs and environmental benefits for these green stores, I learned that this case by case approach offers rather limited effects on the environment, and the only way to maximize the benefits of sustainability is through implementation on a more massive scale. After working with the real estate groups of these major retailers and witnessing the impact of ROI analysis on the direction of corporate development, I discovered my true passion would be to work in a business capacity that had exposure to all sides of the real estate development business and could drive environmental impact through broad company initiatives.

Upon evaluating my objectives, I believe I have attained the core technical knowledge necessary to fulfill my future aspirations, but lack the business expertise to execute upon my abilities. Specifically, I would like to enhance my knowledge of market analysis, financing options, economics, and the overall trends/cycles of the real estate industry, in order to propose effective, sustainable solutions. Additionally, as my current role is limited to serving only retailers, I would like to learn appropriate strategic frameworks for consulting other types of clients. I also hope to refine my managerial and communication skills, which will be essential for obtaining buy-in for alternative development proposals. Having identified my goals, I feel now is the right time to attain a business education that can complement my technical experience and facilitate a career transition into real estate development.

From my campus visit this summer, interaction with current students, and discussions with school alumni, I strongly believe that Haas offers the best MBA program for me. First, the Fisher Center offers a wide array of real estate courses, such as Real Estate and Urban Economics, that will provide a valuable foundation for understanding the market dynamics of the development industry. I have already studied Professor Jaffee’s insightful research on the trend toward green development and discussed my interests at length with current Haas Real Estate student Steven Shanks. Therefore, I sincerely believe the Fisher Center will empower me with the necessary resources to identify high-potential sustainable opportunities and organizational skills to generate substantial returns. Outside of the classroom, I plan to take on leadership roles within the Real Estate Club and contribute through activities such as the Bank of America: Low Income Housing Challenge. Finally, I am excited about the Real Estate career opportunities that Haas has to offer, and plan to be actively involved with the new ACRE program.

Haas also stresses global entrepreneurship and innovation. As an innate entrepreneur who has implemented numerous personal and professional initiatives to improve our environment, I look forward to participating in Lester Center activities such as the Berkeley Solutions Group and YEAH. Additionally, through the Haas Social Venture Competition, I plan to propose a business idea for assisting private real estate companies address public urban concerns while achieving financial returns. I also hope to explore different leadership styles and further expand my international exposure by interacting with a truly global student body and learning environment. To that end, I am interested in leveraging Haas’ global entrepreneurial perspective to assist underprivileged communities around the world by participating in the International Business Development program. Through the sponsorship of nonprofit sustainable-oriented clients, such as Beahrs ELP, I hope to assist low-income neighborhoods similar to where I grew up through proposing effective green planning and environmental conscious construction.

Lastly, I am ultimately impressed by Haas’ unparalleled commitment to integrating corporate social responsibility within its entire business curriculum. My definitive goal is to implement innovative programs that positively advance our surroundings and Berkeley’s socially active student body passionately shares such vision. I plan to contribute through the Net Impact Club by making use of my non-profit experience while proposing novel and publicly useful business plans to local private companies. Thus, I will stay involved with the local community while investing in my cross-functional skills alongside a diverse set of talented peers. I am deeply impressed by Haas’ strong support and tradition, and I sincerely believe Berkeley’s close-knit student body will strengthen my capacity to lead the important changes that I could only imagine as a young painter twenty years ago.

Entering the classical music industry just before the economic downturn has opened my eyes to disconcerting financial weaknesses in professional symphonies. As lucky as I was to be a working musician, I saw signs of economic instability in orchestras around America. As a committee member of the Santa Barbara Symphony, I see firsthand how orchestras are financed from year to year and the room for improvement is tremendous. Almost immediately after the housing bubble burst and the market crashed in 2008, orchestras began to show signs of financial insecurity. Due to the recent economic downturn, symphonies across the country are shortening seasons, instituting hiring freezes, and even filing bankruptcy. Top ranked symphony orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, have enacted hiring freezes for vacant positions, and highly regarded orchestras in Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have enforced pay cuts after posting an average of $1.5M in budget deficits. Clearly, changes need to be made on how these primarily nonprofit organizations operate.

After working as a cellist in this economic climate and seeing the strain on my colleagues, I am moved to make a career change to the business side and revolutionize how symphony orchestras are managed. Over the past four years, I have witnessed my peers struggle to find work, soloist friends go weeks without concerts, and prominent symphony musicians show deep concern for their livelihoods. In spite of recent hardships, I believe there is incredible room for growth and revitalization within the classical music community, specifically in symphony orchestras. With the right guidance, I know that symphonies can not only become more financially secure, but also stir a renewed interest in orchestra concerts in their surrounding areas. Armed with an education in general management and exposure to nonprofit business models, I will be able to exact that change. With the skills gained from a Rice MBA, I will join a symphony in a general management role to improve operations and better manage endowment funds and revenue from ticket sales and donations. Long-term, I will transition my career to consulting, where I will help orchestras around the country operate more efficiently and profitably, thus enabling them to thrive both financially and artistically.

To be effective, I need both the strong educational foundation and practical application that Rice offers. At Rice, I will gain the knowledge and skills I need through its comprehensive general management core curriculum. Specifically, I intend to maximize my education through the Leadership Intensive Learning Experience, case-based coursework, public/nonprofit financial management elective, and real-world Action Learning Project. I believe that attacking real world issues and learning from real examples will be key in my transition from a leader as a cellist to a leader as an executive. Coming from a collaborative musical background, I believe that Rice’s well-rounded core curriculum, which emphasizes a healthy balance of class lectures by leading faculty and real world applications of concepts, will give me the tools I need to transform from musician to businessman. Moreover, the Leadership ILE courses will give me a chance to turn my leadership skills in music into strong leadership skills in business. Finally, participating in the Consulting, Net Impact, and Finance Clubs will further equip me to work with orchestras by learning from and being inspired by my diverse peers, all the while building lifelong friendships with like-minded colleagues.

I look forward to bringing my experience as a team player and leader from a unique background as a musician back to Rice and growing both professionally and personally within a culture where students challenge and encourage each other. I am confident that I will contribute to the overall culture, atmosphere, and education of the Jones School by working well with my classmates both inside and outside the classroom. With my unique background as a concert cellist and pedagogue, I also look forward to offering a different perspective in class discussions while having my eyes opened to many different perspectives drawn from equally diverse experiences. Furthermore, I look forward to being able to exercise the problem-solving skills I acquired as a teacher, an ensemble team member, and a section leader in my transition to a businessman at Rice. As my MBA classmates inspire me to constantly evolve and improve on my strengths and weaknesses, I know will do the same for my peers.

As a high school senior, I was given an interesting Christmas present from my parents. They opened up a brokerage account in my name and deposited few hundred dollars into it. It wasn’t the stereo system or the new set of golf clubs that I had hoped for, but it would turn out to be the best present they could have given me. I did not realize it at the time, but this gift would ultimately have a great impact on my future. Sitting down at the computer with my father, he taught me the basics of investing in stocks and mutual funds. My interest in investing grew throughout that final year of high school and became even greater in college. The more I learned about finance and the capital markets, the greater my interest grew.

Not surprisingly, I chose to study economics and finance as an undergraduate student at SMU. The summer after my freshman year of college, I obtained an internship with Merrill Lynch, assisting a Senior Financial Advisor with the daily duties of his job. I continued my studies throughout college and upon graduation, accepted an Operations Associate position at Condera, a boutique asset management firm in Houston. Supporting several financial advisors in the management of around $200 million in assets, my duties include performing portfolio analysis, implementing our strategies by executing trades in client accounts, and interacting with clients on a daily basis. This role has enhanced my leadership and communication skills, two areas in which I can contribute in my endeavors at the Jones School. The autonomy of the position and the willingness of my supervisors to listen to my suggestions are extremely satisfying and for this experience, I am grateful.

Throughout my career at Company X, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the sophisticated investment strategies that we employ for our clients, institutions, and foundations. Working with two industry veterans, I make it a point to learn as much as possible from them. They allow me to undertake challenging tasks, such as explaining our investment philosophy to prospects and researching new products to use. As I have grown into a more proactive role in client service, the advisors have focused more on bringing in new assets, thereby increasing revenue for the firm. It is from these experiences that my passion for the analytical side of investing has emerged. I have a deep interest in modern portfolio theory and, after completing my MBA, plan to apply that theory in a role that focuses on market and securities analysis. I believe the Jones School curriculum and the environment fostered by the students and faculty will give me a more comprehensive understanding of modern portfolio theory and its application to institutional asset management.

Long-term, I plan to start a boutique asset management firm that services foundations, endowments, and institutions. Recent trends in the financial services industry indicate that the big box brokerage firms such as Merrill Lynch and UBS are losing favor with many investors. Independent advisors are leveraging the services of custodial firms like Fidelity and JP Morgan to run asset management shops that provide completely unbiased and independent financial advisory services. I see this trend continuing as the major investment houses go through drastic changes during the current financial crisis and intend to capitalize on the migration of assets to independent advisors.

The MBA program at the Jones School provides the best bridge for connecting my current career to the future career that I seek. I have gained a strong, core knowledge of investing and finance and need to build on this knowledge, acquiring a more in depth view of the capital markets. After visiting the campus, speaking with students at a partio, and sitting in on one of Professor Weston’s finance classes, I have concluded that the Jones School offers the curriculum and environment that will best prepare me for that career. The real-world asset management experience that the Wright Fund provides is also of particular interest. Another impressive aspect of the program is the wide array of finance courses available to students. I look forward to being a part of a diverse class that will allow me to learn as much from my peers as I will learn from my professors. It is this collaborative aspect of the Jones School that impresses me the most. I know that I will contribute to the Jones School community in a profound way while growing both personally and professionally from all that the program has to offer.

My earliest memories are punctuated with aromas of my Mexican mother cooking tamales, while my Iranian father taught us about Navroz – the Persian New Year – where life begins anew, and dreams are revitalized. This idealism excited me, and watching my parents struggle to provide for my sister and myself, I wanted to help them create a fresh start. I channeled this motivation into opportunities where I could deliver positive change. My career vision, to lead a Latin America-centric microfinance organization such as Accion, capitalizes on these experiences. In the interim, I will prepare myself by attaining an MBA, and joining the International Finance Corporation’s Global Transaction Team as an Investment Officer.

After graduating from UCSB, I wanted to maximize my contributions and exposure and found this opportunity at [XYZ Sports], a small, established apparel manufacturer. While my primary responsibilities were in finance, I made time to work with marketing, sales, and operations teams, understanding their challenges, and helping implement proposed solutions. I wanted to apply this newly acquired knowledge at a startup, passionate about influencing a fledgling entity. At [Memorabilia Retailer], my goal was to implement financial and accounting processes forming the company’s backbone. Working in an ambiguous, often chaotic startup environment, I holistically analyzed each issue and its ramifications. I also built relationships with functional experts, incorporating valuable insights from them. I confidently presented a tough but necessary set of strategic recommendations around financial operations reengineering to management, and won their approval. As an Investment Officer at IFC, and later, a leader in microfinance, I will leverage the poise I developed during these early-career experiences.

Next, I accepted a job at [ABC Healthcare], coming in to an under-resourced finance department. I suggested augmenting our human-capital base in Costa Rica, expanding our limited presence there, and lowering costs. Although this went far beyond my official job description, I spearheaded this project. Spending significant time in Costa Rica, I understood the work environment, hired resources, and trained them on our business processes. Under my direction our Costa Rican office now efficiently handles all our accounting processes, and has grown from a staff of two women, to 20. This success hinged on my ability to safeguard against the risks of developing an international location, a practice that is imperative to the sustainability of a microfinance organization. Further, witnessing the impact meaningful employment can have on families and communities paved the way for my professional ambitions.

Inspired by the transformation I saw in Costa Rica, I began actively volunteering at a local non-profit microfinance organization, Foundation for Women (FFW). As a Senior Advisor, I partner with low-income entrepreneurs to develop their businesses. Through this first-hand microfinance experience, I have reaffirmed that it is an area of business in which I thrive personally and professionally. I have also recognized the skills I need in order to attain my goals.

An MBA’s academic rigor will form the theoretical foundation on which I will build my future career. Courses such as Business Strategies for Emerging Markets, and Corporate Finance may sound similar to what other business schools offer, but Haas’s approach to the MBA via the BILD curriculum is distinctive, and especially appealing to me as its focus on forging change fits well with my personal leadership style. Through its emphasis on innovative leadership I will prepare myself for the volatility often inherent in international microfinance. I am looking forward to embracing knowledge outside the classroom as well. Applying academic theories to real world issues through Haas’s International Business Development Program will be a unique opportunity to learn from diverse teammates, professors, and clients, while gaining exposure to different geographies and their intricacies. I would also love to add an element of microfinance at the 2013 Latin American Business Conference, perhaps by inviting my contacts from FFW to attend or speak.

The Haas MBA will prepare me for a summer internship in banking and a full-time job at the IFC’s Global Transaction Team, where I will strengthen my understanding of the investor’s role in microfinance and build a toolkit for analyzing businesses with a discerning eye. Focusing on Latin America at the IFC and studying the design and productivity of the region’s microenterprise operations, I will become well versed in its cultural and socioeconomic challenges. Armed with this analytical acumen and regional perspective, I will be ideally positioned for a career at Accion, ultimately building on my experiences and network to establish a robust microfinance infrastructure in a country like Costa Rica and eventually across Latin America.

Upon receiving my MBA at USC Marshall, I will assume a managerial role at XYZ where my mother has been the President and CEO since she took the company over from my grandmother in 1998. XYZ is a leading managed care company in Southern California, providing billing and quality oversight services for over 7,400 physician practices. As the future leader of XYZ, I seek to expand its success by addressing the fast-changing management dynamics of medical groups; a Marshall MBA is critical to this career path.

To ensure an efficient transition to my managerial role at XYZ, I will enter the Marshall program with knowledge from my public health masters program and preceding consumer-oriented work. Through my public health masters program, I have developed an innovative masters thesis that evaluates Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), the latest healthcare delivery model put forth by the President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Through this project, I have become savvy in the ACO model and have gained an understanding of’s current and future potential clients, many of which are already ACOs in the Southern California region. My preceding work in connecting to the consumer mindset through marketing programs and, before that, through internships at XYZ, will also contribute to my informed managerial role.

I have a unique opportunity to create a renewed vision for our company that leverages the emerging paradigm shift in healthcare; the industry is moving away from a system of “sick care”—or acute care for diseases and illness—to a focus on preventing chronic disease and reducing costs. In the short-term, as a manager at XYZ, I intend to align my department and influence my employees to set the industry standard for coordinating care by evaluating the effectiveness of provider networks under this new model of care. I will expand XYZ’s services and client-base by creating sustainable, cutting edge products. I intend to enable the company to thrive in the next era of provider services.

My short-term career goals will be only realized if I fuel them with the functional knowledge and critical leadership skills of the Marshall MBA. I will immerse myself in the curriculum at USC Marshall and apply this knowledge in practice through its international programs and on-campus opportunities. In my first year, I will choose marketing as my functional area to hone my skills in management and team-building and will then take electives in healthcare during my second year to learn the specific business principles that guide my industry. The new core curriculum will allow me to explore subjects outside of my specialization to become a holistic leader. Marshall’s coursework will help me acquire the adaptability and rigorous knowledge that is critical for my high-impact career in healthcare.

My experience at Marshall will empower decision making that is socially-conscious within an increasingly global healthcare arena. I require an understanding of social responsibility to make my mark in the healthcare industry. The Pacific Rim International Management Education (PRIME) is a platform to understand these perspectives and will make me a more self-aware, globally-minded professional. The PRIME program will facilitate my learning of the global economy in healthcare as well as further my knowledge about XYZ’s client-base, as XYZ currently coordinates care for patients in the Pacific Rim. The PRIME program will give me a deeper understanding of our clients abroad and potential opportunities for global business development.

USC Marshall will also help me achieve my career goals because of its proximity to XYZ, as I will actively develop my professional network of future business partners and colleagues from the start of the program. Marshall’s core communities will create invaluable networking opportunities with fellow students. As healthcare is quickly evolving into a collaborative, interdisciplinary field, Marshall’s culture will reinforce the values that I will need as a healthcare leader. To further create connections with peers, I will be an active leader in the Healthcare Leadership Association and star player in Challenge for Charity, where I will use my passion for soccer for philanthropic benefit. After my MBA and several successful years working in a managerial position at XYZ, I hope to inherit my family’s business with a strong sense of duty and capability. Only an education from USC Marshall will give me the integrated foundations and networks to transform our business in the decades to come.

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Just two of the many superstars on the SBC team: Meet Erin , who was Assistant Director of MBA Admissions at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) and Director of MBA Admissions at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

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Career Goals for MBA Aspirant in 150 Words

• Updated on  
• Apr 15, 2023

If you are someone who is planning to apply for MBA , you must be well-versed in the fact that you will be expected to produce certain essays that help the university understand your motivations for pursuing that degree. Most universities will expect you to begin your essay with your career goals in 150 words, and while this might seem like an easy task for some, it can be extremely daunting for others there are several things that everyone needs to keep in mind. The career goals you provide will help those reading your application assess if you are motivated enough to pursue the degree and if you have what it takes to successfully pursue it. So, while presenting your career goals for MBA aspirants in 150 words, you must mention your short-term and long-term goals for your MBA essay in an impactful and precise manner. It is normal to feel uncertain about how to make a statement in as little as 150 words so here is all the information you will need while attempting to answer this question.

This Blog Includes:

How to tackle career goals for mba aspirants in 150 words, essentials to include, quintessential details, don’ts, tips for writing short-term and long-term goals for mba, tips for career goals for mba essay.

There are numerous different ways in which you can approach this question. You can choose to be course-specific, industry-specific or position-specific. The trick with every way that you approach the question is that you build your answer in a way that supports your argument of how the specific thing will help you achieve your long-term goals. If you are writing with the specific course you wish to study in mind, it is important to let the university know how that course from their university will help you achieve your short-term and long-term goals for the MBA essay . You can also choose to mention how a specific faculty member from the university can be instrumental in your growth.

If you are being industry-specific or position-specific, those 150 words must comprise why you wish to work in that specific industry or at that specific position and how the college you are choosing will aid that development and how, in the end, all of this will add up to your professional growth and trajectory.

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While drafting career goals for MBA aspirants, there are various essentials that you need to keep in mind which might range from mentioning the chosen industry to creating a career plan. Let’s first understand the basics you must add to your career goals:

• Particular Industry : Write your specific domain and industry emphasizing why you want to work in it.
• Particular Positions : Once you have mentioned your industry, the next thing is to write about the career profile you want to pursue.
• Connection to Your Academic & Professional Records: While writing career goals for MBA aspirants, it is extremely important to link your academic and professional milestones with your aspirations to sketch out your career journey.
• Association with your Career Goals : Connect your mentioned objectives with your career aspirations and explain how you plan to fulfil them through this degree.
• Community Agenda i.e. how the degree will help you in making your contribution towards the community.
• Expected Outgrowth
• Unique Career Plan

Things to Keep in Mind

While the above-mentioned essentials can be a sure-shot guide to writing career goals, there is a host of other stuff that can help you in making an impressive list. Here is a list of the Do’s and dont’s that you must keep in mind while summing up career goals for MBA aspirants in 150 words:

• Keep it specific and personal.
• Highlight your short-term and long-term career goals in the MBA essay
• Carve out your interests and link them with your career goals as well as plans. 
• Make the article succinct and to the point.
• Always write something easy to talk about.
• Must include Education specific content and your ambitions in life in brief.

For instance, why you have chosen a certain business school, why you want to study under your chosen professor and what kind of exposure and outgrowth you are expecting to reach closer to your goals.

• Avoid elaborating on those career goals which don’t resonate with what has been asked in the essay.
• Mentioning activities or educational background not relevant to the career goals.
• Avoid being too vague and ambiguous.
• Do not beat around the bush.
• While mentioning your industry is important, don’t overdo it and keep the essay concise and coherent .
• Why these certain goals?
• When or how they were conceived?
• What past experiences/events make you feel that your set goals are realistic?
• Also, explain the significance of the goals in your life.

This can make your essay more personal and interesting.

As career goals will play an indispensable role in your MBA essay in 150 words, it is essential to know how you can efficiently incorporate them into your answer. Here are some insights into crafting the best short-term and career goals for your MBA essay:

Mention the major career goals you look forward to fulfilling post-MBA

This will include your short-term and long-term career goals post MBA and while drafting these, it is crucial to be precise and put an extra emphasis on showing a career map of what you look forward to. That’s why you should mention the industry you aspire to work in, the job position you want, and how you further aim to climb up the hierarchy accordingly.

Concisely elaborate upon why these goals are important to you

Showing your interest and passion for your short-term and long-term goals in your MBA essay can also help you impress the admission team. Give a unique and interesting reason why you want to pursue a certain industry or job role and connect it with the MBA course you have opted for!

Make it specific to the academic institution

Another imperative pointer to add to your career goals for MBA aspirants in 150 words is to connect your content with the school/college/university you are applying for as it will help the admission committee assess your interest in applying to a certain institution.

Examples of Career Goals for MBA Aspirant in 150 Words

It is always easier to understand how to go about a specific thing by looking at examples of it. Here are free career goals essay samples for MBA aspirants in 150 words:

My long-term goal is to secure the position of a senior (job position) manager in a company that caters to (industry needs). I aspire to create a significant impact in a dynamic and ever-changing industry and to advance the development and growth of such a corporation. I strongly believe that pursuing an MBA degree (specialization if any) from your university will help me develop a skill set that will be instrumental in both my personal and professional growth. I believe that through the duration of the course, I will be provided with ample opportunities to strengthen my leadership and administrative skills and they will help me contribute to the industry. I also believe that pursuing this course at your university will help me realize my long-term goals and over time help me contribute to society’s development as a whole. 

I wish to pursue an MBA in (specialization) from your esteemed institution because I strongly believe that the course taught by (the specific professor) will give me a dynamic learning experience, which will help me become well-versed with the fundamentals emphasized in the course offered by your university. This comprehensive course offered by your university is well-known for providing the essential skill set that will help me become a global leader in the industry. I strongly believe that my previous experience as (job experience) in the industry has equipped me well for pursuing this course and that the environment and exposure provided by your university will help me multiply my network and magnify my potential. My long-term goal is to create a sustainable mark in the industry that aids the overall development of society and that admittance to your university will be a major step on that journey.

My long-term ambition is to enthusiastically enter and be a valuable representative of a Multinational Corporation like Google or Microsoft as a top management consultant after completing the prestigious MBA program from the prestigious university (University Name). I want to learn from a diverse portfolio of client engagements and put all of my theoretical experience into practice in a real-world environment. I’ll work my way up to being a partner, and then I’ll focus on introducing digital and correct business strategies for the industry in the long run. In my position, I will mentor younger generations of aspiring consultants as well as work with clients. I wish to prove myself to be an important asset for the organisation where I will be working in the future.

My long-term goal is to investigate the situation of a senior (work position) Manager in a reputable and renowned company.  My ambition is to have a significant impact in a fast-paced, ever-changing market and the industry, as well as to help my organisation to further improve and develop. I’d like to pursue an MBA in (specialisation) from your reputable institution to gain the necessary insights and knowledge about the current dynamics and trends of the industry, as I am confident that the course taught by (the particular educator) will provide me with a powerful learning experience that will assist me in becoming knowledgeable with the fundamentals emphasised in the course. I also agree and assume that pursuing an MBA degree in (specialisation if any) from your college will assist me in developing a set of skills that will be useful in both my personal and professional growth. Finally, it will help me better grasp my long-term goals and, in the long run, contribute to the development of society as a whole.

Ans. Start with your short-term objectives and work your way up to your long-term objectives. Outline the measures for achieving those objectives in a few sentences. Maintain a laser-like emphasis on your employer and the work you’re applying for, as well as how your objectives would eventually benefit the business.Start with your short-term objectives and work your way up to your long-term objectives. Outline the measures for achieving those objectives in a few sentences. Maintain a laser-like emphasis on your employer and the work you’re applying for, as well as how your objectives would eventually benefit the business.

Ans. A long-term goal is a goal that will be accomplished by a series of smaller goals over a long period, usually five to ten years or more. You might be asked about your long-term objectives and how they fit with the organisation you’re interviewing with during an interview.

Ans. MBA programs instil analytical skills, long-term strategic thinking, networking, and leadership in their students.

Ans. You’ll learn business strategy, preparation, and even financial management in an MBA programme. These abilities will allow you to effectively manage your own business while also contributing to your country’s economic growth.

While we’ve given you an insight on how to go about it, it is normal to feel apprehensive about whether or not what you have written will guarantee you a place in your desired college. But you don’t have to be uncertain about such an important aspect of your application. With the help of the mentors at Leverage Edu , you can write an essay that will meet the university’s expectations and give you an edge over other applicants.

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Career goals Essay: Short-term and long-term goals

What career goals should you write in your MBA applications? How do you ensure that the short-term career goals are aligned with the long-term goals?

Vibhav Agarwal sure knows a thing or two about crafting winning MBA applications. He’s helped many applicants get into the most selective programs in the world.

In this post he shares some tips on tackling the career goals MBA essay .

by Vibhav Agarwal

I may probably know where I can be in the next 3-5 years. But beyond that who knows, right?

Think of it this way. MBA education is going to be one of your biggest investments – not just with money, but with the time and effort as well.

So, it’s very important that you focus on the right things in terms of coursework, network, placements etc. during those 1-2 years that you spend in the college.

( Take it from us, time flies in a b-school, the more your priorities and goals are clear, the easier it is to navigate those ten thousand opportunities that you will get at the school to do something or be a part of something)

Now, who better understands the importance of this prioritization than the ad-com? And this is their rationale of asking this question.

They want to see and understand the clarity a candidate has in terms of being able to understand and showcase the clarity in their short-term and long-term career goals.

Let us tackle the key requirements for short-term career goals first.  

Short-term career goals

Short-term goals are those where you see yourself as soon as you graduate out of the school. These goals need to be a very precisely defined in terms of industry, geography, set of companies you are aiming at and the role that you are looking for.

You are expected to have complete clarity on the skillset required to do this role, the key responsibilities you will be handling and the results that you are expected to showcase in the next 1-2 years.

The ad-com wants to understand the above from your essay and then ascertain whether “you” the candidate have a realistic chance with the MBA education and his current experience to gain that role in light of the skillsets required for that role and the competition posed by the typical MBA class.

In this context, there are typically 3 scenarios that candidates are likely to define their short-term goals. A quick disclaimer first.

Disclaimer: We’ll include some representative examples to clarify the key principles. Blindly copying these career goals in your essays, without understanding the bigger picture, is sure to backfire. More on this in the last section.  

1. Career Progression

This is the scenario when you are already performing a role in the similar industry and you would like to accelerate your progress in terms of the career ladder or in terms of the organizational brand.

For example:

• I am a consultant in big4 consulting firm or KPO who wants to move into McKinsey or BCG
• I am a software engineer with product development experience who wants to move into product management role in a Silicon Valley tech firm
• I am a commerce graduate with CA or CFA background who wants to move into Investment banking or Private banking in a top-tier bank
• I am working in a corporate law firm and want to shift into M&A or strategy team for a big conglomerate

  Such shifts are very logical and easier to explain and manage. The requirements remain the same when it comes to explaining in the short-terms goals essay, but your ability to visualize yourself in that role and showcase the skills you bring to the role are easier to explain since you are already have counterparts or seniors who are performing that role and can explain the difference between it and your current role  

2. Career Shift

This is the scenario when you want to “shift” into a more exciting role in probably a more exciting industry and organization. So basically, you are looking to change your industry, role profile and probably geography as well. This scenario accounts for more than 60% of the candidates who want to do MBA. For example:

• I am a project manager in IT services firm in India who wants to get into product management for a B2B SaaS product in US
• I am a team lead in a semi-conductor firm who wants to get into business development roles in an IT services or IT product firm
• I am a software engineer in a tech firm who wants to move into a business strategy role with a bigger tech firm/start-up
• I am a client-side consultant with an IT-services firm who wants to into corporate finance role with a top-tier tech firm
• I am an entrepreneur who wants to become a product manager in a tech firm

  Such shifts require a lot of introspection and research. The ad-coms would like to see what is your understanding of the role, what skills are “transferable” from your current role into the new role and on top of it, how will the MBA help you gain the skillsets that are missing.

They also want to get a clear understanding of the role from your viewpoint in terms of key responsibilities, performance metrics and impact areas.

In order to showcase all the above in the essay, we recommend that candidates leverage LinkedIn and their networks to connect with at least 2-3 people who are actually performing that role they aspire and have a frank conversation to gain a clear and deep understanding of the role.

Once they do that, they can also discuss their present roles and gain an understanding of the transferable skills that can be leveraged for the new role. This understanding is paramount to showcase in a good short-term goal essay.

This helps convince ad-com that you stand a good chance of being shortlisted for that role based on your CV and pedigree during the placement season..  

3. The management consulting bug

One of the biggest aspirations for all MBA candidates who want to shift roles and otherwise is to get into management consulting with a top-tier firm like McKinsey, Bain or BCG .

Irrespective of their current roles and backgrounds, the consultant role is actually the one where your MBA performance and business acumen take precedence.

But even then, when you are showcasing it as your short-term goal, you need to have a clear understanding of the skillsets that define a good consultant and where have you demonstrated those skills in current roles.

For example, skills like problem solving, management communication, data analysis are cornerstones of any good consultant and they need to be showcased in your CV as well as essay.  

Long-term career goals

Coming to long-term career goals, essentially the easiest path and the one taken by most of candidates is to showcase the career ladder growth as the long-term goal.

So, you see yourself as a partner in the consulting firm, you see yourself as a product management leader in the tech firm or as a CXO of a conglomerate.

These are all acceptable as long as there is a clear and straight-line path between short-term and long-term goals. The ad-com sees the logic and ambition here and that’s a tick from their side.   The other category is those who aim to turn entrepreneurs. That is also acceptable as long as there is a defined synergy in your short-term and long-term goals.

As long as ad-com sees that the skillsets you are gaining in short-term career and the industry knowledge and network you are building shall be used in the entrepreneurship venture you are aiming for, they are happy to give you the tick.   Now, if you have read till here, you get to know a little secret. The reality seldom matches the essay. Once you get into the school, there are new interest areas, new avenues that you may end up exploring or change your mind to take a safe bet and stick to same industry.

But it’s important that the story you present in your essay showcases your ambition in a logical way in line with your current career path and also in line with how the college can place you (Read How important are MBA essays ).

After all, their reputation is built on the alumni they have the best positions in top-tier firms!   A strong application generally is one which is able to create a cohesive and persuasive story not only about the career goals of the applicant, but also dovetail it into his past achievements, his extra-curriculars and his personal highlights.

This is the most important ingredient to a successful application.

An admissions consulting team like MBA Crystal Ball, can not only help you discover the right set of career goals, but also help you create an overall impactful story. One that will impress the ad-com enough to invite you for an interview.  

You’ll find some of Vibhav’s success stories at the end of this article: Career Change from Software IT to Product Management after MBA .

And here’s a success story of an ISB reapplicant who used career counselling for MBA admissions .

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12 thoughts on “Career goals Essay: Short-term and long-term goals”

I have large experience (8+) in big CPG companies in India in varied sales and marketing (mid-managerial) functions (Sales, Sales Development, Trade Marketing, Customer Marketing). My short term goal is to leverage my experience and work as a strategy consultant with McKinsey for CPG clients. It will not only add to my managerial skills but also help me build and gain insights into cutting edge innovations in the industry.

(Long term Goal) After working 3-4 years as a strategy consultant, I would like to take up a senior management role (Head of Business, CXO) and work in a CPG startup firm in India providing and implementing cutting edge strategies and solutions to break ground and win the market. The startup setup in CPG is a new booming space in India and given the customer base and demand for CPG products, there is tremendous scope in the coming years.

How does my short term and long term goal look? Would this be put down as being too unrealistic? Pls help.

Tough to say per say since consulting is a very common goal. It’ll eventually depend on how well you explain the need for MBA to begin with, and then, why consulting. Why not say CPG itself? Start from there.

Dear Sir, I am currently pursuing B.Tech Marine Engineering and will be sailing in 2021. I plan on sailing 5-7 years and then settle onshore. Although, I am uncertain about the career options available to me. Certainly, I have considered doing MBA and pursuing a job. But at this point, it’s very confusing to have a clear mindset as to what is to be done. I’d highly appreciate if you could guide me and tell what I should be doing and where I should be looking for some more guidance.

Once you’ve sailed for a year or so, see if you want to explore this intervention with us, if still unclear: https://www.mbacrystalball.com/career-counselling

I am a BE (EEE) graduate with following details: 1. 10th – 85% 2. +2 – 94% 3.BE – 81% – 2008 passout

I have Two Years of Experience in Software Testing in ADP India Pvt Limted(2008-2010) and Currently working as Manager in Powergrid Corporation Of India Limited (A Central Govt Mahartna PSU) from 2010. Profile in ADP: Test (Automation) Engineer in ADP – Dealing with Tax and Financial Services for Clients in USA Profile in POWERGRID: 1.Was incharge of execution of Power Transmission Projects of 400kV ,765kV level with Cost of Projects ranging from 250Cr-700Cr. 2. Worked as Special Technical Assitant to Executive Director of Southern Region,India which exposed me to various functions of Organization line HR, Contracts (Procurement Services), Project Management, Supply Chain Management, Operation of one of the Largest Power grids in World etc.. 3. Was part of Competitive Bidding group in Transmission Project which involved preparation of Bids for the projects, Financial Modelling for calculation of returns, Cost Control etc.. As seen from above I have many dots and all of them needs to connected and hence want to pursue a proper MBA.

Now I am interested to do Global MBA in USA . GRE:320. TOEFL will write in July-2020.

How are my chances to get into reasonably Top MBA schools in USA.

Overall profile looks decently poised. We don’t do profile evaluation here. For that, you can start here: https://www.mbacrystalball.com/profile-evaluation

I have persuing my MBA in finance and human resource. I want to do study PHD in management in USA. Please guide me how it is possible.

@Jasbir, start here: https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2018/04/11/phd-after-mba/

Sir i have completed my B tech in textile technology in 2017 since then i am unemployed and preparing for ssc and banking exam. Now in 2020 i would give cat ,mat exam . What are chances of getting a decent or mediocre mba college with a gap of 4 year with no experience and what problem will i face in getting my job

@Ravi, gaps are always very tough to explain: https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2016/04/01/how-to-handle-career-gaps-in-mba-applications/

Beyond chasing another education, you should make a very hard attempt at starting your professional journey first.

Thank you for this amazing exposition. I am currently working as an in-house counsel in a reputable professional regulatory body and I intend to do MBA for the purpose of advancing my career. However, I am not exactly sure what are the career goals for an in-house lawyer like me who seeks to do MBA. I would be glad if I could get some perspectives from you.

@Mide, you are approaching the thing from the wrong end. Don’t decide to do MBA and then figure things out. Think first about what you’d like to do in your career ( https://www.mbacrystalball.com/career-counselling/ ) and then, work backwards from there to assess whether MBA is even needed. Don’t consider an MBA as a be all and end all.

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Tips for mba applicants: the short-term and long-term goals essay.

When you're applying for a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) program , the short-term and long-term goals essay is an essential element of your application. Effective creation of this essay requires a clear strategy, covering all the subtle nuances of a successful response. This is your opportunity to convey to the admissions board, intelligently and succinctly, your top-notch qualifications, your future vision, and your goals as a successful business leader. Perhaps most importantly, you must elucidate why their MBA program is the perfect one to help you reach your highest aspirations.

Read on to learn expert tips for crafting a compelling short-term and long-term goals essay that details your aspirations as an MBA student and a successful leader.

What Is the Short-Term and Long-Term Goals Essay?

The specific wording of the short-term and long-term goals essay request may vary from one graduate program to another, but all MBA admissions teams rely on this essay to help determine if you’re a good match for their program. You will be asked to explain why the MBA program to which you’re applying is essential for achieving your career goals. In many cases, the essay requirement includes several questions; you must carefully consider all of them and address all of them within your essay.

The questions you’ll see in the MBA short-term and long-term goals essay request are likely to include:

• Why did you select this MBA program?
• How do you envision this MBA program further transforming your personal and professional growth?
• What professional benefits do you hope to attain from this MBA program?
• How do you envision your post-MBA future?
• What are your short-term professional goals?
• What are your long-term professional goals?
• How will this MBA program help you achieve your short-term and long-term goals?

To answer such specific questions thoroughly, you need a clearly defined sense of self-worth: an honest view of your personal qualifications, skills, experiences, and aspirations. You also need detailed thought and communication skills. Convincing the admissions team that you are an ideal candidate requires a concise, compelling response.

Drafting the Short-Term and Long-Term Goals Essay

In order to define your short- and long-term professional goals, you must have a specific understanding of the differences between them:

Short-term professional goals help define where you envision yourself immediately after attaining your graduate degree. They offer precise indications of your intended career path, including your preferred type of industry, company, role, skills, and responsibilities.

Long-term professional goals describe how you envision your career development well into the future, perhaps 20 or more years beyond graduate school.

Gather the important materials that detail your professional history: your CV, current or previous work evaluations, awards, certificates, and letters of recommendation. Use these materials to identify your unique professional strengths, skills, past experiences, and goals.

Carefully build a list of reasons for applying to the MBA program you've selected. Examine the program's published literature, keeping a keen eye out for specified educational outcomes that are closely aligned with your personal and professional goals.

Now it's time to draft your short-term and long-term goals essay. You're well prepared, armed with a full complement of information about your own strengths and those of the program to which you’re applying . Without regard for sentence length or structure, answer every essay question as fully and clearly as possible. Consult your documents for appropriate wording, titles, dates, and other important details. Brainstorm every idea and put it in writing. The resulting paragraphs will be your rough draft, which you’ll now set out to polish.

Refining the Short-Term and Long-Term Goals Essay

Start refining the paragraphs into concise, compelling statements that speak directly to the point. It’s important to set an optimistic tone from the start. Express yourself confidently, decisively, and clearly. Weave appropriate examples into your short-term and long-term goals essay, taking care to answer the questions fully, without exceeding word-count limits.

Use these five tips to craft an impressive, persuasive essay:

Immediately Command the Reader's Attention Begin with compelling statements describing your long-term professional goals and summarizing how your past experiences inform your vision of the future. Provide a synopsis of your strongest achievements and explain how they inspire your MBA goals.

Convey the Significance of Your Goals Widen the context of your goals by explaining why they are important to you and how achieving them will serve a greater good. Emphasize your analytical skills by identifying a problem you wish to solve in your career, and describing the benefits that may result.

Highlight Your Qualifications Promote yourself as the ideal person to achieve your long-term goals. Discuss your passion for success, detailing your relevant professional skills, specific work experiences, and related achievements. Summarize how your unique history and qualifications inspire and qualify you as the right person to achieve your post-MBA professional aspirations.

Discuss Your Program-Specific Goals Focus on the opportunities offered by this MBA program: the knowledge and skills you hope to develop, faculty members with whom you hope to study, local internship and employment that this program can help you pursue, and so on—all items that are unique to this MBA program, rather than common to many. Discuss your ambitions for expanding and strengthening particular skills during your time in the program. Detail ways in which you plan to utilize the unique benefits which your chosen program can provide.

Conclude With a Call to Action Your concluding paragraph should discuss the ways this MBA program will help accelerate your professional growth. Discuss your short-term goals by describing your immediate, post-graduation career plans and the ways in which they’ll empower you to reach your long-term goals. End your short-term and long-term goals essay with a confident call to action, requesting admission based on your clearly defined passion, personal qualifications and aptitude for successfully realizing your professional goals.

Make your goals your reality

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Advice, tips and insights from the admissions dream team., table of contents, how to create mba goals: long term vs. short term career vision.

• By Heidi Hillis

To craft the best career vision for the MBA, you must present a coherent narrative that persuasively links your personal reasons for pursuing an MBA with your past experiences as well as your short- and long-term goals.

Once you’ve begun to explore your career vision (see part 1 in this series, How to Create a Career Vision for your MBA Application ), you’ll want to tease out the long-term vision and short-term goals. Understanding the differences between them – and how they work together – will enhance your capacity to articulate a compelling case to admissions committees of MBA schools and programs .

What Are MBA Goals?

Your long-term MBA goal is generally where you plan to be 10 years out, while your short-term MBA goals are the stepping stones paving the way to get there. Short-term goals involve your near-immediate plans – either for an internship and/or two to three years post b-school. During this period, you should be acquiring specific expertise or skills that’s essential for you to reach your long-term vision.

Your long-term vision defines your end goal, the peak of your career — answering the question “what you want to be when you grow up.” In response, it’s unnecessary to delve into exacting detail. Instead, your focus should be on the impact you want to have throughout your professional  career. The admissions committee wants to know your values and motivations and how you plan to influence an industry or community.

Alternatively, for the short-term goal, you DO want to get specific. This goal is more important to the admissions committee and should reflect thorough research down to the function, industry —  even possible companies you hope to be working for.  It’s also important to communicate your understanding of the business school recruiting process and what it will take for you to land your post-MBA job. That said, you might consider a few options, to demonstrate that you have a plan B if your ideal path doesn’t work out.

Taken together, it’s imperative to show a rational thread between your past experiences, the MBA, your internship and your post-MBA goals . You want to show how the skills developed from each of these experiences relate to your vision .

In sum, below are the key distinctions between the long and short-term MBA goals .

Long Term Career Vision:

• Time frame: 10+ years
• The end goal: What you want to be “when you grow up”
• Reflects your values
• Focuses more on desired impact
• Both inspirational and aspirational
• Expresses the motivation behind your short-term goals
• Recognizes that there may be alternative paths to get there (plan A, B, C…)

Three examples of a long-term vision for b-school:

“I aim to increase financial inclusion within current banks by designing, developing, and launching a financial services  ecosystem for unbanked Americans.”

“I seek an executive-level position at a renewable energy organization such as a wind farm or solar company, to well-position me to reach my ultimate objective – impacting the global carbon footprint as a CEO of a global renewable energy organization.”

“I aspire to transform the healthcare system in Mexico by finding innovative ways to make the diagnostic process less costly, so that funding can be used toward enhanced treatments and facilities.”

Short Term Career Goals for MBA Students :

• Time frame: internship and up to 2-3 years after graduation
• Stepping stone to your long-term  MBA goals
• As specific as possible, reflecting considerable research and thought related to: geography/industry/function/potential companies
• Achievable and realistic
• Focuses on building capacities, expertise, and experience
• Displays an understanding of the MBA recruitment process

Three examples of short-term MBA goals for b-school:

“I will leverage my pre-MBA experience as a financial analyst to pursue an internship in finance, either on the buy side or sell side, focused on the energy market. Immediately following business school, I will seek a general management or leadership development rotational program at a global energy firm such as X, focusing on gaining exposure to business development, marketing, and operations.”

 “To gain the experience I need to eventually reach my goal of financial inclusion for America’s unbanked, immediately following my MBA I intend to pursue a role in business development or project management in a late-stage fintech startup such as X or Y.”

“After having had wide-ranging exposure to several industries and companies at X consulting firm, I plan to use the intense finance curriculum at X school to help me pivot to a career in investment banking, where I will be able to gain further knowledge of the key metrics used to valuate companies and portfolios. I intend to pursue an internship with a bulge bracket investment bank such as X, which should help position me to achieve my goal of working as an analyst for an investment bank post-MBA.”

Watch this video on how to articulate your short and long term goals:

Want More Advice?

For more career vision insights and resources on what the MBA admissions committee is looking for in your b-school application, view the Fortuna team’s related articles and video strategy sessions:

• How to Create MBA Goals: Long-term Vision vs. Short-term Goals (blog part 2)
• How to Convey a Powerful Career Vision (blog)
• Your Post-MBA Career Goals & How to Position Them In Your MBA App (video)
• How to Position Your MBA Application When Your Post-MBA Career Goal Is Consultancy (video)
• Your Current Role & How It Connects to Your MBA Career Vision (video)
• What You Should Do Now to Prepare for You MBA Career Vision (video)

Let’s Get You In.

Fortuna Admissions is a dream team of former MBA Admissions Directors and Officers from 18 of the top 20 business schools. With our unparalleled collective expertise, we are able to coach you to develop a clear vision of your goals for business school and beyond. We work closely with you throughout the application process and provide expert guidance at every stage to maximize your chances of admission to a top school.

Our free consultations are consistently rated as the best in the industry. To learn more about Fortuna and assess your chances of admission to a top business school, request a free consultation .

Updated Sept. 2022

Fortuna’s Heidi Hillis is an MBA admissions coach and alumnus of Stanford GSB. For a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at a top MBA program,  essay tips, and more, sign up for a free consultation .

• Posted on September 4, 2022

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Writing a compelling MBA Career Goals Essay

W riting a compelling MBA Career Goals Essay requires you to do more than just list the companies and titles you plan to add to your resume following the completion of your studies.

Your essay needs to demonstrate that you are passionate about the career you envision while convincing the MBA admissions committee that a larger sense of purpose directs your career goals.

Furthermore, admissions officers will judge your career action plan to determine if the dots connect between your skills and experiences and future aspirations.

In this article, we provide you with insights and tools you need to build a powerful MBA Career Goals Essay.

First, we’ll talk about why admissions committees ask you to write an essay about your career goals and share the characteristics of an outstanding answer. We will also help you to avoid the common mistakes applicants make when writing a Career Goals Essay.

We’ll even provide you with a set of building blocks for crafting a unique and powerful essay of your own.

In the final section of this article, we analyze a sample Career Goals Essay to illustrate the principles we taught you in action.

Why Do MBA Admissions Officers Ask About Your Goals?

The MBA Career Goals essay question regularly appears in one form or another on just about every MBA application. Many applicants wonder why MBA admissions officers are so interested in what they plan to do after graduating from business school. Others feel these types of questions are downright unfair. Isn’t business school a chance to figure out what you want to be when you grow up? And what’s the point of making plans when everyone knows those plans are going to change?

The reason admissions officers ask the Career Goals Essay question year after year is because the mission of a top MBA program is to train future leaders who will go on to make an impact on the world. In a sense, when you apply for an MBA, you’re also applying for the job you will take upon graduation, the job you will progress to five years after graduating, and even the executive job you dream about taking 10-15 years after that.

An acceptance letter to a top-tier MBA program is not a blue ribbon for past achievements. Admissions committees want to know what you aspire to become and want to achieve as a future leader. As it turns out, a strong Career Goals Essay is one of the best tools in your application to get the Admissions Committee excited about your potential and to communicate where and how you plan to make an impact on the world after completing your MBA education.

Business schools ask about your career goals in a variety of ways :

• “What are your short-term and long-term career goals?”
• “What are your professional objectives?”
• “Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA.”
• “What do you want to do—REALLY?”

When answering these kinds of essay questions, top marks are earned by having clearly defined post-MBA career plans that go well beyond climbing the corporate ladder and making lots of money. Admission officers want to know that you have a passion for the career you imagine and that your career goals are fueled by a sense of purpose.

What Makes For a Strong MBA Career Goals Essay?

Defining your career goals is central to your Application Strategy because a powerful Career Goals Essay will tell the admissions officers how you plan to become a leader of consequence once you graduate. The coherence of your Career Goals Essay serves as elegant proof of your potential.

You’ll also need to persuade admissions officers that your career aspirations are realistic. In other words, they must be convinced that you possess many of the skills, talents, and experiences that you will need to achieve your ambitions. Many candidates undermine their chances for acceptance by proposing a set of lofty career goals that don’t appear achievable when viewed in the context of their past experiences and strengths. Grand ambitions are fine, but you must be able to convince admissions officers that the dots connect from your past accomplishments to your future aims.

Next, remember that admissions officers believe that their job is to find and accept future business leaders who will make a positive difference in the world. The goal of this essay is not to outline your plans for climbing the corporate ladder. Think about how you can devote energy and your career to helping others in some way. This doesn’t mean you have to go to work for a not-for-profit – no matter what field you are interested in, you can identify ways that your career will make a positive difference in the world.

Even when the essay question doesn’t include words like vision and aspiration or doesn’t ask you why your career goals are meaningful, you should let admissions officers know your deeper motivations and that you have a sense of purpose.

Finally, the caveat to all of this advice is that admission officers read thousands of these essays and can tell the difference between aspirations with integrity and those that are simply engineered for effect. To put it bluntly, admissions board members have world-class B.S. detectors, so make sure your career goals pass the sniff test.

Your career goals, if properly developed and defined, can set you apart from other candidates competing for a spot at that school, and that’s precisely what you want them to do. Before you begin brainstorming, you will need to do extensive career planning work to assemble the content building blocks for your Career Goals Essay.

Free MBA Essay Writing Course

Please enter your email below to gain 30 days of free access to our MBA Essay Writing course. Learn about the five most frequently asked MBA application essay questions and access our brainstorming tools and sample essays.

What Makes for a Weak MBA Career Goals Essay?

Let’s discuss some of the weaknesses in applicants’ MBA Career Goals Essays so you can avoid making mistakes in your essay that might hurt your chances of being admitted to a top business school:

Unfocused career vision

No sense of purpose: passion, meaning, and significance, lack of evidence that the candidate understands his or her future industry.

• Dots don’t connect between prior skills/experiences and post-MBA career goals

Unconvincing motivations for pursuing an MBA

We’ll expand on these common pitfalls.

When it comes to essay and interview questions about your career goals, the “I will figure out my goals once I’m in business school” answer isn’t sufficient. If you haven’t determined what your career goals are, then how can an admissions officer be sure an MBA is your best next step? More importantly, how can you?

The bottom line is that your candidacy will not compare favorably with the applicants who know where they want to go and can explain clearly how an MBA will help get them there. Admissions officers know that once you’re in business school, you’ll have more work to do than there are hours in the day; there’s not much time available for self-reflection and career planning. In fact, within weeks of arriving on campus for your first year, you’ll be polishing your resume up and submitting it to recruiters for summer internships. If you don’t have a vision for your career, you may not benefit from the MBA experience in the same way as other candidates who do have a defined and focused career vision.

MBA programs were founded on the belief that business leaders can and do play an influential role in contributing to society’s prosperity. Schools are looking for future leaders who aren’t just in it for themselves. Admissions officers are proud that their job is to find and accept future business leaders who will make a positive difference in the world. If your career goals are a thinly veiled plan for making loads of money, then your candidacy is in trouble.

Once your long-term career goals are in focus, you should further educate yourself on the industry in which you plan to work. Admissions officers are understandably skeptical when an applicant claims to want to work in a particular field like venture capital, sustainable energy, or social enterprise but doesn’t seem to know much, if anything, about those industries.

Dots don’t connect between prior skills / experiences and post-MBA career goals

Many candidates undermine their chances for acceptance by proposing a set of lofty career goals that don’t appear realistic when viewed in the context of their past experiences and strengths. An admissions officer will examine your resume through the lens of future corporate recruiters. Suppose your Career Goals Essay says that you want to work in strategy consulting post-MBA. In that case, admissions officers will evaluate whether your current resume, combined with the skills and knowledge you would acquire in their program, would appeal to a recruiter at a strategy consulting firm. If the dots don’t connect for the MBA admissions committee, your application will be less competitive.

Your career goals directly relate to your motivations for pursuing an MBA. Therefore, defining those career goals is critical to explaining why you want an MBA. Unconvincing motivations for pursuing an MBA can be another big weakness in your candidacy. If the only answer you can come up with for “why you want an MBA” is “I’m working at a private equity firm, and everyone here goes for an MBA,” then you need to do more thinking about your motivations and reasons for applying to business school. If you haven’t built a solid case for this huge investment of time and money, then admissions committees would be justified in wondering what kind of business leader you’re going to be in the future.

Now that you understand the characteristics of a successful MBA Career Goals Essay and some pitfalls to avoid, we will share some content building blocks to help you design and write a winning essay.

Content Building Blocks for the MBA Career Goals Essay

Now we’ll tie the preceding insights together into a set of building blocks and provide you with a Career Goals Essay example, so you feel fully prepared to write a convincing essay of your own.

The four content building blocks for an excellent Career Goals Essay are:

• Career Purpose
• Career Meaning
• Your Long-Term Career Goal, and;
• Your Career Action Plan

Your first step is to develop a statement of career purpose . The building block question is, “What is the purpose of your career — who will it serve, and how will it benefit others?” A statement of career purpose doesn’t exist on an organization chart. It’s not the job; it’s what you hope to achieve in the world in a larger sense.

The next content building block is career meaning . Ask yourself, “Why is the career I envision meaningful to me?” Admissions officers believe that great ambitions are achieved when an individual’s goals are fueled by their interests and passions. Even if the application doesn’t ask the question directly, you should tell the admissions committee why these career goals matter to you.

Once your career’s purpose and meaning are defined, you can progress to building a succinct statement of your long-term career goals . Your long-term career goal may indeed be found on an organization chart — you should include the job you want and the kind of organization you want to be leading in 15 years – CEO, founder, managing director of a non-profit, etc. What is your dream job ?

“What’s the path to your dream job?” — The final building block is your career action plan – it includes the jobs and organizations you plan to work for along the way toward your long-term career goal. For each position on your path, you can briefly explain how the role fits into your overall plan and moves you a step closer to your long-term career goal by providing additional skills, essential knowledge, and a more robust network.

To wrap up this lesson, let’s take a look at a Career Goals Essay sample so you can see these principles and our content building blocks in action.

MBA Career Goals Essay Sample

Our example applicant “Adam” is an investment banker who wants to return to the private equity world post-MBA.

As you’ll see, by using the content building blocks, he goes beyond answering the “what question” – as in WHAT are your career goals – and answers the “why question” – setting himself up to write a Career Goals Essay that will score top marks.

Adam was born in Ukraine, and his career goal is to help people in that part of the world by spurring economic development. He plans to share how troubled he was by the hardships he saw while on a recent visit to Kyiv, during which his career goals came into focus.

Adam makes his career goals more unique than simply saying he wants to start a private equity fund – the fund he wants to create will invest in the former Soviet Union, providing much-needed economic development in the region. Adam plans to work for an established fund in the CIS region before eventually starting his own fund. His dream job is to serve as an economic advisor to governments in that part of the world.

Having completed his building blocks exercise, Adam has the content he needs to satisfy the career goals question criteria. His answer will be comprehensive and memorable and will set him apart from other candidates who also have their sights set on a future in private equity.

Below you will find an excerpt of the essay that resulted when these content building blocks were assembled. Review the sample essay carefully, and then you will be ready to get to work outlining, drafting, and rewriting your own essay until you and your advisors feel you have an outstanding Career Goals Essay for your application.

(CAREER PURPOSE) By the end of the trip, my career goals were clearly in focus. I want to play a leadership role in economic development in the CIS, first as a private equity investor, and eventually, an economic advisor to the government in Ukraine.

(CAREER ACTION PLAN) Directly out of business school, I want to move to Russia and work with an established private equity group such as Baring Vostok (“BV”). I’ve worked for almost two years in private equity in the US, and working for a firm in Moscow like BV for five to seven years would give me regional private equity experience and ties to capital in Russia and the CIS.

(LONG-TERM CAREER GOAL) Long-term, I want to start my own fund in the former Soviet Union, ideally based in Kyiv. I believe there’s plenty of opportunities. My Uncle’s manufacturing company in Kyiv is actually a good example; he needs growth capital, but his business’s risk profile is wrong for a bank and better suited for a private equity fund.

Final Thoughts

Sharing your excitement about your future career path with admissions officers via your MBA Career Goals Essay is an essential step toward earning an acceptance letter from a top MBA program. The coherence and clarity of your essay can convey your desire to be a leader of consequence once you finish your MBA studies.

Ultimately, the goal of an MBA Career Goals Essay is to convince admissions officers that you will go on to use your MBA education to make a positive difference in the world. The lessons we’ve shared in this article can help you to write a high-quality essay. The effort you devote to writing an excellent MBA Career Goals essay will almost certainly help increase your chances of being accepted by one of the world’s top business schools.

Related Articles: Essay Examples

• Career Goals Essay Example
• What Will You Contribute? Essay Example
• Why MBA? and Why Our School? Essay Example
• Leadership Story Essay Example
• Professional Experience Essay Example
• MBA Video Essays
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How to frame practical Post MBA Goals Essays?

MBA & Beyond Team

15/11/2023 | 12:14 pm

Schools view essays as a tool to discern applicants’ strengths, weaknesses, and fit within the program. Among the commonly posed essays is the Post MBA Goal Essays, which holds significance in shaping the school’s ranking and employment report.

Craft coherent post-MBA goals linking your motivations, experiences, and short-term and long-term objectives.

In this article, you will learn the distinction between short term goals after MBA and long term goals after MBA. It shows how your goals align with your career objectives and strengthen your case to MBA admissions committees.

Here is the Snapshot of the article:

WHAT ARE CAREER GOALS ESSAY?

Career goals for MBA form a pivotal element of Post MBA Goal Essays, outlining a vision for successful professionals and serving as benchmarks for students’ lives as they aspire to become impactful leaders. These goals, intrinsic to Post MBA Goal Essays, are intertwined with academic and professional aspects, providing clarity on future roles or accomplishments. Passion and determination should serve as the driving forces behind your self-improvement and motivation in pursuing MBA goals.

There are two types of goals that define your vision and approach in Post MBA Goal Essays. The first one is the short-term career goals, which mean what you will do immediately after earning your MBA degree from your dream program. The second one is your long-term career goals that represent your esteem stage, the eventual position you wish to achieve in your respective field.

In your essay, articulate career aspirations and highlight achievements that support your MBA goals. Additionally, outline the approaches you intend to adopt to propel yourself even further. A valuable tip is to set MBA goals for various stages of your career, ensuring your essay follows a sequence of adaptation, formation, maturity, and later stages.

CAN YOUR GOALS BE VAGUE?

We understand for a maximum of applicants it is difficult to set their MBA goals which is quite common because our current career goals for MBA might not be the same after a period of time. Also, some applicants choose to argue with adcoms that they are too vague with their career goals for MBA and act that the school is responsible. Both approaches will create a negative impact on adcoms.

After all, why will the adcoms grant you a precious seat in their reputed program if you cannot even express your post MBA career goals? The committee acknowledges that your career goals for MBA may evolve, but they are interested in understanding the depth of your consideration for these goals and how you convey your passion and commitment towards your post MBA career objectives.

FREE CONSULTATION WITH AN EXPERT TO SET YOUR “POST MBA GOALS”

POINTS TO ALIGN WITH YOUR CAREER GOALS ESSAY

Before beginning, we suggest you keep all these points in your mind while writing as it will help you to give the direction and structure to your career goals essay .

Be Determinant in your Post MBA Goal Essays

Some schools are comfortable understanding if you have multiple short term career goals and help you decide, but some top schools demand that you must have clear post MBA career goals. Therefore, we strongly recommend expressing your goals with determination to the admissions committees. Consider selecting a couple of goals and experimenting with them to reach a conclusion that resonates more with your aspirations.

Consistency is the Key

Ensure authenticity and truthfulness in your post-MBA goals. Maintain consistency across applications, while also being flexible to tailor your expression to align with each school’s vision and community. This approach not only enhances your impact but also solidifies your career objectives for the MBA journey.

Practical Career Goals are a must in Post MBA Goal Essay

We understand you are tempted to achieve bigger things in life and receive so many awards and recognition in every field (you can) but while writing this essay adcoms don’t want daydreamers. They want your career goals for MBA should be practical and attainable. To align with this, do proper research about which industry or position you fit well.

Demonstrate logic in your Post MBA Goal Essay

Now that you’ve established the foundation, it’s crucial to consider the strategies that will aid in achieving both your short-term and long-term career goals. Bridging the gap between these milestones should follow a logical progression, making sense to readers.

Express your USP

Primarily, your ultimate aim in Post MBA Goal Essays is to convey your uniqueness and authenticity effectively to the readers. Additionally, the objective is to infuse creativity into expressing your MBA career goals, ensuring a logical and thoughtful presentation. Furthermore, it’s essential to go beyond merely stating the desired position and delve into the intricacies of your aspirations in your Post MBA Goal Essays.

Consider your career goals after MBA this way: MBA education will be one of your most significant investments, not only in terms of money but also in time and effort. So, throughout your 1-2 years in college, you must focus on the right stuff in terms of education, networking, placements, career goals after MBA, and so on, and you can only get the best out of your MBA if you are clear on your purpose for doing MBA. This clarity is what you should aim to convey in your Post MBA Goal Essays. And that is why our founders established MBA and Beyond to help intellectual people like you have clarity of your post MBA goals, purpose, vision, long term goals after MBA, and short term goals after MBA before you go for an MBA. 

HOW TO ADDRESS YOUR SHORT TERM GOALS AFTER MBA?

Short-term goals following MBA completion involve envisioning yourself immediately upon graduation from your desired business school, a critical aspect to highlight in your Post MBA Goal Essays. These goals must be precisely defined, including the industry, location, specific firms you are targeting, and the role you aim to secure.

Transitioning into your short-term goals necessitates fully acquiring the skills essential for the position you aspire to secure after completing your MBA. Additionally, this involves effectively managing the primary responsibilities associated with the role and demonstrating the expected outcomes.

FORMAT FOR SHORT TERM GOALS MBA ESSAYS

Here are the formatting guidelines for your Post MBA Goal Essays:

• Include white spaces on all sides with the help of one-inch margins in your short term goals MBA essays.
• Choose “readable” fonts (e.g., Times New Roman or Arial).
• The recommended font size is 11 or 12-point to write short term goals MBA essays.
• Using extra spaces between the paragraphs will create a negative impact.
• Add a title at the top of the page with a middle alignment.
• Enter your full name and date in the left alignment (or you can add this info in the header).

WHAT ARE THE CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF YOUR SHORT TERM GOALS AFTER YOUR MBA

Here are six key points to include in your Post MBA Goal Essay:

• Emphasize the domain or industry you aim to work in as part of your Post MBA Goal Essays.
• Specify the career profile or position you wish to pursue after the industry.
• Link your academic and professional experiences with your vision to strategically design your career journey.
• Align your objectives with your short-term career goals and develop a plan to achieve these career goals after your MBA.
• Ensure your short-term goals after MBA are detailed, reflecting in-depth research and clear direction.
• Focus on acquiring skills, competence, and experience vital for your career goals after MBA.

KNOW YOUR CHANCES FOR TOP B-SCHOOLS ADMISSION AND SCHOLARSHIPS

HOW TO DEFINE YOUR SHORT TERM GOALS IN YOUR POST MBA GOAL ESSAY?

1 . progression in your career goals after mba while implementing the short terms goals after mba.

Working towards your career goals is a case of your short term goals after MBA. For example, if you are currently engaged in a role within a related industry, your aim may be to expedite progression to higher positions or enhance your standing within the corporate brand.

Example for short term goals after MBA:

1. I am a software engineer with product development expertise seeking a position in product management for a Silicon Valley technology startup. An example of vertical growth is not changing dimensions but seeking a more prominent role in the same industry.

2. I work at a corporate law firm and wish to go into the M&A or strategy team of a big corporation.

Defining and managing short-term goals after completing an MBA remains a rational and straightforward task. When articulating these goals in your post-MBA essay, the fundamental requirements persist. However, the key lies in your capacity to envision yourself in the desired role and effectively highlight the skills you contribute to your career objectives after MBA. It is easier to explain because you already have peers or seniors undertaking that post MBA career role and can explain the difference between it and your current position. 

The first step in writing your post MBA goals essay is to look up your target school’s employment statistics and reports. For example, if you want to have a promising career in Investment Banking in the US, you may want to consider which schools have the highest graduates going to these fields shortly after their post MBA. Second, look at the subjective factors of career goals after MBA- how your school will shape you and your career for both short term goals after MBA and long term goals after MBA .

You may want to sign up for this free coffee session to help you shape your post-MBA goals  for MBA applications.

2. Addressing Career Breaks in Post MBA Goal Essays

Transitioning into a new career after MBA is a common short-term goal among applicants. You aspire to move into a more interesting position within an exciting industry and company, encapsulating your post-MBA goals in essence. So, you want to shift your industry , position profile, and, most likely, area. This situation accounts for more than 60% of all individuals interested in pursuing an MBA.

As an example of Career Shift as a short term goal after MBA:

1. I am a software engineer in a technology firm looking to advance into a business strategy function with a giant tech firm/start-up.

2. I am an entrepreneur who aspires to work as a product manager in an organizational structure.

Such transformations necessitate a considerable amount of awareness and research. Moreover, for these short-term goals after MBA, you require superior convincing abilities to demonstrate your employability. Additionally, admissions committees seek to understand your grasp of the position, identifying which talents are transferable from your current work to the new role envisioned, and how the MBA will facilitate the acquisition of lacking skill sets to achieve your career goals post-MBA.

SHORT TERM CAREER GOALS FOR MBA STUDENTS

Here are essential elements to consider for your Post MBA Goal Essay:

• The timeframe for your short-term career goals after MBA should span from the internship phase to the first 2-3 years post-graduation.
• Initiate short-term MBA goals to pave the way for achieving long-term MBA objectives.
• Conduct thorough research and be specific about geography, industry, function, and potential companies in your Post MBA Goal Essays.
• Ensure your goals are achievable and realistic.
• Focus on developing capacities, expertise, and experience relevant to your desired field.
• Illustrate your understanding of the MBA recruitment process and how it aligns with your career aspirations.

HOW TO ADDRESS YOUR LONG TERM GOALS AFTER MBA?

Your long-term goals after MBA delineate your ultimate career aspirations, representing the answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” However, it’s crucial to recognize that an MBA serves not only to facilitate the achievement of short-term goals but also significantly influences long-term objectives.

Therefore, consider the implications of your long-term goals after MBA. Reflect on how you intend to benefit personally from the experience of achieving these goals, focusing less on intricate details and more on the overall impact throughout your career. The admissions committee is keen to understand your aspirations after MBA, your character, vision, principles, and the way you aim to influence an industry or community.

And believe us when we say this aspect of your application will need you to do a lot more digging about your long term goals after MBA. You can read this story of an Indian engineer achieving 30k worth of dollar scholarships from Rotman to help you get started on your goals and applications now.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE COVERED IN POST MBA GOALS ESSAY FOR LONG TERM GOALS

When crafting your Post MBA Goal Essay, consider addressing the following points:

• Explain why this business school is the perfect fit for you, aligning its offerings with your career aspirations.
• Detail your expectations following the MBA application, focusing on how the program aligns with your Post MBA Goal Essays.
• Describe how your past experiences have contributed to your growth as a professional and how they’ve prepared you for an MBA.
• Discuss how the graduate program will enhance your skills and influence your career goals after completing your MBA, emphasizing specific aspects of the program that are relevant to your objectives.

FORMAT FOR LONG TERM GOALS MBA ESSAYS

For your Post MBA Goal Essay, adhere to these formatting guidelines:

• Opt for the 5-paragraph essay format to structure your content effectively.
• Use “readable” fonts like Times New Roman or Arial to ensure clarity.
• Stick to a recommended font size of 11 or 12-point for readability.
• Maintain one-inch margins on all sides to create ample white space.
• Ensure there is a logical connection between paragraphs to maintain flow in your Post MBA Goal Essays.
• Adhere to a formal style of writing and refrain from using informal language.
• Avoid long sentences to prevent confusion and enhance comprehension for the reader.

CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF A POST MBA GOALS ESSAY:

In your Post MBA Goal Essay, consider incorporating these elements for long-term career planning:

• Outline the timeframe of your career goals after MBA, focusing on the next 10 years and beyond.
• Define your ultimate long-term goal post-MBA, reflecting on what you aspire to achieve in your career peak.
• Emphasize the impact of your long-term goals after MBA, highlighting how they align with broader industry or societal contributions.
• Ensure your long-term goals are aspirational and inspiring, showcasing your ambition and vision.
• Illustrate how your long-term goals reflect your core values and professional ethos.
• Clarify the purpose behind your short-term goals and how they serve as stepping stones toward your long-term aspirations.
• Acknowledge the flexibility in achieving your career goals by outlining multiple pathways (plan A, B, C…) to reach your desired outcomes.

Example of long term goals after MBA:

1. I want to transform Europe’s healthcare system by discovering creative methods to reduce the cost of diagnostics so that funds can be spent on better treatments and facilities.

2. I am looking for an executive-level position with a renewable energy organization, such as a wind farm or solar farm, to help me reach my ultimate goal of reducing the world’s carbon footprint as the CEO of a worldwide renewable farms organization.

The narrative presented in your post-MBA goals essay should logically depict your objectives and long-term goals after MBA. Additionally, it should align with your current professional path, effectively illustrating how the school can support your aspirations.

A successful application can tell a unified and convincing tale about the applicant’s career goals after MBA. Furthermore, it should highlight their prior successes, extracurricular activities, and personal highlights in their post-MBA goals essay.

THREE WINNING COMPONENTS FOR WRITING LONG TERM GOALS

If you have a personal story that influenced your choice of long-term career goals, crafting an essay describing these goals for MBA becomes more straightforward. Moreover, your long-term career goal essay should flow seamlessly, offering clarity and a connection to your journey. Additionally, we have three components that you should follow to write your career goals essay.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR POST MBA GOALS ESSAY?

Well, after 10 minutes of extensive expert advice, if you need us to write your post MBA goals essay or spoon-feed you, then an MBA is not for you!

No one is interested in reading your boring post MBA goals essay. Admissions committee members review around 1000 applications a day, discarding 999 within 5 minutes. Your achievements and resume details are already outlined. Therefore, ensure your post MBA goals essay is brief, engaging, and enjoyable to read. Navigate directly from point A to B without unnecessary elaboration, conveying your passion for achieving these goals and realizing your vision.

Connect your long term goals after MBA to the values your target school respects. Research target schools to see how they’ll support your short-term and shape your long-term MBA goals.

You can read this goals and achievements essay and take critical insights into framing your post MBA goals essays.

Our sole purpose of a unique consulting process is to help applicants find clarity in not only their post MBA goals but also in life- one we always needed! Many applicants call the first segment of our process “therapy .” We are here to help you establish the proper set of professional goals and develop an overall powerful story by truly knowing who you are. You are not only leading your way to your dream schools but finally being able to reach where you are destined for!

So if you get stuck along the way while defining your career goals after MBA, feel free to connect. We’ll be happy to curate the path to your success in your MBA journey because the world needs intellectuals like you!

We offer a limited number of free profile evaluations each week, where we match you with students and alumni from leading B-Schools based on your background and target schools. During this call, our experts will uncover your unique selling proposition (USP) for top B-schools and offer honest feedback on your profile, assessing your chances at your target schools.

You can also comment on your concerns regarding crafting post-MBA goals essays, and our experts will reach out to you within 24 hours. Happy applying!

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MBA Career Goals – Crafting a Compelling Short-Term Vision

You’re probably aware that ambitious, yet realistic MBA career goals are critical to a compelling business school application. Not only that, understanding how business school will accelerate or pivot your career path is essential to justifying the financial and time investment required to pursue an MBA.

Many clients we speak with have a general sense of what they want to do post-MBA (or at least what they don’t want to do) but have trouble zeroing in on MBA career goals at the level of specificity that admissions committees expect. Clients are also often concerned about whether the post-MBA career path they envision will resonate with their target programs as it relates to their application.

As such, MBA career goals is the topic we’re covering in today’s article, specifically short-term MBA career goals. Short-term MBA career goals refer to the job you will seek right after graduation and perhaps an intermediate step directly thereafter. We will be focusing on how to craft and communicate your short-term MBA career goals in your MBA application. Of course, this is a highly personalized discussion, but there are some overarching principles that can guide your thinking.

When it comes to the role you will target directly after business school, the adcom is looking for it to check three boxes:

1. Your MBA career goals are something employers hire for out of their program.

Note that I’m not suggesting you have to say you will target the same five or so career paths that every other MBA is looking to pursue (consulting, tech product management, private equity / venture capital, etc.). I’m not even saying your short-term goal has to be something companies recruit for ‘on campus’ as opposed to something that will require a little leg work on your part.

Instead, I’m suggesting that you convey a realistic understanding of the seniority level at which a company may recruit a new MBA and whether your targeted industry / function is somewhere the program has placed graduates in the past. Specificity is important here, even going so far as to spell out the position you will target (i.e., Associate Marketing Manager) and a few companies you would be excited to work for.

2. Your background makes it realistic that employers will consider you for this position.

Some post-MBA career paths are more restrictive than others when it comes to the specific skills recruiters expect you to have. For example, in my experience at Kellogg, investment banks were open to people from a wide variety of pre-MBA fields so long as the person was willing to work hard and could demonstrate aptitude in the interviews.

On the other hand, breaking into product management at a large technology company can be difficult without prior technical work experience and/or an engineering degree. I’m not saying it can’t be done and would never discourage someone from trying for the role of their dreams. That said, the adcom at top MBA programs may be weary of someone who doesn’t at least acknowledge that they are fighting an uphill battle and perhaps present a more realistic ‘Plan B’.

Like it or not, top MBA programs are laser focused on their employment statistics relative to peer schools. While last year’s employment rates at top MBA programs were strong , there’s no guarantee that the job market will remain as such over the next three years until this year’s applicants are graduating. As such, MBA programs will continue to focus on accepting people with realistic post-MBA plans.

3. Your short-term MBA career goal is a logical steppingstone to your long-term goal.

Long-term career goals will be the focus of an upcoming article, but I’ll briefly touch on them here, as they are inherently intertwined with your near-term plans.

It’s ok for long-term career goals – where you dream of being 10-15 years down the road – to be less of a sure bet than your target post-MBA role. In fact, they should be both aspirational and inspirational, tying into your core values and passions.

But, while it’s great to dream big, you also need to have a vision of how to get there and this is where your short-term goals come in. The role you target out of business school should set you on the path towards your long-term goal, building the skills you will need for success in your dream career.

A Few Examples…

To help put theory into practice, here are a few strong examples of short-term MBA career goals from past clients:

“My short-term goal is to join the financial institutions or technology group of a leading investment bank, which will provide the valuation and due diligence skills required of a well-rounded investor and enable my long-term goal of investing in growth-stage FinTech companies that foster progress in financial education and decision-making.”

“A post-MBA role in strategy consulting will build upon my deep experience in the education industry and allow me to put the skills gained at [X school] into practice across a wide variety of business challenges, setting me up for success as the founder of an educational technology company.”

Look for an upcoming article on crafting compelling long-term goals! In the meantime, if you would like personalized advice on your post-MBA plans, reach out to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

Katie is a passionate mentor and coach, helping her clients craft a unique, compelling story by leveraging her experience as a corporate executive, alumni interviewer, and campus recruiter. Before completing her MBA at Kellogg, Katie spent five years in banking where she learned practical finance skills as well as how to operate in a demanding, high pressure environment. She pursued an MBA in order to transition to an industry role where she could utilize her finance knowledge to drive change within an organization. Post-MBA, she worked in finance and strategy for a leading CPG firm, progressing to an executive role leading the finance function for a $2B business segment. Her experience managing diverse teams led to a passion for developing others. In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities, she led her firm’s MBA recruiting efforts and served as an alumni admissions interviewer for Kellogg.

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Short-Term and Long-Term Career Goals Essay for MBA Grad

EssayEdge > Blog > Short-Term and Long-Term Career Goals Essay for MBA Grad

Note: This essay appears unedited for instructional purposes. Essays edited by EssayEdge are dramatically improved. For samples of EssayEdge editing, please  click here .

Please discuss your post-MBA short-term and long-term goals. How will your professional experiences, when combined with an MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals?

I was seven when I first visited my mother’s native Taiwan, and the trip was daunting. The sea of people crowding the sidewalks, the cuisine, and the local fashion seemed distant and foreign to me. However, as a teenager I realized that my heritage and love of the region still bound me to the people of Taiwan. Moreover, my work experiences have led me to recognize the numerable opportunities arising from the region’s favorable investment environment. Over time, my travels abroad—and particularly my visits to Taiwan—have helped to shape my goals and aspirations.

At this point in my career, I seek an MBA from The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of business because I believe it will broaden my knowledge of finance, allowing me to explore the new opportunities of the Pacific Rim. More specifically, an MBA from Marshall will help me to achieve my short-term goal of obtaining a corporate finance position in an emerging technology company with interests in Asia. The program will provide a theoretical foundation to complement my previous experiences in financial consulting, derivative risk management, and corporate finance, which will in turn help me fulfill my long-term goal of starting a business venture in the Pacific Rim.

My professional experiences so far have been diverse yet relevant to my ambitions. After graduating from college, I joined the Business Assurance Division of Coopers and Lybrand, where I became responsible for the firm’s highest profile clients and managed projects early in my career. After my first eighteen months there, I was invited to join a select group of ten consultants in the Dispute Analysis and Investigation Group of the Financial Advisory Services line. In this position, I provided advice to clients dealing with complex business problems and disputes. I enjoyed the challenge of adapting to different environments and the opportunity to work with a diverse, intelligent group of people. However, this job was devoid of my true interest: the financial markets.

In the summer of 1997, I accepted a position at Morgan Stanley that would allow me to pursue a career in finance and relocated to New York. Once again, I progressed rapidly. After just a year at the company, I was entrusted with managing the Credit Derivative Trading Finance Group. The products involved in this division are the fastest-growing investment and risk management mechanisms currently used by institutions and traders. Consequently, I was able to work with numerous complex valuations, as well legal, regulatory, and reporting issues. For example, I helped to develop a credit spread option and total return swap pricing model that is currently used by trading personnel. Through my work at Morgan Stanley, I have confirmed my desire to pursue a career in finance; at the same time, my aspirations have broadened considerably. Instead of managing the growth of a business, I now wish to grow my own business.

My short-term goal is to work in a corporate finance position at an emerging technology company in an international setting. I am specifically interested in the technology sector, because—as in the derivative market—change there occurs rapidly. I believe the Pacific Rim, in particular, has the largest market of unmet technological needs. However, it is apparent to me that I must develop additional skills to take on such a responsibility. Whereas I have already accumulated strong financial experiences, I need an additional theoretical base and the opportunity to learn from others in order to make effective decisions across an entire organization, from finance to marketing to sales.

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An MBA from Marshall will provide the additional knowledge base and network to pursue a career in corporate finance. By leveraging my academic and professional experiences, I know I will make the critical financial decisions that will enable a technology company to successfully complete in a global marketplace. At the same time, I will be able to develop the networks crucial to launching a Pacific Rim entrepreneurial venture.

I am confident that I can best achieve my goals through the education provided at Marshall. My desire to attend the school has been strengthened by the experience of my brother Raymond, who is currently in his second year at Marshall. I frequently visit him in Los Angeles, which has given me a chance to tour the campus on several occasions. Through these visits, I have realized that Marshall’s strength in general management and entrepreneurial studies, combined with its focus on the Pacific Rim, exactly mirror my aspirations. These strengths are evident not only in the curriculum, but also in the Prime Program, through which I plan to return to Asia.

Moreover, I am aware that textbooks are not the most critical component of an MBA program; contact with real businesspeople is just as vital. Marshall’s large population of international students and strong alumni base are especially conducive to forming lasting friendships and developing global business ventures. Finally, the school’s proximity to Los Angeles and San Francisco will give me access to one of the largest concentrations of technology companies in the world while allowing me to be closer to my family and friends.

I know that when I return to Asia, my reaction will be very different from when I was a seven-year-old on my first trip to Taiwan. Instead of feeling confused by a radically different environment, I will leverage the education I receive at Marshall to conduct business with the insight of a native resident.

If the chosen essay prompt asks you to describe your goals, this sample can act as a good template. Keep an eye on the organization, word choice, style, and other details to implement it all when writing. EssayEdge offers in-depth MBA essay proofreading. Place an order and impress the admissions committee.

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How to Define Your Goals for Successful MBA Applications

Apr 3, 2023

What makes a goal clear?

How to brainstorm your goals, how should you structure your goals, what should you avoid when defining your goals.

• Get expert help

UPDATE : This post was originally published on March 27, 2020. It has been updated with new tips and information below. 

Admissions committees are looking for applicants who can show that they have considered how to create meaningful and realistic impact – this is the easiest way for them to see whether you will use your spot at their school wisely and purposefully . You want readers to come away thinking, “Wow, this person’s goals are really important!” 

While it is important for you to demonstrate your strengths and capacities, none of this means much to adcoms if those ideas don’t work towards a bigger purpose . That bigger purpose is both what motivates you to pursue your career and also what motivates them to open one of their limited spots for you, so you can go forward and give their school a good reputation.

Considering that you are competing against thousands of others for a selective spot, it’s important that you give a very clear picture of what you want to do with your MBA and how that will make a notable impact. This will be essential in helping you stand out from the other candidates.

Therefore, you must think long and hard about how to communicate your goals as actionable tasks that are solving a specific problem or targeting a certain issue.

Your goals should be clear and focus on an achievement , not just something you’re interested in, as they are your most important argument for your application. 

Clear goals are concrete and specific. Your goals should express exactly what you will do with the degree that your school(s) of choice can provide you. 

For example, “ My goal is to become a leader in tech to drive innovation ” is quite abstract and unclear. In comparison, “ My goal is to become a product development partner at McKinsey, pushing for integration of automation into top financial firms’ systems to ease customer experiences ” paints a vivid picture of what you will be doing in the future.

Good goals are also realistic . If you have strengths in analytics with an engineering background, it doesn’t make sense for you to have a goal relating to employee engagement within the human resources department. Stick with goals that align with your previous experience and strengths (unless you can find a way of justifying a big switch by discussing your lessons learned). 

Similarly, well-formulated goals are actionable . This means that you recognize that you understand your position as an individual, and that large-scale impact will require you to work alongside teams and within networks to achieve change. It doesn’t make sense for you to argue that you will single-handedly solve climate change; however, it is more believable if you say you will lead disruptive transformations that reduce companies’ emissions by integrating a new kind of technology into their production process.

Goals are also clear if they come off as sincere . Showing that you are passionate and motivated about what you want to do will prove to the readers that you will remain driven to achieve your goals in the long run. 

For example, compare “ In the short-term, I want to work in a startup focused on providing accessible housing opportunities, as this is an important issue in my region ” with “I n the short-term, I want to work in a startup with demonstrated impact on housing equality in my region, such as Housing Lives, utilizing my strong negotiations skills to attract long-term angel investors who can ensure that our social impact grows healthily .” 

Not only does the latter example offer more detail, but it shows the reader that you have carefully and deeply thought about the changes you want to make. 

Before you start constructing your goals statement, it will be helpful for you to brainstorm some ideas first. Take some time to sit down with a pen and paper so you can organize your thoughts. Here are some guiding questions to consider:

Think about what motivates you and your strengths : 

• What has been the connecting thread behind your career choices so far? 
• What sparked your interest in your field? 
• What are the main problems that you want to solve in your work? 
• What do you excel at and how can you use this to create change?
• Through which personal or professional achievements have you felt most fulfilled? 

Taking a look at your CV and responding to questions like these will help you think about what will continue to drive you forward post-MBA. 

Contemplate your biggest achievements and lessons learned : 

• What results or impact are you most proud of and why? 
• Is this the kind of impact that you hope to expand in the future? 
• What have you liked and disliked about past jobs?
• How have you made concrete and tangible impact in the past?
• When have you taken the initiative to go above and beyond the scope of your responsibilities?

Think about the things that  you have been able to change in your career so far, and how you might want to bring that forward with you. Make a list of what you would like to be more involved in, what you want to avoid, and why.

Consider your extra-professional interests : 

• What kinds of activities do you engage in during your free time? 
• What do you think is valuable about them, or what contributions have you made? 
• Why are these activities meaningful to you? 

Remember that personal or extra-professional experiences can sometimes be the greatest motivators for your career goals. [EF1] In fact, many candidates we work with discovered what really drives them when they were outside of the office.

All of these questions can help you think about important approaches or achievements that you might want to integrate into your goals statement. 

As you prepare to start writing your essays , we recommend creating both short- and long-term goals. Your short-term goal is what you will start working on immediately after your MBA, usually within around 2-3 years, while “long-term” is anything beyond that time period. 

TOP TIP: Your short-term goal should not be to join an MBA program. The schools want to see what you want to do after graduating from their program. 

Most schools ask you to separate them this way anyway, but even if you are not prompted to do so, it’s a good idea to show that you have an idea of what steps you will take to achieve your bigger objectives. Your short-term goals should align directly with your long-term goals , as if you are climbing a staircase and you must take one step before the next. For each goal:

• Make it clear what problem you are trying to solve or what issue you want to address.

This can inform both your short- and long-term goals – and functions as the foundation behind all of your future career actions. Try to make this as specific as you can. 

For example, some clients discuss their experiences with the limited life prospects that students who cannot afford a private education in Brazil face, which is what informs their goals.

• State what role you want to take on and the company or industry it would be in. 

It is best to state this information explicitly for both your short- and long-term goals. You can also include the main responsibilities you expect to have.

For example, if you want to join a top consulting firm, you should include the name of your target firm and the exact role you hope to take on post-graduation. Examples include: project manager , associate , or client relations consultant .

• Clarify what you want to achieve by leveraging your position.

In the short-term, this could mean either how you want to change the problem/issue you’ve you hope to impact, and/or how you will be further prepared to achieve your long-term goal.

In the long-term, this is the bigger impact or change that you want to make. This should involve something outside of you – a certain change in society, such as improving literacy rates in your country, or promoting a progressive practices like corporate environmental responsibility.

Here are a few examples of good goals that we have seen in the past:

“Currently, incumbent banks in Latin America fail to offer small businesses credit and insurance services, limiting the competitiveness of the market. Post-MBA, I shall take on a product management role at a top Latam fintech. In this role, I will learn how to lead innovation tracks and develop state-of-the-art fintech solutions for a wide range of stakeholders. This will prepare me for my long-term goal of starting a firm focused on financial inclusion for “underbanked” small businesses in Latin America.”

“I aspire to empower women by increasing their access to fertility preservation services. My diligence at FIRM has shown me the lack of low-cost options in the fertility market. I believe that increasing access and destigmatizing fertility preservation would lead more women to gain the flexibility to advance their careers at a time traditionally overtaken by biology. I plan to deepen my operating and investing experience with consumer-facing, distributive healthcare businesses as an operations manager at a growth-oriented healthcare fund. Having gained that experience, I then plan to launch a fertility platform that offers low-cost fertility services.”

Vagueness. Many clients come to us with goals that simply state the industry they want to switch to or the role they want to occupy in the future. However, this does not give the reader an idea of how they will use their MBA. 

If you do not illustrate a clear direction for your career post-MBA, the adcom will not think you are prepared for their school or are just looking for a name on your CV. 

Misaligning your goals with the school . Each school has its own idea of who is a good ‘fit’ for their community, with strengths and unique aspects in different areas. If you focus your goals on an aspect that is not prevalent at the school, the adcom will know that you haven’t done your research and assume that you don’t particularly care about where you go. 

Stating a goal that doesn’t require an MBA . If you already have a business background and want a simple promotion that you could achieve without going back to school, then it’s very unlikely the adcom will make space for you. Make sure you are showing that there are gaps in your skillset or expertise that require aspects of the program you’re applying to if you want to achieve your goals.

After all, you might want to be the first person to live on Mars, but an MBA really can’t help you get there! 

Need guidance on defining your goals?

With a wide range of experiences under your belt, it can be very hard to define a focused path forward. That is what we do best – our expert team can help you organize your thoughts and create the optimal goals formula that combines your strengths and motivations into a compelling statement. 

That’s why 98.9% of our clients secure admissions to at least one of their target schools . 

If you’re interested in working with us, apply to have us support you during your MBA application journey here . 

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Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth – Career Goals, Why Tuck, Why MBA Essay

Why is an mba a critical next step toward your short and long-term career goals.

The accomplishment of my near-term objectives will further facilitate my long term goal (in five years) – which is to identify and provide innovative products/services in the field of consumer finance in emerging economies of South America. I thus plan to establish and operate a full service financial services firm that will offer a range of services suited to these markets.

An M.B.A program at this stage in my career forms the first step towards actualization of my career objectives. While my undergraduate B.B.A degree did equip me well for the objectives at that stage, a global M.B.A from The Tuck School of Business will enable understanding at a cross-functional level of enterprise complexity. More specifically, during the M.B.A program finance is taught through lectures and methodologies that cultivate  “intuition”  – this will contribute immensely for my development as a seasoned professional.

With a sales and customer relations background, knowledge in marketing will help me proceed further beyond “deal-making” and “follow-ups” towards identifying and assessing market opportunities, product positioning, media planning and marketing communications. The case study method of teaching in marketing and other subjects will help me gain deeper insights and assess both strategic and tactical issues. I also hope to equip myself with advanced analytical tools and techniques that will foster managerial efficiency.

Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you?

The M.B.A program at the Tuck School of Business suits my educational objectives from a range of perspectives. The program’s emphasis on leadership makes it a great opportunity to prepare myself for the managing responsibilities in a people-driven financial services industry. The school’s industry centric approach is evident from the multitude of guest speakers – the theme being embedded deep into every course. The Tuck Global Consultancy is yet another medium for quickly applying concepts learnt during the program. The program electives in, often, cutting-edge areas of Marketing (database marketing), Finance (Corporate and private equity finance) and New Ventures – in fact create a concern of choice and time constraints of quality interaction with world-renowned faculty, consultants and industry-leaders.

The Tuck School of Business ranks among the premier, truly global business schools with multiple levels of student diversity and excellence. It thus provides the platform to interact with “The Best of The Best” and grow through a range of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities for a parallel combination of functional and leadership development. The emphasis of fostering win-win situations among students marks a philosophy of long term gain for all those involved. Last but not the least, the School’s distinguished alumni base brings in networking opportunities that could help me find a mentor and also the right venue for growth. It is thus my destination of choice for pursuing an M.B.A program

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Short-Term and Long-Term Goals, Application Essay Example

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When I get my MBA degree, I hope to find a position as Business Development Manager in a reputable digital technology company. Thereafter I aim to advance to the position of Business Development VP in a company of the same type. Finally, my long-term goal is to assume a CEO position of a business unite on the global level where I will manage thousands of employees, generating annual revenues of millions of dollars.

As an Assistant to Head of Digital Marketing at ITP Publishing, I had an opportunity to effectively work with the Head who is a New York University MBA graduate. Since then, I have been inspired by his success and achievements. I found his experience similar to my career goals. Also, hearing about his New York University experiences led me to seriously consider the Part-Time MBA program at New York University as my next career step.

My discussions with New York University MBA alumni and students have helped me to realize that in order to successfully pursue and advance in my career in Business Development Management, I need to professionally grow in four major areas: operations management theory, the global economy, leadership in organizations, and hands-on experience. Having spoken with NYU MBA students, I got convinced that Part-Time MBA at NYU is the best way to achieve these short-term goals. Needless to say, after this, I will be able to pursue my long-term career goals. In addition, I hope that MBA at NYU will help me utilize knowledge gained at the University of San Francisco, CA through their multidisciplinary approach in teaching. Thus, my short-term goal is to create as much potential as possible for attaining my long-term goals in future.

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Question on short-term / long-term goals essays

I'm applying to several M7 deferral programs, and I've read that for the 'short-term and long-term goals / why [school]' essays you should mention specific firms/companies you might want to work for post-MBA. This seems a little weird to me so I was just wondering if anyone can corroborate if this is good advice or not?

Career Goals for MBA Aspirant – With Examples

Written by   piyush bhartiya , mba.

The career can shape well for an MBA aspirant since they open up different avenues for oneself and hence become active in different levels of life. Earlier when the student was just restricted to only one specific sector which was the graduating area of that particular student had now become a vast area to pick from in terms of a job.

MBA gives the opportunities to work towards the aspirations which were that reversed up until now.

Check Out: Career Counseling- The Complete Guide

Table of Contents

How To Write Career Goals For MBA Aspirant In 150 Words

Career goals writing for an MBA aspirant is not that difficult as one needs to focus certain basic aspects when writing an essay for the career goals. One may list down things that show the individual’s desires and needs.

Important things to keep in mind when writing an essay are as follows:

• Essay to talk about short and long term goals
• Explain the significance of the goals in your life
• Education specific content
• Do not write about the institute
• Do not talk about how you wish to be in a school due to the ranking 
• Why do you want to take up MBA
• Stop being vague 
• Do not beat around the bush
• Make the essay short and sweet
• To the point

Career goal for MBA aspirant in 150 words

There are various manners by which you can write an MBA essay in 150 words. You can decide to be course-explicit, industry-explicit or position-explicit. The stunt with each way that you approach the inquiry is that you assemble your answer such that supports your contention of how the particular thing will assist you with accomplishing your long haul objectives.

In the event that you are composing with the particular course you wish to think about as the main priority, it is imperative to tell the college how that course from their college will assist you with accomplishing your objectives. You can likewise decide to make reference to how a particular employee from the college can be instrumental in your development.

In the event that you are being industry-explicit or position-explicit, it is significant that those 150 words include why you wish to work in that particular industry or at that particular position and how the school you are picking will help that improvement and how, at last, the entirety of this will signify your expert development and direction.

Check Out: Career Growth: An overview

Essentials that should be Include

When writing MBA applicant career objectives, there are a few things to bear in mind, which might range from mentioning the preferred field to constructing a career plan. Let’s start with the fundamentals you’ll need to include in your professional goals:

• Write about your particular domain and sector, highlighting why you wish to work in it.
• Particular Positions: After you’ve specified your industry, you’ll want to describe the type of profession you wish to pursue.
• Connection to Your Academic and Professional Records: When drafting MBA career objectives, it’s critical to connect your academic and professional milestones to your ambitions in order to sketch out your career path.
• Connect your stated aims to your career goals and explain how you expect to achieve them through this degree.

Tips for Writing Short Term and Long Term Goals for MBA

• While it is crucial to discuss your industry, don’t go overboard and make the essay concise and logical.
• Underline why these specific goals are essential among the questions to answer in career goals for MBA aspirants.
• When and how were they conceived?
• What previous experiences/events have convinced you that your objectives are achievable?
• Also, describe how significant the goals are in your life.

This will make your essay more fascinating and personal.

Tips for Career Goals for MBA Essay

Because professional objectives will play an important part in your MBA essay in 150 words, it’s critical to understand how to combine them effectively. Here are some pointers on how to write the finest short- and long-term objectives for your MBA essay:

• Mention the primary career objectives you hope to achieve after earning your MBA.

This will cover your short- and long-term professional goals following your MBA, and it is critical to be clear and place a strong focus on presenting a career map of what you hope to achieve. You should describe the sector you want to work in, the employment position you want, and how you plan to move up the corporate ladder in the future.

• Concisely comment upon why these aims are essential to you

In your MBA essay, demonstrating your interest and enthusiasm for your short and long term goals will also help you impress the admissions committee. Give a unique and compelling rationale for why you want to pursue a certain sector or employment role, and tie it in with the MBA programme you’ve chosen!

• Make it unique to the educational institution.

Another important element to include in your career ambitions for MBA aspirants in 150 words is to link your content to the school/college/university you are applying to, as this will assist the admission committee in determining your interest in going to that institution.

Example For Career Goal For MBA Aspirant In 150 Words

I wish to seek after an MBA in (specialization) from your regarded foundation since I emphatically accept that the course instructed by (the particular educator) will give me a powerful learning experience, which will assist me with getting knowledgeable with the basics accentuated in the course offered by your college. This far-reaching course offered by your college is notable for giving the basic range of abilities that will assist me with turning into a worldwide pioneer in the business. I emphatically accept that my past experience as (professional training) in the business has prepared me well for seeking after this course and that the earth and introduction gave by your college will assist me with duplicating my system and amplify my latent capacity. My long haul objective is to make a reasonable imprint in the business that guides the general advancement of society and that permission to your college will be a significant advance on that voyage.

Check Out: Career Guidance- The Free Expert Advice

My long haul objective is to verify the situation of a senior (work position) director in an organization that takes into account the business needs. My yearning is to make a huge effect in a dynamic and consistently changing industry and to propel the improvement and development of such an organization. I emphatically accept that seeking after an MBA degree in (specialization assuming any) from your college will assist me with building up a range of abilities that will be instrumental in both my own and expert development. I accept that through the length of the course I will be furnished with plentiful chances to reinforce my authority and authoritative abilities and they will assist me with adding to the business. I likewise accept that seeking after this course from your college will assist me with understanding my long haul objectives and over the long run assist me with adding to society’s advancement all in all.

Ans. Here are the career goals for MBA: 1. Thinking about specific positions 2. Creating connections 3. Different career plan 4. Rich, popular, or both in the long term 5. Starting own business

Ans. The career goals examples could be: 1. Developing networking skills 2. Switch career which is good for you 3. Getting a promotion 4. Becoming an expert in your field 5. Finding a leadership position 6. Getting a degree or certificate

Ans. The 5 SMART ( Specific ,  Measurable , Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) on which all your focus should be.

Ans. Here are the top 3 career goals: 1. Increase your knowledge in the specific field 2. Learn how to make money 3. Increase work processes or relationships

About the Author & Expert

Piyush Bhartiya

Piyush values education and has studied from the top institutes of iit roorkee, iim bangalore, kth sweden and tsinghua university in china. post completing his mba, he has worked with the world's # 1 consulting firm, the boston consulting group and focused on building sales and marketing verticals for top mncs and indian business houses., related posts.

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Interview Questions

Comprehensive Interview Guide: 60+ Professions Explored in Detail

Example Answers to “What Are Your Career Goals?”

By Biron Clark

Published: December 5, 2023

“What are your career goals?” is a common question you’ll hear in many interviews. And you need to prepare an answer because employers ALWAYS prefer to hire someone who can show they’re goal-oriented and have long-term objectives in their career.

There are also a couple of big mistakes you need to avoid when you describe your career goals in an interview, so we’ll cover how to avoid those mistakes, too.

Let’s get started…

What are Career Goals?

Career goals describe where you’d like to be, what you’d like to experience, and what you’d like to achieve in your professional life over the upcoming one to five years – or more. 

Long-term career goals are made up of a series of short and mid-term goals that act as steps or building blocks toward that greater professional goal. The role you’re applying for should act as a relevant step toward the career goal described in your interview.

Solid (and relevant) career goals are considered a big plus to interviewers and hiring managers, because they keep you organized, active, motivated and focused on the task at hand – all qualities a savvy employer looks for in a new recruit.

Make Sure You Have SMART Goals

Career goals are only useful when they’re SMART . That is Specific , Measurable , Achievable , Relevant and Time-bound . Unless your career goals are SMART , the chances are they’re only dreams. 

Imagine your Specific long-term career goal is to advance to a leadership position in your new product design job. The goal is Time-bound by the company’s yearly promotion cycle and, to Achieve it, you’ll need to plot Measurable short and mid-term goals that are 100% Relevant to the overall goal. 

These sub-goals might include upskilling, leading a small team to gain experience, innovating a new product, and getting noticed as a candidate for promotion.

Watch: How to Answer “What Are Your Career Goals?”

Why employers ask this interview question.

When the company asks an interview question like, “What are your career goals?” they want to know if this job will hold your interest in the short term and potentially long term! (Companies love to hire people who will stay with the company for years and grow/advance).

Companies don’t want to hire you for a role that isn’t bringing you toward your professional aspirations because you’ll be less motivated and more likely to leave the job quickly.

It’s okay if a job doesn’t meet everything you’re looking for in your career. For example, you can say that you eventually aspire to take a leadership position, even if you’re not being considered for a leadership role in this interview.

But then, in your interview answer, you’d want to show how this job is bringing you closer to those future plans/goals. You can do this by ending your answer by saying something like:

…So I was excited to apply for this role because on the job description, I saw a few responsibilities and skills related to leadership, such as training new team members. That’s something I’ve been eager to start doing.

I’ll share some full word-for-word sample answers coming up soon.

How to Answer “What Are Your Career Goals?”

You always want to seem goal oriented, so it’s not a good idea to say, “I’m not sure” or “I haven’t thought about that.” That’s NOT going to impress hiring managers. But you also need to make sure the career goals you mention fit into the job you’ve applied for.

Here’s how this can hurt you if not:

Imagine you’re interviewing for a customer service position. And the hiring manager asks about your long-term career goals. If you say, “My goal is to move out of customer service and find a role that doesn’t involve working with customers as much. I prefer to work behind the scenes,” then the hiring manager is NOT going to hire you for their job. Employers want to hire someone who really wants this specific job, because then you’re more likely to be motivated , have a great attitude, etc.  So prepare a few goals and aspirations you can talk about, but make sure your goals fit with the job you’re interviewing for. Otherwise, adjust the goals you plan on talking about for the interview. Be strategic and think about what’s going to get you hired for the job you want, and don’t say anything that suggests you’ll be bored, frustrated, or want to leave this job quickly.

One more note: Just like with the question “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” you’re not expected to be able to predict the future accurately. Nobody’s going to check on you in two years and see if you’re following what you said in a few years.

Hiring managers just want to see what your interests are and whether you’ve thought about this at all.  And they want to make sure they’re not hiring someone who’s going to be bored in their job. That’s why employers ask questions about your long-term career goals and ambitions in an interview, and how to answer.

“What Are Your Career Goals?” Example Answers

Now that you know how to answer questions about your career goals in the interview, let’s look at some word-for-word example answers.  First is an example of an entry-level job seeker. After that, we’ll go through an example for job seekers with more experience.

Entry-Level Example Answer to “What Are Your Career Goals?”

I just graduated with my degree in Finance , and I’m excited to get my first position in the industry, now. My longer-term goals are to learn a variety of areas within the field of finance and work toward deciding what area of specialization I want to take. I’d love to become an expert in one specific field of finance in the long term, but I know the first step is to build a solid foundation and learn the basics in an entry-level role. I saw this job offers exposure to a variety of areas, which is something I liked.

Notice that the end of this example answer includes a line about why their particular job interests you . This is a great tactic you can use with a variety of your interview answers . Answer their question, but then conclude by putting the focus back on their job and why you want this position! Most job seekers don’t do this. You’ll really stand out with this tactic and put their mind at ease that you’ll love their job. (Employers are REALLY scared of hiring someone who won’t love the job, even if you have the necessary experience. Because it costs a lot of time/money/energy to hire and train someone, and that’s all lost if you leave in the first year).

Mid-Level Example Answer to “What Are Your Career Goals?”

My goal for many years was to become a Manager. I achieved that last year. Now as I look forward in my career, I’d like to build and manage larger teams and continue advancing as a leader. I’ve found I really enjoy mentoring and leading a team, even more than I enjoyed working as an individual contributor earlier in my career. When I saw your job description mentions a chance to hire and lead a team of five, I knew I should apply.

Again, this sample answer for “what are your career goals?” does a lot more than just answering the basic question. You start by mentioning a past achievement, then you answer the question, and then you mention what you saw in their specific job that excited you. This is a great formula to follow when answering this question as a mid-level or senior-level job seeker.

Senior/Executive-Level Answer Example

My career goal right now is to take the leadership and management experience I’ve obtained over the past 12 years and transition into a Fortune-500 company. I feel this would provide a new challenge and bring out the best in my abilities at the same time. I’ve excelled most in roles where I was involved in cross-functional team leadership involving multiple departments, and I feel this is something I’ll gain more exposure to in a Fortune-500 firm. I saw on your job description that this is mentioned as a part of the role here. Can you tell me more about that?

Ending your job interview answer with a question directed back at the hiring manager is a great way to make the interview more conversational. Try to do this at least a few times, instead of just answering a question and then waiting for the next question. This can be a real game-changer in your interviews in terms of the flow and how confident you feel and appear.

Short Term vs. Long Term Career Goals

When you’re asked interview questions about your professional goals, you’ll need to decide how far in the future to discuss. Should you share a career goal that’s ten years in the future? One year? Or something in between. I recommend discussing your career goals in a two to five year timeframe. That shows ambition and shows that you’ve thought about your long-term career, but at the same time, those goals aren’t so far out that you can’t discuss exactly how you’ll achieve them.

You want to be able to talk about how you’ll reach your goals, through personal development and professional improvement. And that becomes hard to do if you’re talking about your goals a decade from now. You don’t want to name a goal like becoming a CEO , when you’ve never held any leadership positions. It’ll just seem like you’re hoping rather than aiming. So as you share your own goals, I recommend picking a career goal that’s a few years out. Not too short-term, but not too far away.

Let’s take a look at some career goals ranging from short – long term:

• Short-term career goals: 
• developing professionally with design, leadership and skills certifications
• gaining experience by leading a small team on quarterly assignments. 
• innovating great new products with your team each quarter
• establishing  more efficient work processes as you go 
• being commended as an effective team leader at the end of every quarter
• becoming the prime candidate for that sought-after leadership role by the end of the year.
• Long-term career goals: 
• getting hired as department leader managing four small teams.

Mistakes to Avoid When Answering

There are a couple of costly mistakes you should avoid when you describe your career goals in a job interview.

• First, I recommend not sharing anything that will seem like a threat to the company or make them worry that you won’t stay for long in their job. For example, if you’re interviewing at a company in the healthcare industry, don’t say your goal involves switching careers and joining the tech industry. That’s just going to leave the hiring manager wondering why you even took the interview for their position. For this same reason, I don’t recommend saying, “my career goal is to have my own business in the near future.”
• Keep personal goals like that private. I think it’s a great goal. I quit the corporate world to do that myself. But if your future career goals involve quitting and leaving this potential employer, don’t say so when answering this interview question.
•  And one more mistake as you answer interview questions about your goals: Don’t use humor or make a joke . For example, don’t tell the hiring manager, “My goal is to have your job.” This is a serious interview question and you’re going to do better in your job search if you respond with a thoughtful, serious answer that shows you’re goal-focused and motivated.

Answering “What Are Your Career Goals?” – Quick Review

• Never say you don’t have any goals or haven’t thought about it
• Always share a goal that’s at least somewhat related to the job you’ve applied for
• Start your answer by explaining your current situation and what you accomplished previously in your career
• Next, explain your future career goals and how you plan to achieve them
• Conclude by telling the interviewer what interested you in their particular job (based on the job description) – make sure they can see how their job fits into your bigger career goals

If you follow the advice above, you’ll give a great answer when interviewers ask about your long term career goals and objectives. You’ll show them that you’re someone who has long-term aspirations and plans and they’ll love to see this.

You’ll also show them why their job interests you, which tells them you’ll be motivated and work hard. This makes them FAR more likely to offer you the position than someone who can’t clearly explain their career goals and how those goals fit into this job they’re discussing.

About the Author

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Thanks for a great article, really learnt a lot.

Quick question though;

1.To what extent should i keep talking about my goal?

2. Should i bring personal issues if the case arises?

Comments are closed.

15 Examples of Long-Term Career Goals Worth Striving For

By: Author Michelle Ioannou

Posted on Last updated: February 2, 2024

Categories Career , Productivity

It’s the beginning of the year. It’s a fresh start. It’s the perfect time for goal setting! Hence the whole New Year’s Resolutions thing.

For most of us, we have some professional milestones as part of our resolutions. We probably already know what we want to accomplish this year and what can feasibly be done in a year. That’s great! But what about beyond that?

It may be hard to think about our future career path – but let’s be honest with ourselves – we are quite far from retirement age. This means we have decades of work ahead of us. Yes, that’s daunting. But it also means that we should be thinking about the long-term and setting professional goals for beyond just this year. We should be thinking of what we want to achieve professionally five years from now, ten years from now, and so on.

Some professional milestones also take time and frankly just can’t be done in a year. It’s important to think about those too if you want to excel and grow in your career.

What are long-term career goals?

These are the things that you want to achieve in the future, not in the short-term. They either shouldn’t or actually can’t be completed right now as they need more time to accomplish.

Long-term career goals also typically consist of a few smaller career goals that help your reach this greater accomplishment.

Don’t forget to celebrate and acknowledge the smaller goals as you hit them, as it’ll remind you that you are on the right path and help motivate you into completing the long-term career goal.

Yes, we get it, this is all overwhelming. Take a deep breath, and we’re here to help you out. Here are some long-term goal examples for work that you may want to add to your goal list, too.

15 Examples of Long-Term Career Goals

Increasing your salary.

We all want more money, don’t we? Increasing our salaries is the number one goal of workers. Sure, you may get an annual raise, but a lot of time, that’s typically a cost of living increase rather than a big raise. One sad reality of gaining a higher salary is that it usually takes time to happen.

This is because you need to prove yourself, make a business case for yourself, and showcase all of your accomplishments. Employers aren’t just going to give you a raise because you want one – you are going to need to prove to them that you deserve one. And you can prove that by sharing with them all of the smaller wins you have achieved.

Getting a Promotion

This tends to go hand-in-hand with a higher salary. When you get a promotion, you typically do always get a higher salary. But you can increase your salary without getting a promotion – and, unfortunately, vice versa. But let’s not dwell on that.

Getting promoted, especially into a leadership position is another great goal. A leadership role offers great opportunities in your professional career to get your out of your comfort zone, move you up the corporate ladder, and develop new skills. Again, it’s something that takes time. Start by seeing if there’s a small team or project you can lead at work.

Start Mentoring

Becoming a mentor is probably one of the most fulfilling things you can do with your professional life, which is why it’s such a common long-term goal. Sure, you can easily start chatting with a new colleague or a younger professional any day, but actually building that relationship and seeing your efforts and advice taking shape takes time.

Not only are you giving back and helping others who are probably in a position you once were in, but you are also taking a good step into the world of leadership. Yes, mentoring can give you very good practice in leadership.

Having a Strong Executive Presence

If you have no desire to become a manager… we get it. There are so many articles out there right now about how being a manager isn’t appealing to the younger working generations. That’s fine, but even if that’s something that you don’t want as part of your long-term career goals, you should still have having a strong executive presence as one.

What does this mean? It’s the goal of having the same qualities that leaders have – such as emotional intelligence, self-confidence, and being great decision makers – without the whole needing to manager people think. Having executive presence will help you stand out in the workplace, and it’s good skills to have in your personal life, too.

Becoming a Thought Leader

We all go on LinkedIn and see these great posts from thought leaders. You may have even thought to yourself “wow, they really know what they’re talking about”. They do – and you can too! Thought leaders are found within every industry, and nowadays, also on every social media platform.

A bunch of short-term goals will help you get there. Make it a short-term goal to post on LinkedIn more or to speak at a conference or lead a meeting. Then make longer term goals to publish articles or earn a professional degrees. All of these things will give you the validation of becoming a thought leader.

Developing Your Skills

No matter where you are in life, you should always want to learn and grow. Continuing to develop your skills will help you get that promotion and pay raise. If you want to venture into a new field entirely, it will also help you with that.

Take workshops and classes. Take advantage of any professional development opportunities that your employer may offer. Developing your skills doesn’t happen overnight. You will need to put in the work to master them, but once you do, it will be worth it.

Make it one of your short-term career goals to learn a new skill every six months. It’s a good idea to focus on skill building that will benefit you such as new technology, leadership skills, communication skills, or a hard skill that will benefit the long-term vision for your career. Having specific goals for your short term action plan will benefit your long-term goal setting as well.

Building a Strong Professional Network

Yes, this is something that you can work on short-term, easily. But to create that wide net of contacts, you need to spend time cultivating and growing the relationships.

This network is meant to be your go-to resource to help you find new opportunities, continuing to learn, getting reference, and so on.

Your professional network is who you lean on if something happens, such as mass layoffs. Having a strong professional network is key and not something that should be overlooked. Best practices in networking are to attend a monthly event and stay in touch every 6-8 months at least.

Starting Your Own Business

A lot of the people who end up starting their own business once worked for someone else. These people took the things that they learned in those jobs, took note of what worked and what didn’t work, and used all that knowledge into starting their own business.

It’s not something you should just jump into – it’s something that takes time, planning, and preparation. If you’re not sure if you’ll ever want to take the plunge into leaving a steady job and starting your own business, try starting a side hustle first. See if you can get that to grow.

You never know where it may take you! And let’s be honest, in today’s economy, having more than one stream of income should be a goal for all of us.

Earning Another Degree

This goal may not be for everyone, but it’s important to mention, especially as depending on the career you’ve chosen, you may need to earn a higher degree. You can pursue one that supplements your current degree. Or maybe you’re not as happy with the path you’ve chosen as you thought you’d be and you want to explore something else.

You can pursue a degree in a different area. If you want to earn another degree while working, see if your employer offers any sort of tuition reimbursement program. Also, be transparent with your manager and see if they can offer you any flexibility. If not, find online degree programs, take evening classes, or take a sabbatical from work.

Earning Another Certificate

If the thought of earning another degree seems absolutely daunting, you can still further yourself professional without that higher degree (just make sure first that one isn’t mandatory for the field you’re in!). Instead of going for a degree, make it a long-term goal to earn another certificate.

This should be a high-level professional certification within the field that you’re working in. Look at your company and see if they offer any opportunities to receive such certifications. Also chat with your manager, as a lot of times earning such certificates will help you achieve a pay raise, too.

A good starting point is to look at the LinkedIn profiles of the positive you would like to grow into and see what certificates they have or online courses they have taken and follow a similar path.

Working For Your Favorite Company

Some people hit the jackpot when graduating and immediately get to work for their dream company. More times than not, this isn’t a reality. But that doesn’t mean that it’s unrealistic! If you’re not currently working at your favorite company, make it a long-term goal to get there one day.

Learn as much as you can in your current company. Network as much as you can with anyone – especially those who work for your favorite company. Make a name for yourself. Continue to check if that company has openings in your field. And when they do, apply.

Getting To Travel

Has your dream job always involve traveling? Just because you may not be traveling for work now doesn’t mean that you can’t be in the future. Take note of your current environment. Are senior leaders the ones who get to travel? If so, talk with them and see how they worked their way to the world of business travel.

If you’re at a company where there is no business travel, learn as much as you can from the company, and then take that knowledge to another company where there is business travel.

Not only is business travel fun and exciting, but it can give you exposure outside of your office, which is great for building up your professional brand and for building a stronger and larger professional network.

Winning Awards

Most companies and industries have some sort of recognition program. For instance, I once worked for a company where if you won a CEO award, you were not only recognized to all colleagues both nationally and internationally, but you also were allotted a certain amount of stock in the company.

Putting this on your long-term career goal list is a nice supplement. Not only will it validate all of the hard work that you are doing, but it will also help you get your name out there and it may even give you a nice financial perk, too.

If you win an industry award, you are getting your name and work ethic out to an even broader networking. This could lead to a lot of new opportunities – once you may not have even considered previously.

Managing Time Better

This may seem as though it’s a short-term goal, but it’s really not. Time management takes time! Having strong time management skills will allow you to better manage your calendar, know what your priorities are, and have a better work-life balance. It’s something that can take trial and error to figure out, but once you do, you’ll be feeling a lot less stressed and a lot more productive .

Retiring Comfortably

This is the longest of the long-term career goals, isn’t it? It’s end-goal for sure. But you don’t want to just retire, you want to have enough saved so that you can retire without worrying. Take steps throughout your career to make sure you are saving.

Enroll in your company’s 401K and make sure that you are putting in enough to get whatever match they offer. Retirement may seem far away, but it’s so important to start thinking about it, and preparing for it, from now. Retirement planning should be one your most important financial goals as a young professional.

Why Is It Important To Set Long-Term Career Goals?

Setting long-term career goals is crucial for providing a sense of purpose, direction, and motivation in one’s professional journey. These goals serve as a roadmap, guiding individuals toward a vision of their desired future and helping them stay focused on what truly matters in their careers.

Long-term goals enable individuals to make informed decisions about education, skill development, and job choices, ensuring a trajectory that aligns with their aspirations. They act as a source of motivation, encouraging perseverance in the face of challenges.

Moreover, having clear long-term goals facilitates effective time management, allowing individuals to prioritize tasks and allocate resources efficiently. This intentional approach to career planning fosters continuous learning, personal growth, and a proactive mindset, enhancing job satisfaction and fulfillment throughout one’s professional life and in your personal development .

Setting Career Goals as SMART Goals in the SMART Framework

Setting career goals within the SMART framework involves making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

The first step is to begin by defining clear and precise objectives, specifying what you want to achieve and why. Ensure your goals are measurable, allowing you to track progress objectively.

Make them achievable by setting realistic targets aligned with your skills and resources with long-term objectives. Ensure relevance by connecting your goals to your broader career aspirations.

Lastly, set a timeframe for achieving each goal, creating a sense of urgency and providing a structured timeline for your professional development.

Summing Up Our Final Thoughts On Setting Long-Term Career Goals

There are a lot of long-term career goals out there but the above are some of the biggest ones for you to want to consider. You may have noticed that a lot of these goals intertwine – by accomplishing one of them, you are already beginning to work on another.

That’s not coincidence – that’s how it works! You are embarking on the right path, one to professional success. Let this new year be the start of that! Start taking the steps now to get to these long-term goals. In five, ten, fifteen years, you will be happy that you started now.

About the Author

Michelle graduated from Fordham University with a Bachelors of Arts '13 and a Master of Arts '14. She's currently working in corporate America with a side of freelance writing. She wants you to learn from her experiences and mistakes so your 20s can be your best decade. When she's not working, she's likely planning her escape to a tropical island.

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