SMART goal setting

Background

Goal setting is a helpful way to build the career you want. By setting objectives and creating a clear roadmap for how you’ll reach your intended target, you can decide how to apply your time and resources to make progress. Without goals, it can be difficult to determine how to get a certain job, promotion or other milestones you want to achieve.

This is a fundamental skill to outline what are the steps required towards reaching a desired goal or milestone. In particular with SMART goals, you are creating action points that focus on how you can actively work towards the end-goal. As such, you ensure that your goals will be:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-based

What this helps to guarantee is then that your goal is actually REALISTIC and can happen. Following the structure of SMART goals therefore gives you a clearer picture of how you can utilise your time and resources to achieve something effectively.

What's more, SMART goals are not only beneficial for individual goals, but also help steer members towards making progress on a common team goal.

Why set SMART goals?

1. Goals provoke behaviour.

2. Goals help to guide your focus.

3. Goals sustain momentum.

4. Goals help you to align your behaviour with the bigger picture.

5. Goal setting is essential for self-leadership.

6. Sharing your goals with others contributes to increased accountability.

Developing SMART Goals

Complete two Microsoft virtual internships with InsideSherpa by doing at least two modules every week for two hours (restricting time spent using a timer) before the 16th of August.

Note: I can measure this too through GitHub using my commit history

Reflection

The model work seems more focused and intent on the end-goal in mind; working on Microsoft. My intent is the same yet the model answer elaborates on certain aspects of Microsoft where they can learn from completing this virtual internship. Moreover, there is a sense of responsibility that can be seen with the amount of effort they want to put in as well as their resolve to complete the program, even mentioning they will resort to asking for help if needed. Furthermore, their end statement provides more details on how they will spend their time on the virtual internship - not just completing the tasks but also spending at minimum an hour to review the model answers.

Compared to my own goal, I feel like perhaps I could elaborate more on how I spend my time so I have a clear idea of what I'm doing (like x time for doing y time for writing). Moreover, outlining what areas of knowledge I need to fill on Microsoft is something I can do to be more specific and focused in what I want to learn and get out of the program.