2 My next steps
Throughout this course, you’ve been exploring what an internship is and how this or another form of work experience can benefit you. In Week 6, you looked at the value of setting goals for your work experience. This week, you’ll take those goals and break them down into actions.
Table 1 and Table 2 show one way of breaking down each of your goals and recording the outcomes of your actions. In both cases, the person has secured some work experience and has set a goal to achieve during that period.
| Goal | To find out more about the sector and whether it is right for me |
|---|---|
Current status:
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| Development/training/knowledge needed to reach my goal | I need to find out as much as possible during my internship. |
| Action plan |
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| Outcome | I have a useful set of questions that I’ve committed to memory so I can ask them whenever appropriate, and I’ve joined a social group within the organisation that meets up every Thursday evening. |
| Evaluation | I’m currently noting anything useful I learn in a journal that I’ve bought specifically for this internship. I try to do this every day. |
| Next step | I’m attending a professional conference in August where I’ll be able to talk to others across the sector. |
| Goal | To develop my self-awareness during my work experience |
|---|---|
Current status:
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| Development/training/knowledge needed to reach my goal | I’d like to find a mentor who could give me feedback. |
| Action plan |
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| Outcome | My line manager has suggested an experienced mentor who would be happy to work with me. We are meeting for the first time next week. |
| Evaluation | The person who has been suggested sounds great. They started off doing work experience here too and they have mentored several new staff. |
| Next step | Think about how I can make the most of this mentoring relationship and be clear about what I need help with in our first meeting. Spend some time after our conversation reflecting on its value. |
Now it’s your turn!
Activity 2 Achieving my goals
Choose up to three of your goals that you have identified during this course (look back to Activity 1 of Week 6 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] if you need a reminder). Then use the template below to set your goals, reflect on where you are now and identify appropriate actions. If your workplace has a template that is used to support performance review processes etc., use that if you prefer. You can come back to the Outcome, Evaluation and Next Step sections when you’re ready.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | |||
Current status:
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|||
| Development/training/knowledge needed to reach my goal | |||
| Action plan | |||
| Outcome | |||
| Evaluation | |||
| Next step |
Discussion
If you have identified more than one goal in this activity, your next step should be to prioritise your action plans. Which goal will you work towards first? Are they actually sequential goals or can you do them alongside each other? Make sure you don’t take on too much alongside your day job – if you don’t achieve all your goals this can be a negative experience.
You should now have a set of SMART goals and an action plan for achieving them.
The goals you have focused on in this course are specifically about your work experience and what you want to gain from it. However, you could also use these goal setting techniques to think about your career aims in the longer term. In that scenario, work experience would be one of the steps towards achieving those aims.
Most people experience rejection in the job application process at some point during their careers. In the next section, you’ll consider what happens when you are rejected. Although it might seem like a failure to meet your goals, it can actually be a useful step towards them.