What Is Career Goals Essay
Career goals essay may seem a far-fetched genre for school students but consider the following. When you need to apply for a scholarship, you have to prove that the funding will not be wasted on you and that you know for sure how you will apply the knowledge you acquired. This is where clear cut career essay steps in. It is a bit different from a motivation letter in that it focuses precisely on your academic path and its continuation through occupation. So, you speak of where you have already studied, where you study and where you plan to study because you want to become a rocket scientist, for example. If you have this plan readied, you will easily put it down on paper and show the scholarship or admission committee that you are the one.
Where do goals setting step in here? Well, you want to study at a given institution because it will enable you to become a real professional in a chosen field, and this field (and position) is your actual goal. Yes, it begins with your childhood dreams and ends with the definition and accomplishable educational path. Now you have a clue where to begin. Let’s have a closer look at the writing process.
Planning The Essay
Before you start writing, brainstorm your topic, and use these prompts as a guide:
- Who I want to be;
- Where I want to be in 5 or 10 years;
- What my career goals are (position, experience, place of work, who/what I will work with, etc.);
- What life events made me choose these goals;
- What education I have under my belt;
- What education I need;
- What accomplishments I have to speak of;
- What skills/experience I will get;
- What difference I will make in the world.
After you have answered these questions, you end up with a kind of outline for your essay.
Now you are ready to start drafting.
Writing The Career Goals Essay
To complete a cool essay, follow our guide in writing. Create each mentioned section carefully and take tips to improve your writing and include everything necessary for a compelling paper.
Drafting Process
Paragraph 1. This is an intro and the first paragraph at once. Outline the area where you plan to build your career and put forward a thesis. That is, what you want to be and why.
Paragraph 2. Explain why you chose the given path, who/what pushed you in this direction. If the essay is expected to be really brief, merge paragraphs 1 and 2 into one.
Paragraph 3. Explain where you began and what you have managed to achieve so far. Transit to short term goals (education) and how they will help you.
Paragraph 4. Long term goals and your career. If you are not sure, speak about the greater good you want to contribute to. It also works well, if you know for sure what you want to do. Mention how the scholarship or internship you apply for will help you.
Paragraph 5. Conclusion. Sum everything up and say that you are ready for an interview, or to provide additional documents. In other words, show that you are ready to cooperate.
Writing Tips
- If you plan to win a scholarship, focus on showing how your career goals and education match the scholarship goals. We do not advise you to tell lies (it will always come to the surface). Most probably, if you apply for given funding, you already know how it will help you in your learning. So, show it clearly. Like, with this grant, you will be financially capable of taking an internship in some large research hospital and learning to develop vaccines or medications against severe diseases. Sounds great, indeed.
- Mention exact career goals. If you want to become a doctor or a tech guru, say it. Mention what steps you will take and how they will lead you to our goal. The clearer a plan is, the higher the chances to impress the committee (and get funding).
- Tie your education to your career. If you want to become a techie, do not say that you will go and apply to Google at once. It’s unreasonable. But if you say that with the help of scholarship you will study at MIT and then apply to big companies in the hope of making the digital world better, it will sound more persuasively.
- Choose the most important goal among the goals you have and speak of them. If you disperse your attention on too many targets, you will focus on none. The committee members are experienced enough to know it.
- No, clichés, please. Speak about yourself, the specific person with specific views and talents. It is your aspirations and goals that will make your plan work. Show them.
- Do not be afraid to mention your accomplishments so far. They show how serious you are on your track and work to your benefit in the essay. Just do not forget to say that the education you want to get will make you even better (in addition to everything already mentioned).
- Offer solutions and lessons you learned. The people reading your career goals essay are interested in how you win, not how you lose, and complain about it. Whenever you list your failure, be sure to connect it to how you became stronger and more persevering on your career path.
- And yes, our regular tip. Proofread and then again proofread. And ask someone to read your creation. Maybe you will draw even more creative ideas form their feedback.
Sample Career Goals Essay
Now getting closer to the practical side. Here is a template you can use for your own writing.
The gaming industry is considered lighthearted, purely entertaining, and even harmful (when it goes about addictive gaming). Yet, at the same time, games used in educational programs boost interest and learning activity in kids and help them deeply engage in subjects that seemed boring and unnecessary before. As a former student who did not like school but liked algorithms and strategies, I myself can testify to how enriching/educating games can overturn the idea of learning, and so I want to create games that will help kids love discovering the world.
I finished school with high grades in Math and Computer Science, but it was only the beginning of my quest. I took a summer internship with our local mobile app developing company and attained the skills of a junior developer. Yet my ultimate dream and ambition are to become a game developer, either at ABC Gaming company or with my own startup. I already have games projects that raise interest in potential users, yet I need technical skills to start developing games from scratch according to my vision and with the intention of creating excellent learning tools, not just another app to play for an hour and delete for good.
To accomplish my short-term career goals, that is, to acquire the necessary education, I need to study at MIT (Algorithms and AI Major, with selected courses in Education). Their base of knowledge and practical opportunities are immense, and I know that with their education, I will move mountains. I need the scholarship to pay tuition and to cover the living expenses partially. The rest of the expenses I will cover myself.
During my studies, I am ready to volunteer at schools and at tech companies that provide services to educational institutions, and I will provide references and reports of my volunteering activities to prove the seriousness of my intention and the desire to make learning at least a bit more fun.
Please find my CV and the letter from my place of internship attached, and I am ready to arrive for an interview any time you find convenient.
Sincerely yours,
Magnus Jonson
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