Setting Great Career Goals: a step-by-step guide

Setting up your Talent Protocol profile is easy. Creating a great Talent Protocol profile may bring other challenges.

We’ve created this guide to help you build a profile that attracts supporters but mostly that represents who you are, what you do, and what your future aspirations are.

Pitch

This is the section of your profile where you’ll speak directly to supporters and that will catch the attention of anyone who visits it, so let’s make sure it is attention-grabbing. The idea is to make the case for your career: what do you want to achieve, how will you get there and why should they support you.

1. Do you have a clear direction about where you want to go in life? 👉 Go to exercise #1.1
2. Don’t know exactly where you’d like your career to go? 👉 Go to exercise #1.2 to find some tools on how to create a compelling life vision.

Exercise #1.1

If you know what you do/want to do

Remember, this section is the first thing that people, and potential investors/supporters, see on your profile. You want to wow them, stand out, and make them want to learn more by exploring the rest of your profile.

Here’s a simple guideline/exercise you can do to make sure you make that meaningful impression and create your One-Liner:

Here's an example of a well designed One-Liner on a Talent Protocol profile 👇

Exercise #1.2

If you don’t know exactly what you do/want to do

Not sure what you’d like your career to look like?

Here are some questions that you can ask yourself to find out what makes you stand out from the rest in 3 parts. Each exercise will take a few minutes, so make sure to set aside some time to deeply reflect on what a meaningful life means to you.

1. First, come up with a life purpose that gets you excited (and in a state of flow) - Use this life purpose model inspired by the Japanese concept of Ikigai (Answer the questions used in this article)
2. BONUS (for a shorter and broader exercise instead of the 1st one, you can use the ”obituary exercise” to ask yourself “how do I want to be remembered?”
3. Clarify your WHY - Using 7 levels deep (a very simple but powerful exercise to dig deep and understand why you do what you do)
4. Map out the long-term goal - SMARTER goals for the long term (1-10 years) (to make it specific but also to readjust along the way). This will help Talent Protocol supporters understand exactly where you’d like to be in the long-term future and how they can help get you there.

“Finding your Ikigai is no easy task, but without knowing what it is, you can’t fulfill it – so it is worth undertaking the search.”  - Mitsuhashi, 2018

Got it? After you reach your One-liner, it’s time to get creative! We’d say that videos are more powerful than words, so you can take the time to film yourself with your One-Liner or Elevator pitch and upload it to your Talent Protocol profile.

Challenges

Explain what you’re currently working on and what you’d like support with.

When someone sees this section of your profile it should give them an idea of the challenges separating you and your goals. This could be a simple question to supporters about what to do next or a larger description about what's stopping your current project from being a success.

Keep in mind that viewers of your profile are interested in you and want to help, either with mentoring or through providing connections through their network.

Exercise #2.1

Pick 1-2 questions from the following list to help you write a paragraph about what you’d like support with:

• What project can a supporter help you make a reality?
• What kind of connections are you looking for that could help you reach your goal?
• Are you looking for a specific type of person in your industry?
• What piece of information are you currently lacking that would help take your project to the next level?
• What would help to get you to your next milestone faster?
• What’s a challenge in your industry that you’re working to overcome?

When writing about WHAT you’d like support with, remember to include WHY you’d like support with this specific goal. People who know the reason behind something are more likely to help out. The supporters will help you figure out the HOW.

Roadmap

People want to know the specific steps you’re taking to fulfill your vision. In this section, you can write down 2-5 big milestones that you want to achieve.

This is also a great way to be kept accountable. When you publicly announce your goals, then you’re more likely to achieve them, even more so, if people are supporting and investing in you.

If you’re not sure what milestones you want to achieve, go check out the SMARTER goals article, or watch a video about SMARTER goals.

Top Talent Protocol Profile Designs

Here are some examples of other great Talent Protocol profile intros:

We can't stress it enough: Success is Collective. Go out there, build a great profile and start adding up supporters to your potential.

Let's do this 💫