Aligning work with long-term career goals: 5 tips from our talent experts

First things first: What’s the cut-off point between short- and long-term career goal? At what point do the former end and the latter begin?

Keep the following schema in mind when thinking about your career development:

• Short-term goals are everything you think is achievable in a one-to-three-year window.
• Long-term goals refer to an equally limited timeframe: say, three-to-five years out. Allow any more time than that and your goals risk becoming abstract.

While these distinctions might seem arbitrary, they can be useful for not only thinking through short- and long-term goals, but tracking your progress toward them later on.

The distance between where you are today, and where you want to go tomorrow, can only be bridged by growth. At Johnson & Johnson, we firmly believe that when you take on new challenges, you’re also being challenged to grow.

We offer so many different opportunities to take on ‘stretch’ assignments—projects or tasks that in some way force you to reach beyond your existing knowledge or skill set—because we’re committed to all of our employees reaching their full potential.

At Johnson & Johnson, many of these opportunities are supported through formal channels. For example, we have an internal platform that allows employees to volunteer for projects in areas they’re interested in, or where they’d like to develop new skills. Projects can be on either part-time or full-time bases.

Think of a stretch assignment as a way to hone your existing skills even as you cultivate new ones. Plus, by partnering with new people and teams, you’ll expand your network, which might lead you in yet another direction—or to unforeseen opportunities down the line.

Feel like your short-term goals aren’t laddering up to your long-term career vision? In that case, it might be wise to consider a lateral move.

For example, you might look to take on a role in a new functional area, or to support a new sector—that is, provided your employer is able to accommodate such a request.

Fortunately, since Johnson & Johnson is the largest and most diversified healthcare products company in the world, you’ll find abundant opportunities for lateral movements here. In fact, we’ve specifically built a rotational structure into our leadership development programs (LDPs), meaning you’ll be exposed to multiple lines of business and gain valuable cross-sector experience in the course of a given program.

We want everyone on our team to follow their interests, pursue the things they’re passionate about and make a positive real-world impact.

With that in mind, we’ll empower you with robust tools and resources, ranging from formal mentoring programs to employee resource groups, digital skill-building platforms and more. All of these things should help support your growth.

At the end of the day, of course, this also means that you’re the one in charge—and you get to choose your own adventure.

Want to use your career to deliver transformational treatments—the kind that can not only break down barriers to accesss but actually help change and save lives?

When you join our team, you’ll get to do that and a whole lot more. We’ll also empower you to continually grow and develop while supporting your interests, whatever they might be, and wherever they might take you.

Check out all of the different ways you can join Johnson & Johnson, and be sure to sign up for our global talent community, too. The latter is a great way to stay in touch, learn more about life at our company and even get updates about jobs that might interest you in the future.