Meaning & use
occupational goal
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Meanings
nouncountable
A result or aim a person wants to reach in their work or career.
Grammar: Countable: you can talk about one occupational goal or several occupational goals.
Patterns
- set an occupational goal
- achieve an occupational goal
- an occupational goal of doing something
Her main occupational goal is to lead a research team by the time she turns forty.
The workshop helps employees set clear occupational goals for the next five years.
After the training, he wrote down three occupational goals and reviewed them every month.
nouncountableformal
An aim connected with the duties or requirements of a particular job.
Grammar: Often used in formal writing about job design or workplace assessment.
Patterns
- meet an occupational goal
- an occupational goal for a role
Safety training is an occupational goal for every new hire at the plant.
The review lists the occupational goals that each department must meet this year.
Word forms
| plural | occupational goals |
|---|
Common combinations
- set an occupational goal
- She set an occupational goal of becoming a manager within two years.
- achieve an occupational goal
- He achieved his occupational goal after completing the leadership course.
- long-term occupational goal
- Writing a book was her long-term occupational goal.
- career and occupational goals
- The course helps students clarify their career and occupational goals.
- pursue an occupational goal
- Many graduates move abroad to pursue an occupational goal.
Synonyms and how they differ
- career goal
- More common in everyday speech and usually about your whole working life, not a specific job task.
- professional aim
- Sounds slightly more formal and often refers to standards of behavior as well as achievements.
- job objective
- Common on résumés and means the kind of position you are looking for, not a result you want to reach.
Word family
- occupation noun
- The job or profession a person does.
- occupational adjective
- Relating to a job or the work someone does.
- occupationally adverb
- In a way that relates to a person's job.
Commonly confused: occupational goal or occupational hazard?
occupational goal vs occupational hazard
A hazard is a risk connected with a job, while a goal is something you aim to achieve.
Practice
Which sentence uses "occupational goal" correctly?
Choose one answer.
An occupational goal concerns work or a career, so becoming a team leader fits. The other options describe personal aims with no connection to a job.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “occupational goal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.