Illinois Institute of Technology · Elevate Experiences
Set a Goal You Can Actually Finish
A working guide to SMART goals — what the five letters are really asking, nine rewrites of goals students bring us, and a template you can fill in before you close this page.
“I want to get an internship” is not a goal. It is a wish with no date, no number, and no first step — which is why it is still sitting there in April, unchanged since September. A goal is a sentence specific enough that someone else could look at your week and tell whether you did it.
SMART is the most widely used way to write that sentence. The acronym comes from a 1981 management paper by George T. Doran, and it has been rephrased many times since — you will see Achievable or Attainable, Relevant or Realistic. The wording matters far less than the discipline: five questions you have to answer before the goal counts as written.
Specific
What exactly will I do?
Name the action, the thing, and the number. If someone else read your goal, they should be able to tell you were doing it.
“Apply to six paid research programs” — not “look into research.”
Measurable
How will I know I am done?
Pick something you can count or point at: applications sent, drafts finished, people contacted, a certificate in hand.
Six submitted applications is countable. “Being more proactive” is not.
Achievable
Can I actually do this, with what I have?
Honest about your credit load, your job, your commute. A goal you abandon in week two teaches you nothing.
Six applications over eight weeks is about one every ten days. That is real.
Relevant
Does this move me toward something I want?
Tie it to the next thing: a major, an industry, a graduate program, a kind of work you want to try.
Research applications matter if you are weighing a PhD. They matter less if you want to be in sales.
Time-bound
By when?
A deadline you did not choose — a real program deadline — is stronger than one you invented.
“By January 7” beats “this year.” Put it in your calendar today.
The Part Most Guides Leave Out
A goal is not finished when it is SMART. It is finished when it also has a first step you will take this week and a standing day to check your progress. Those two lines are the difference between a goal you achieve and a goal you rediscover in April, untouched.
Set goals on what you control. You control applications sent, people contacted, drafts finished and hours studied. You do not control offers, admissions decisions or grades — those follow from the inputs, and aiming directly at them is how good students end a semester feeling like they failed at something they were never able to decide.
Every section opens and closes. If you only have ten minutes, open section 3 and write one goal.
1The Five Letters, One Question Each
What each letter is actually asking you — and the weak answer to avoid▾
Most people can recite the acronym and still write a bad goal, because the letters are usually taught as labels rather than as questions. Treat each one as a question you have to answer out loud. If you cannot answer it in a sentence, the goal is not finished yet.
Specific — what exactly will I do?
Weak: “Get more experience.” Experience in what? Doing what?
Strong: name the verb and the object. Apply, email, build, attend, submit, pass. Then name the thing: twelve applications, three faculty, one portfolio entry.
A useful test: could a friend look at your week and tell whether you did it? If not, it is not specific yet.
Measurable — how will I know I am done?
Weak: “Be more confident in interviews.” There is no finish line.
Strong: pick a count or an artifact. Four mock interviews completed. One certificate earned. Six applications submitted.
If the only measure you can think of is a feeling, measure the behaviour that produces the feeling instead.
Achievable — can I do this, with what I have?
Weak: twenty applications this weekend, on top of eighteen credit hours and a job.
Strong: divide the goal by the number of weeks you have and look at the number honestly. If the weekly amount makes you wince, cut the goal, not the sleep.
Ambition is fine. A goal you quit in week two costs you more than a smaller one you finish.
Relevant — does this move me anywhere?
Weak: a goal you picked because someone else has it.
Strong: you can finish the sentence “I am doing this because next I want to …”
This is the letter that protects your time. A goal that is specific, measurable and time-bound but irrelevant is an efficient way to go the wrong direction.
Time-bound — by when?
Weak: “this semester,” “eventually,” “before I graduate.”
Strong: a date. Better still, someone else’s date — a program deadline, an exam window, a career fair.
Borrowed deadlines are stronger than invented ones because they do not move when you are tired.
One more question worth asking
What is the very first step, and when this week will I do it?
A goal without a first action is a wish with a date on it. Nearly every goal on this page has a small first step: open the application, find the three papers, book the appointment.
Do that step within forty-eight hours of writing the goal, or the goal tends not to survive.
2Nine Rewrites: Vague Goal → SMART Goal
Real Illinois Tech situations, before and after▾
Reading a definition of SMART rarely changes how anyone writes. Reading nine rewrites usually does. Each pair below starts with something students actually say in appointments, then shows the version that survives contact with a calendar.
“I want to get an internship.”
“By October 31 I will have applied to twelve internships on Handshake, and I will have had my résumé reviewed by a career coach before I send the first one.”
Why it works: Twelve is countable, October 31 is a date, and the résumé review is a step you can complete this week — so the goal starts today instead of “soon.”
“I should do research.”
“By January 5 I will email three Illinois Tech faculty whose recent papers I have read, one per week starting the week of November 3, and ask each for a fifteen-minute conversation.”
Why it works: It names the number, the cadence, and the specific ask. One email a week is survivable during finals; nine in one night is not.
“I need to network more.”
“I will complete four informational interviews before spring break, one with an alum in each of the four industries I am considering, and write a half-page of notes after each.”
Why it works: “Networking” becomes four conversations with a purpose. The notes are the deliverable that makes the fourth one better than the first.
“I want to get better at cloud computing.”
“I will pass the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam by March 15, studying two hours every Tuesday and Thursday evening starting January 20.”
Why it works: The exam is the measure, the date is fixed, and the study blocks are on specific days — which is what turns an intention into a calendar entry.
“I should fix my résumé.”
“By Friday I will rewrite the three bullet points under my summer job so each one names a tool I used and a number, then book a coach appointment for the following week.”
Why it works: Three bullets is small enough to finish in one sitting. A goal you can finish this week builds the habit that carries the bigger ones.
“I want to raise my GPA.”
“I will attend Thermodynamics office hours every Wednesday at 2 p.m. for the rest of the semester and rework every problem I lost points on within three days of getting the exam back.”
Why it works: GPA is an outcome you do not directly control. Office hours and rework are inputs you do. Set goals on the inputs.
“I need a portfolio.”
“By December 12 my portfolio site will hold three projects, each with a problem statement, my role, what I built, and one image — starting with my IPRO project, drafted by November 14.”
Why it works: It defines what “done” means for each entry, so you cannot keep polishing forever. And it names which project comes first.
“I am going to apply to graduate school.”
“I will ask three faculty for letters by October 15 (twelve weeks before the January 7 deadlines), send my statement of purpose to a coach by November 20, and submit all five applications by December 20.”
Why it works: It works backward from the real deadline and puts the ask to faculty first, because that is the step that depends on someone else’s calendar.
“I want to get more involved on campus.”
“I will attend two meetings of the student chapter in my field before October 10 and volunteer for one specific task at the second meeting.”
Why it works: Volunteering for a task at meeting two is the part most students skip, and it is the part that turns attendance into a line on a résumé.
3Write Yours Right Now
A fill-in template, a worked example, and the first step▾
Do not read this section and come back later. Copy the template, fill it in for one goal you already have in mind, and finish it before you close the tab. Ten minutes now beats a perfect goal you never write.
The template
By [date] I will [verb] [how many] [of what], by [doing what, how often], so that I can [why this matters to me].
My first step is [one small action], and I will do it on [day this week].
I will check my progress every [day of the week].
The last two lines are the ones people leave off, and they are the two that decide whether the goal survives February.
Worked example
By December 20 I will submit five graduate applications, by finishing one application every ten days starting October 25, so that I can start a funded master’s in the fall instead of waiting another year.
My first step is emailing Professor Ramirez to ask for a letter, and I will do it Tuesday after class.
I will check my progress every Sunday evening.
Now stress-test it
Divide by weeks. Five applications over eight weeks is one every ten days. Does that fit the weeks you actually have, including finals?
Find the dependency. Which part needs someone else? Letters, transcripts, a coach appointment. Start that part first.
Name the failure. What is most likely to derail this? Write the if-then now: if I miss a Sunday check-in, I will do it Monday at lunch.
Then put it somewhere real
A goal that lives only in your head is a goal you will renegotiate at 11 p.m. when you are tired.
Put the deadline and the weekly check-in in your calendar as events, not reminders. Tell one person what you are doing.
Bring the written goal to a coach appointment. We will tell you if the number is too high, too low, or aimed at the wrong thing.
4Where SMART Goals Break
Six failure modes, and what to do instead▾
SMART is a good framework with predictable failure modes. Knowing them in advance is most of the benefit. If a goal of yours died last semester, it almost certainly died in one of these six ways.
1. Too many goals at once
Three serious goals in a semester is a lot. Five is usually a way of avoiding the hard one.
Instead: rank them, run the top two, and write the rest on a “not now” list where you can see that you did not forget them.
2. The goal is an outcome you do not control
“Get an offer from a top firm” depends on decisions other people make.
Instead: set the goal on the input — applications sent, mock interviews done, people contacted — and let the outcome follow.
3. No review date
A goal with a deadline and no check-ins is discovered to be off track on the deadline, which is the one day you cannot fix it.
Instead: a standing fifteen minutes each week. Same day, same time.
4. It is unfalsifiable
“Become a better communicator” can never be marked done, so it is never marked done.
Instead: pick the observable proxy. Two presentations given. One workshop attended. Four informational interviews completed.
5. It is somebody else’s goal
Goals adopted from a parent, a roommate or a LinkedIn post have no fuel behind them.
Instead: if you cannot honestly finish “I want this because …”, drop it or change it until you can.
6. The plan has no slack
A schedule that only works if nothing goes wrong is a schedule that fails in week three, because something always goes wrong.
Instead: plan to be finished a week early. Treat the last week as the buffer it will become.
5Make It Stick
The weekly review, if-then planning, and one person who knows▾
Writing the goal is maybe twenty per cent of the work. These are the habits that carry the other eighty, and none of them takes more than fifteen minutes a week.
The fifteen-minute weekly review
Same day, same time, every week. Three questions only:
What did I finish? What is next? What is in the way?
Write the answers down. Four weeks of these makes a pattern visible that you cannot see day to day — and it is excellent raw material for interview answers.
If-then planning
Decide in advance what you will do when the predictable obstacle shows up, and you spend no willpower on it later.
If I have not started the application by Thursday, I will do the first section during my Friday gap.
If the professor does not reply in two weeks, I will follow up once and email the next person on my list.
Tell one person
A roommate, a teammate, a coach, a mentor. Someone who will ask how it is going and notice if you go quiet.
This is the cheapest, most effective intervention on this page, and it is the one students skip most often.
Alumni Mentorship Program →an alum who has done the thing you are aiming at, and will ask you about it6Goals Worth Setting, By Year
A starting point for first year through graduation▾
If you do not yet know what to aim at, start here. These are the goals that tend to matter most at each stage, with the Elevate resource that supports each one. Adapt the numbers to your own schedule — the point is the shape, not the quantity.
First year — exposure
Aim at learning what the work actually looks like before committing to it.
By the end of the semester I will attend three professional development events and complete one self-assessment.
Explore your interests →self-assessment tools to narrow the fieldWhat are Elevate Experiences →the full map of what counts and whenSecond year — evidence
Aim at producing something you can point to: a project, a certificate, a first résumé that is not a list of classes.
By March 15 I will earn one free industry certification and add it to my résumé and LinkedIn.
Free industry certifications →over a hundred free certifications across fourteen fieldsRésumé and cover letter guide →what a technical résumé needs to sayThird year — the real thing
Aim at an internship, a co-op, or a research appointment — the experience the fourth-year search is built on.
By October 31 I will apply to twelve internships and three research programs.
Find an internship or co-op →where the postings are and how to work themResearch Opportunities →231 paid research programs, labs and fellowshipsFourth year — conversion
Aim at turning experience into an offer, and at the applications with the earliest deadlines.
By December 20 I will submit five graduate applications, or complete four mock interviews and apply to fifteen full-time roles.
Strategic job search →how to run a search instead of reacting to postingsPrepare for an interview →practice before it countsNegotiate and accept offers →the conversation most students do not know they are allowed to haveAny year — the two that always pay
Talk to people who do the job. Four conversations will teach you more about an industry than forty hours of reading.
Build the thing you can show. A portfolio beats a description of a portfolio.
Informational interviews →how to ask, and what to askDesign your future, show your work →portfolios and how to present what you didLeadership opportunities →roles that produce stories worth telling7When SMART Is the Wrong Tool
Exploration, habits and skills need a different shape▾
SMART is built for goals with a finish line. A fair amount of what matters at university does not have one, and forcing those things into the framework makes people feel like they are failing at something that was never a goal. Three cases where you should use a different shape.
Exploration
You cannot set a measurable target for “figure out what I want to do,” because the whole point is that you do not know the destination.
Use instead: a time budget and a question. Four hours a week until November, answering: which of these three industries do I want to spend a summer in?
Measure the input and the decision date, not the outcome.
Habits
“Go to the gym four times a week” is a system, not a goal — it has no finish line, and marking it “complete” would defeat the purpose.
Use instead: a streak and a minimum. Define the smallest version that still counts on a bad week, and protect that.
The same applies to reading, writing and practice.
Skill-building
Skill does not arrive on a date. It arrives through repetitions with feedback.
Use instead: set the reps and the feedback loop. One mock interview a week for six weeks, reviewing the recording each time.
The countable goal is the reps. The skill is the by-product, and it shows up reliably if the reps do.
8Bring It to Us
A coach will pressure-test the goal before you spend a semester on it▾
The fastest way to improve a goal is to say it out loud to someone who reads a lot of them. Bring a written goal to an appointment and we will tell you whether the number is realistic, whether the deadline is the real one, and what the first step should be.
Talk it through
Book a career coach →bring the written goal; fifteen minutes is enough to fix most of themConnect with a mentor →someone further along the path you are describingElevate →the program, the requirements, and how the years fit togetherAim the goal at something
Research Opportunities →paid research, national labs and fellowships with real deadlinesFree industry certifications →a certification is an unusually clean SMART goal: fixed scope, real exam, real dateAWS cloud certifications →a well-defined ladder to set goals againstInter-Professional Projects (IPRO) →a semester-long team project you already have to takeWrite One Goal. Bring It to Us.
Fifteen minutes with a coach will tell you whether the number is realistic and what the first step should be — and we would rather see it rough than never.
Book a Career Coach See Elevate Experienceselevate@illinoistech.edu · MTCC Suite 106 · 312.567.6800
The SMART framework originates with George T. Doran, “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives,” Management Review, 1981. Found a broken link? Tell us at elevate@illinoistech.edu.
