We’re just a few weeks away from 2025. As the year winds down, it’s a good time to contemplate the future, reexamine ambitions, and make resolutions to adopt bold changes in the new year. Resolutions don’t just have to be about your personal health and wellness; they can also be about your career! There are good habits and mindsets you can adopt that can prepare you to take on exciting new challenges and opportunities awaiting you in 2025 and beyond.
For our final Career Corner blog of 2024, we’ve got five resolutions to offer for anyone who’s looking to broaden their professional horizons.
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Know What You Want in the New Year
There’s an old saying: “Man makes plans while God laughs.” The future is uncertain, so it helps to be flexible with your plans. This is a good moment to sit down and reexamine your professional progress. Are you happy with where you are right now? Are you getting the kind of salary and job benefits you need to live a life that feels safe and satisfying to you? Do you feel like the job you have now is engaging you and pushing you to learn new skills, or do you feel like you’re stagnating? What does your ideal job in 2025 look like?
We’re not saying you should resolve to quit your job; you may very well be in the place you need to be at this point of your career. But are there things about the environment you’re in now that could be improved upon? Should you ask for a raise? Do you want to go remote or spend more time at the office? Could there be a lateral move you could make at work- a new department, a new position- that could make things feel fresh for you if your current role is getting stale?
Knowing what you want to do and what you need in order to thrive will help you make better decisions about your future. Reevaluating what you want will also help you let go of goals and priorities that no longer serve you.
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Prepare Your Parachute
The new year could present sudden hardships: illness, disasters (both personal and environmental), job loss. It’s hard to prepare for most of these unexpected calamities but the last one you can make preparations for. You can pack a “parachute” in case the ground drops out from under your feet and you need to find a new job. First things first: make sure your job hunting materials are up to date. Revise your resume and cover letter. Reach out to your references to make sure they’re fine with you using them again. If you know someone you’ve worked with in the past, consider asking them if they’d be willing to write a letter of recommendation.
A job search can sometimes last for months, so it’s important to have some savings to fall back on (3-6 months is considered a reasonable cushion). Make a resolution to put more money aside when you can so you’ll be ready if the worst case scenario happens. Curating your social media is also a good idea because you may have to lock down or scrub your accounts entirely if you have to go back on the job market. You don’t want to miss out on a great opportunity because your background check pulled up a risque tweet or provocative photo.
“Don’t forget to update your LinkedIn,” said Gina Pinch, Rio Salado College Faculty Chair for Business, Management, and Public Administration. “Make sure that your work-related social media is up to date as well.”
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Work Your Network
Even if you’re happy with where you are in your professional life, it’s still a good idea to keep networking. You never know when you might need to bend someone’s ear or need a recommendation, so keep on attending mixers and invite your close contacts out for the occasional coffee or happy hour. Check in with them, remember their birthdays, and stay in touch. It can be very easy to get lost in the shuffle- “out of sight, out of mind” is a real thing. A big part of networking is just reminding people who you are and what you do. If you stop putting in the effort, you risk becoming the forgotten name on the tip of someone else’s tongue.
Already actively networking? Consider expanding your efforts. Join a professional association to forge deeper connections in your field. Find a mentor (or take on that role for someone else who’s just getting started). You can even attend job fairs relevant to your industry just to see who’s hiring in your area. That is information that could be important further down the road.
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Keep On Learning
One of the keys to staying relevant as a professional is to make sure your skill set is varied and sharp. No matter how accomplished you are, there’s always something new you could learn. This is why networking and professional associations are important: they can clue you in to new technologies and practices in your industry that you could upskill into. Going back to school and taking a class or even earning a certification in a job skill or a degree can be a great way to make yourself more well-rounded and add an accomplishment to your resume.
Learning something new doesn’t just have to involve technical skills: how’s your public speaking? Maybe you could learn a new language or pick up a physical skill like Tai Chi, yoga, or ballroom dancing. Learning a new skill engages your brain’s neuroplasticity: your neurons grow and become more active as a result of new experiences. Challenging yourself with new skills and forms of knowledge keeps your mind sharp and flexible. An added bonus is that you never know who you’ll meet at your next dance lesson or night school Spanish class; important networking opportunities can appear in the most unexpected places.
5. Stay Positive
Attitude is everything. You can’t control anything but yourself. That’s why cultivating a positive mindset is so important. People will remember how you react when you’re facing setbacks or tensions at work. If you’re able to weather difficulties with grace, that will endear you to friends and co-workers alike. A positive attitude is also essential for dealing with an unexpected setback. If you can look at the bright side of things, no failure will ever be total. The key is not to lose hope or lose faith in yourself.
Article by Austin Brietta
Career Corner
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