According to a study from October 2024, more than half, 56% of employees, are looking for a new job or planning to find one in 2025. CV templates survey of 1,258 full-time American workers. Every third of them plans to leave their current job, even if there is no other one in line.
Whatever your career plans for 2025 – whether you're looking for a new job, hoping for a promotion, or simply want to improve your current position – there are steps you can take now make progress.
Here are three tips from the organizational psychology professor and author of Likeable Badass Alison Fragale on how to prepare for success in 2025.
Identify your goals
To start, start defining what you want to achieve in the new year – or even a few years from now.
“We want to look ahead to the point where it's the achievement we want,” Fragale says, adding that it might be the case that “you've created a product or started a mentoring program,” for example. Whatever you want to be able to put on your CV or that you would be proud of.
Then you want to go back from there and come up with some actionable steps on how to do it. In 2025, these steps will help you make choices as you go through your to-do list, Fragale says. “When it's impossible to do everything, which of these things will push me the most to achieve these goals?”
Identify “three to five relationships” that will help you achieve them
Once you figure out what you want to achieve, find “three to five relationships that will help you achieve that goal,” Fragale advises. These could be people who have created similar products or been in the position you want to achieve – anyone you think can help you make that progress.
Then, “start thinking about how you can add value to their lives in 2025.” – advises. Can you help them with a project they are working on? Can you make a favorable introduction? Can you share any new research related to their work? Helping them first can transform your relationship into something more meaningful that can be reciprocated.
Try to connect with them twice a year to maintain these relationships. That way, if and when they do finally get to help you, you'll establish that connection and have a natural opportunity to ask questions.
Get “comfortable talking about your victories”
Finally, “get comfortable and talk about your victories,” Fragale says.
This might mean sending an email telling your boss about some of the things you've accomplished this week or that your team has accomplished. This may mean finding a good answer to the question “how's work going?” in your personal life that highlights one or two things you did well.
If your success happens “behind closed doors,” Fragale says, “no one knows about it” and you won't be able to reap the benefits.
Simply by knowing how to showcase her wins, Fragale met “some of the people who became most important to me professionally” in places like “an airport bar, my kid's birthday party.”
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