Careers resolutions for 2025

Published: 10 Jan 2025 By Student Accountant

content 2025 career resolutions

The new year offers the perfect opportunity for you to take stock of your career goals and set some new targets for the coming 12 months – and for lots of trainees, this will mean looking for a new job.

Enjoying a refreshed sense of ambition, January can be the ideal time for trainees to look for a new role. But working smarter, not harder, to get a few strategic resolutions in place right away could set you up for a great 2025.

Reflect

‘One way to create effective career resolutions is to reflect on what worked well over the last 12 months, as well as what didn’t go as planned, so you are equipped with habits to continue and areas for improvement,’ says Lorraine Twist, director at Hays, specialising in accountancy and finance.

‘Consider if there were any specific skills that held you back last year and outline the steps you can take to upskill in these areas. For example, you may have struggled to use a digital software in your role. So going into the new year you can dedicate time to become more proficient and confident with this technology.’

Core skills

Similarly, you may have come across core skills you need to work on to boost your career. For example, assertiveness is a valuable skill for flourishing in the workplace, but this might be an area you need to develop.

Twist says: ‘Let’s say you are overdue a promotion, or need to push back on additional responsibilities – you could work on how to stand up for yourself and voice your needs in an assertive and professional manner. While enrolling in training targeted at expanding particular skills is valuable, arguably the best way to strengthen your soft skills is through practice in real-life scenarios.’

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Work-life balance

The start of a new year is a prime time to reflect on how you feel about your work-life balance. While six in 10 finance professionals currently rate their work-life balance positively, there is still room for improvement.

If you experienced high levels of stress and burnout, think about ways you can achieve a better work-life balance during the year ahead and commit to implementing new ways of working to see positive results in both your personal wellbeing and productivity.

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Network

‘Committing to grow your network is a beneficial career resolution for many reasons. If you reaped the rewards of networking last year, one of your resolutions may be to keep that momentum going and to expand your network even further over the next 12 months, by attending more industry events and ensuring you maintain an active presence on LinkedIn,’ adds Twist.

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AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so we need to progress alongside it or risk missing out on the opportunities it can bring.

If you learnt how to use AI tools to enhance one aspect of your role, think about how you can take this one step further in the coming months by exploring other AI tools and the various ways AI can support you, through training and development opportunities.

Twist concludes: ‘Ultimately, your career resolutions will be individual to you, so make sure you are attuned to your strengths, weaknesses and the highs and lows of the last 12 months, so you can take these learnings with you into 2025 as you prepare for a healthier, happier and more productive year ahead.’

More on how AI is affecting finance careers:

Author: Alex Miller, writer

This article was first published in Student Accountant | Get the SA app now

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