As a new year approaches, and “new year, new me” work goals enter our minds, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and daunted by what’s to come, making 2025 count when it comes to career moves.

Katia Vlachos, a reinvention career coach and author of Uncaged: A Good Girl’s Journey To Reinvention, says that we are often “caged” by our own expectations and beliefs, holding back our own professional and personal growth.

So when it comes to entering 2025 with a clear sense of where we want our careers to go and what we want to achieve, Katia explains that the first thing to do is to “define your core values, sense of purpose, and vision”. To do this, she recommends reflecting deeply about what is most important to you, and how it affects your perception of the world. From here you can use this as an anchor for navigating the working world this year, asking yourself: “does this career move or goal align with my core purpose and values?”

She also recommends beginning work on shedding the ways in which we have conditioned ourselves to think about success.

“The path to authentic success starts with permission to dream beyond conditioning,” Katia says. “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? If you could start again, where would you go, what would you do, who would you be? Give yourself the permission to dream big and let your mind wander.”

When it comes to career new year's resolutions, Katia advises being careful about being tempted to prove our self worth solely through self-improvement or professional goals. She says that when making resolutions, ambitious women in particular, encounter “deeply ingrained patterns of fear, obligation, and guilt around wanting more for ourselves”.

“It can lead us to lose sight of why we want to change our lives and instead set about a path of proving to others that we can look better, feel better, be better,” she explains.

Katia recommends ensuring your goals are both “aligned” – consistent with your values and core motivations, not anyone else’s – as well as flexibly framed. “Framing your resolutions as experiments rather than fixed targets opens space for growth without the weight of perfectionism,” she says.

Here are some other nuggets of advice when it comes to your 2025 career mindset and going about making a big work-related move this coming year.

Altering your 2025 career mindset

A huge speed bump towards realising your 2025 career goals can be decision fatigue. Our mind plagues us with questions: am I in the right job? Should I look for a new one? Is a new job right for me? The paralysis we feel can hold us back from making career-defining decisions, and can make us act out of fear or panic and take a path that isn’t right for us.

Katia recommends reflecting on your “shoulds”, the pressures and expectations that come with what we feel we “should” be doing with our career, to see if it’s impacting our ability to make decisions about our careers. “I've seen how we can become trapped by external markers of success – the fancy title, the secure path, the corner office,” she says. “We build invisible cages from these expectations, convincing ourselves we're staying 'safe' from uncertainty. These cages feed into the ways we behave and feel about ourselves.”

So what you need to ask yourself to shift career decision fatigue is this: Are my career goals truly mine, or am I chasing someone else's definition of success? Why is this particular move right for me, beyond the obvious practical benefits? How will it help me get to where I want to be?

This way, you can navigate your 2025 career goals clearly, with minimal decision fatigue and better clarity when it comes to what we need from our future and progress in the workplace.

Imposter syndrome is a common affliction for women when it comes to our careers – and other areas of our lives, in fact. A KPMG study found that 75% of female executives across industries have experienced imposter syndrome in their careers.

Katia explains that in order to combat this as we enter 2025, we must reframe how we think about our goals, taking into account both the limits of where we might be as well as where we could potentially be in the future.

“The instinct to push away negative thoughts about our capabilities is natural but not always helpful. Working with accomplished women, I've found there is power in sitting with these thoughts and consciously choosing to replace them with a more empowering alternative.

“When the inner critic whispers ‘I'm not a good public speaker,’ we can choose to shift that thought to ‘I’m on my way to becoming an inspiring, captivating speaker.’

“That way, we acknowledge both our current reality and our potential for growth.”

Katia also recommends celebrating small wins through 2025 as a means of cementing the habit of concentrating on your potential for moving incrementally towards potential growth and your goals.

“Each time you step beyond your comfort zone, document it. Revisit these notes when self-doubt surfaces and you need concrete evidence of your progress and capability,” she says.

Making the right 2025 career moves for you

If you’re planning to request or discuss a pay rise at work – or a raise in rates, if you work for yourself – Katia recommends strategising outside of the “formal checkpoints” like annual or quarterly reviews. “Waiting for them might mean missing opportunities to highlight your value and build your case,” she explains, adding that during her time as a coach she has “seen how this passive approach often leads accomplished women to undersell their contributions”.

Instead, she recommends – if you’re not doing so already – keeping an ongoing record of your “value documentation”. “Keep a running record of your achievements, impact, and positive feedback, in order to build a narrative of your contributions and growth,” she says. After researching fully, and considering the full package – not just money, consider discussing things like flexible work and new leadership opportunities – begin the conversation. If it’s an initial “no”, treat this as the beginning of a dialogue, not an out-and-out rejection. 

Just because you don’t complete a 2025 goal on the first try, don’t give up, part of growth is remaining steadfast with your aims.

“Ask for specific performance targets that would justify your desired compensation and propose a follow-up timeline,” Katia says. “Most importantly, maintain your professional poise, as how you handle this moment can significantly impact future opportunities.”

When you’re plotting career moves for 2025, it’s worth considering whether you need – or would benefit from – a step up, or a step across. A different department or area of interest might be just the thing to revitalise your love of work, develop new skills and discover unexpected passions while giving you a new edge in the market. 

“The notion that career success means constant upward movement is one of those invisible cages that keep us stuck in unproductive thought patterns and behaviours,” Katia says. “Sometimes stepping sideways into roles that expand our skills, deepen our understanding, or simply bring more joy to our work lives may be a powerful career move leading to a fulfilling trajectory.”

She recommends being strategic when making this move, mapping transferable skills and thinking laterally about where your industry is heading and where you might fit into it better with additional experience. 

“These small steps allow you to test the waters before making a bigger move,” Katia explains. “The question isn't whether you're moving up or sideways – it's whether you're moving toward greater alignment with your values and aspirations.”

So when you come to plot your new year’s resolutions and career plan for 2025, ensure you take the time to reflect on what you’ve already achieved this year, and how you can take this energy into the new year – mentally and logistically – while always ensuring you’re aligned with your values and purpose. Happy New Career Year.