Career Coach: Boost Your Career With This End-of-Year Action Plan

Welcome to Career Coach, a column for job seekers and employees navigating the ins and outs of finding, landing and succeeding in jobs in the biotech industry. Each month, Carina Clingman, founder of The Collaboratory Career Hub and host of the “Biotech Career Coach” podcast, answers questions from the community. You can email her questions at hello@collaboratorycareerhub.com.

In this column, we’ll explore three strategic activities for the end of the year: taking stock of your 2024 achievements, refreshing your professional presence with metrics-driven updates and exploring productivity-enhancing tools. Plus, we’ll introduce a bonus journaling exercise to jump-start your 2025 planning.

As the year draws to a close, many of us look forward to some well-deserved holiday downtime. Whether your company closes for a week or the pace eases up while many folks are on vacation, things seem to slow down this time of year. While mental rest is essential for our overall well-being, a bit of strategic thinking and goal setting can help us maintain momentum and position ourselves for career growth in the new year. Let’s explore three engaging and impactful activities that will set you up for success in 2025, whether you’re seeking a new role or advancing in your current position.

Start with a detailed journaling and inventory exercise to document your accomplishments in 2024. Begin by considering significant contributions. Did you play a pivotal role in advancing a specific project? Was your work instrumental in securing an investigational new drug (IND) filing or reaching a significant funding milestone? Take the time to create a comprehensive list that encapsulates substantial accomplishments and smaller wins, as they all contribute to your overall success.

As you compile your list, remember to highlight less obvious achievements as well. Perhaps you improved stakeholder communications, facilitated smoother team collaborations or identified cost-saving opportunities that benefited your organization. Depending on how visible your role is, you might need to highlight the quiet, behind-the-scenes contributions that keep the company moving forward.

For every accomplishment you identify, note both the technical and soft skills employed. For example, your contribution to that IND filing might showcase technical abilities such as assay development, regulatory documentation and data analysis alongside soft skills like communication, strategic thinking and problem solving. Consider the context of each achievement—what challenges did you navigate, and what strategies did you employ to overcome those challenges?

This self-reflection will boost your confidence, help you recognize patterns in your skillset and identify areas for future growth and development. As you reflect, think about how each accomplishment aligns with your professional goals and your career growth. And don’t forget to celebrate your journey, acknowledging both how far you’ve come and how much you’ve yet to learn.

Transforming your professional achievements into fresh updates for your LinkedIn profile and resume is a practical way to use the results from activity No. 1 to advance your career. Start by creating impactful bullet points that summarize your accomplishments. Begin each bullet with a strong action verb to grab attention and confidently convey your achievements.

For example, if you’re an assay development scientist, consider highlighting your contributions like this:

• Developed, validated and optimized 7 cell-based assays crucial to a successful IND filing.

This statement clearly outlines your role in a significant process and demonstrates the value you bring to the table. Metrics and specific outcomes enhance the effectiveness of your descriptions, providing tangible evidence of your impact.

In addition to creating bullet points for your LinkedIn profile and resume, take the time to refresh your LinkedIn headline and “About” section (see November’s column for a detailed guide). These areas are prime real estate for summarizing your professional brand. Use them to reflect on your recent accomplishments and showcase your growth. Don’t shy away from sharing noteworthy projects or new experiences that illustrate your evolution.

Even if you’re not on the job market, periodic LinkedIn refreshes will keep your profile in “active” mode. This means that your profile will appear more often in LinkedIn Recruiter searches, which might mean more inbound opportunities. In our industry, this is never a bad thing.

While rest and relaxation are undeniably important, the holiday downtime might be a nice opportunity to explore new technologies. If you do get to take a break from your daily routine, consider dedicating some time to researching or experimenting with some of the AI tools and automation platforms you’ve heard about. Who knows, you might improve, simplify or even outsource how you manage tasks and projects in the future.

Imagine if you could identify ways to save one hour per day using automation or a new tool. That would be an extra five hours each week (or 6 1/2 weeks over a year) to reinvest in personal and professional growth opportunities. Consider what you could accomplish with that extra time!

That said, it’s best to cautiously approach integrating new tools. Before implementing automation solutions or AI-assisted applications at work, take the time to understand and comply with your company’s information security policies. Most mainstream tools use enterprise-level encryption, but it’s always a good idea to check with IT first.

Technology is moving at breakneck speed right now, so it’s hard to keep up with all the advancements. Here’s my strategy: I enjoy the “Next Wave” podcast to keep my finger on the pulse of AI tools. I also dedicate a few hours each week to making something in my work tech stack more efficient. I currently have 37 automated processes and workflows across my businesses using no-code tools like Make and Zapier.

Here’s a powerful exercise to kick-start your planning for the new year: Write a letter to your future self—dated Dec. 31, 2025—congratulating yourself on your achievements. Be specific. Are you celebrating a promotion? A career change? A cross-country move? Writing about your aspirations as if they’ve already happened creates powerful momentum toward your goals.

Next month, we’ll explore a structured goal-setting process, breaking these aspirations into measurable, achievable steps. For now, let your imagination soar as you envision your future success.

As I wrap up another year of career coaching, I’m grateful for this opportunity to share insights and strategies with you. Here’s to a restful holiday season and an inspiring 2025. See you in the new year!