Here's a Vital Career Tip

Here's a great comment/tip/suggestion left on my post titled How to Prepare for a Performance Review:

A colleague once advised me to keep a written record of my accomplishments at work. It is one of the best pieces of advice that I have ever received. At the end of every month, I look over my calendar and emails and add all of my accomplishments for the month to my list. At the end of the year I am always shocked at how much of my own work I have forgotten about. I figure if I forget half of my work, my boss must forget almost 90%. This list helps me out tremendously.

GREAT TIP!!!!!

As I've said before, I send my boss a weekly list of my accomplishments so he knows what I'm working on/getting done. I also copy myself on these emails and save them for posterity. I then refer to them at the end of the year, summarizing what I've accomplished in the past 12 months. And like the commenter said, I usually have forgotten about several key accomplishments that are relatively old, so this process is great at reminding me.

BTW, this process also serves as a great resource in case you need to find a new job and update your resume as all of your accomplishments are in one place.

Reminding your boss of your accomplishments is KEY to your career success. So whether it's the process used by the commenter above, the weekly email I use, or something else, be sure you keep track of everything you achieve and be sure those you report to are up-to-date on all the great things you've done!

Comments

[segfault]

Just enable the option in your e-mail program to save all your outgoing e-mails. That's saved me many a time!

[guinness416]

It's hard when swamped, but keeping track of all sorts of work-related tasks in folders really does pay dividends. You really can't remember all of this stuff; or you do remember, but too late!

In addition to the generic achievements list you mention, I keep a running list of seminars/events/talks I go to over the year which saves me lots of time when filling out CPD forms for professional organizations - I've seen colleagues spend hours on these things. I also keep "fantastic job" emails from clients, a list of days that I came in on weekends and holidays for ammo (never had to bring this one out, but you never know) and a list of every project I've had my hands in and associated tasks for future resume and interview purposes. Well that last one is a couple of months out of date, but I do my best.

[TStrump]

I've been in evaluations and have been burned a couple of times - the manager just sat there with a confused look or didn't believe me.
Now, I send emails every couple of weeks, giving my current boss a 'heads up' on what I'm doing.

[RDS@Smart Financial Values]

Thanks for highlighting my comment. I'm glad that I could contribute to your site.

[Jennifer]

This is great advice. Keeping this kind of information is a huge help when it comes time to update your resume.

[Your career advice guide]

Listing your accomplishments is very important. It not only helps you during appraisals but will also be useful if a sudden promotion opportunity comes up. Another thing I can suggest is sending an e-mail to all important people whenever you complete a project successfully. You can create a separate folder for these mails and other achievement mails on your computer and save them regularly so that you have a list, along with the proofs and you do not have to search for them, when required.