Remembering your accomplishments?
How do you keep track of everything you achieve at work?
There are hundreds of articles, generally from CV builder or career advice sites, stating the benefits of tracking your accomplishments but I can't find any products specifically for the task. These articles propose established note taking apps, spreadsheet or written journals.
When the time comes for an annual review, or to update your CV for a new job, do you have to think back over weeks, months or even years of work to remember the what you've done and probably forget most of the good stuff?
Honestly, I feel like if I don't remember something good I did it was probably not worth remembering or mentioning on a work review / CV. Mentioning all the small stuff seems like reverse nitpicking.
@Sprouter haha that's a fair point! Have you always had good results with that approach in your reviews or CV/job search?
Admittedly I've only had two different jobs so far, but both were the first company I applied to so my success rate is still at 100% 😃 . My first job was as an accountancy consultant at a big 4, my second & current job is as a developer in a fintech.
I kept a list of all of the electronic systems that existed at work - email, Github, wikis, etc. At performance review / promotion time, I would go through every single one of these and create an exhaustive list of everything that I had done. Commits, etc. And then I'd group them into themes.
I also tried structuring my work such that there were always outputs to examine. For example, if I helped decide something at a meeting, I'd send out a summary email with what was decided so that I could uncover it later.
Thanks @jakevoytko – sounds like you put in quite a bit of effort! Do you think it helped at performance review/promotion time?
Yeah, it definitely helped. It allowed me to piece together a coherent story for my manager to argue for promotions and salary bumps.