July 5, 2016

Keeping track of your accomplishments

It's really valuable to keep an ongoing list of what you've actually been doing at your job. This is helpful for:
  • writing the self-assessment part of a performance review at the end of a quarter
  • help your boss make a clear, specific case for you to be promoted, and not rely on their distractable memory
  • updating your resume/LinkedIn when the time comes
  • reminding yourself that you have been competent and gotten stuff done before, if you're feeling frustrated or having a bad day

I just have a Google Doc called "Accomplishments" that I'll add things to every so often, including any kudos or compliments that I receive from co-workers. I'll also write up a short description of a project I worked on that succinctly describes why that project matters to the business and what was hard (and therefore impressive) about my part of it.

Example:
Trace Store Service Integration
Migrate from directly accessing databases through ActiveRecord to using a Thrift service instead, enabling our Data Services team to change storage backends without disruption to our end users.
Team size: 2
Don't forget to check if someone would still ask "so what?" at the end of your writeup!