3 Benefits to Documenting Your Accomplishments
There is one activity you can do right now that will have three immediate, positive benefits for yourself and your career.
I want you to think back over the last 6 months, the last year, or even your entire working life. Write down all of your work accomplishments. Not your responsibilities. Your accomplishments. Think about the times you exceeded your goals. The increases in sales or customer satisfaction to which you were responsible. The new projects and initiatives you led or developed. Think about the times you went above and beyond what was asked, or expected, of you. Think about the people’s lives you’ve directly, and positively, affected.
Now, write all of these down in a brag book. Read them over. And then read them again.
This simple activity will accomplish three things.
First, it will help you see how much you’ve contributed to your employer, your co-workers, and the people you serve. During this time of heightened uncertainty and anxiety, we can all use a little reminder of how talented and valuable we are and how much impact we’ve had.
Second, it provides you with an up-to-date, accessible list of accomplishments you can reference during performance reviews and discussions with your supervisor. Documenting your accomplishments now, saves you time and energy leading up to, and during, performance discussions.
Finally, this exercise will give you a lot of the information you need to write a resume and LinkedIn profile that catches the attention of recruiters and hiring managers. As a recruiter, I can tell you that your accomplishments are more attractive to an employer than your responsibilities. Using information and stories from your brag book to highlight your accomplishments will better reflect your talents and value.
By taking the time to write down your work accomplishments, you’ll feel good about yourself, be better prepared for performance reviews, and you’ll also have a lot of the information you need to write an eye-catching resume and LinkedIn profile.
[Originally published on LinkedIn on 5/3/20: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-benefits-documenting-your-accomplishments-bill-leonard-mhrm/?trackingId=GPb7aAbI3FcsynlCTmnVYg%3D%3D]