When it comes to time for a review, do you ever struggle to remember the myriad of accomplishments and growth efforts you want to be sure to highlight? When preparing for interviews, do you need to flip through old resources to remember all of your shining moments? If so, there are a few strategies I recommend so you are always prepared for situations such as these.
The most import recommendation is to track your accomplishments as an ongoing task. Your accomplishments document can be on whatever program is the most convenient for you, MS Word, a Google Doc, or on an app such as WorkSmart, but be sure to record key dates and all details. The time period might be on one specific date or over a span of time, but it's important to ensure that is captured on every entry so you don't have to look that up later. Also, be sure to capture as many details as you can as soon as possible. You never know what will be helpful to look back on in the future, so get everything down when it's fresh in your mind.
Also, keep a physical folder. I use one to keep all thank you notes and hard copies of reviews, but you could use this for other items as well. Some suggestions for other uses are photos (I have kept photos of special moments with families I assisted, for example, which were helpful to bring to interviews for related positions), certifications (you could even keep print outs of conferences and courses taken for more details to reference) or examples of previous work (these should not have any personal information about the company or person you support, though).
I also recommend starting a savings spreadsheet, which I discussed in my previous posting Discounts and Adding Value. A lot of executives have an accountant or finance team, so they might not be aware of ways you have saved them money unless it's pointed out or tracked. Use a spreadsheet and record the date, item or service you saved money on, store or company the item or service was purchased from, total savings amount and notes. Employers like tangible ways to see the value you are adding, and this is a great way to do so.
Going beyond your current role, you could also start a career portfolio. There's an article on Idealist Careers which has great advice on how to go about doing this. About.me seems to be a popular resource for this, but it's not the only one. Social Strand Media created a list of other websites, so I recommend checking a few other available options on that page first.
No one else is going to keep as detailed of a record of your accomplishments as you are, so I hope these resources help you to start your own handy reference. You never know when they will be needed!
Do you keep an accomplishments document? Please share your experiences in the comments below!
