Why Should You Keep a List of Your Career Achievements
We keep lists of everything – daily tasks, ideas, reminders. But we don’t keep a list of our achievements.
Every day we write down so many things that we don’t want to forget but we miss the big picture. Post-it notes and agendas are not only for casual errands. We need to learn to keep a list of the big things we accomplished. Maybe we see that as a form of narcissism and we are afraid that we will look bad for everyone else reading them. It doesn’t matter – a list of achievements can come in handy when you are in different situations.
1. Keep track of your career – You are wondering if you are taking the right steps and if your strategy is taking you where you want to be? Check the list – do you feel like you are adding something new, does it seem like those accomplishments are adequate for your career track? Keeping this list would give you a great way to monitor and control your goals. Prepare a list of milestones to go with the list of achievements – base it on your expectations. This is the easiest way to keep control of your career and discover problems as soon as they start to be noticeable. This being said, don’t obsess over following your milestone agenda – a month or two difference from your plan is normal. Even a year could be acceptable – if you know you are doing the right things and following the right steps.
2. Prepare to show your success – Whether you want a raise or a new position at a different company, knowing your great accomplishments will go a long way. Look at your list and select the best and most relevant success stories that you have to offer. Those should be all projects and tasks that would not have been done without your personal involvement – select achievements that show just how valuable you are. Make sure to focus on 2 or 3 entries, because otherwise it might have the opposite effect. Knowing how to select the most relevant examples is an achievement itself.
3. Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date – Your virtual resume can open a lot of doors even if you are not in the mood for knocking on them. This is where recruiters, managers, and colleagues, spend a lot of time. The summary section on your profile is a great place to display those achievements. This is the first thing that people would read on your page – if you are not compelling enough, might be the last. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you work with the biggest companies in the world, but if your achievements are of a big scale.
4. Sometimes you just need to be reassured – It happens to all of us. We forget how great we are and start thinking that we don’t do anything right. In such a moment you should take a deep breath, open your list of achievements and start reading. Every point has a story and you know it best. You know how much you had to fight for it, what did you do and how did it make you feel. Going through those past success stories is also a great creativity boost – you will remember times when you were basing your decisions on different factors. Try to implement one of those models in your current activities – it might help or it might show you that you went a long way.
You can read the testimonial one of our former clients who started to implement an achievement list to prepare his annual performance reviews. His story was simple: he was qualified, delivering quality work and remained unseen for over 5 years. Consequently, he was not getting promoted expecting his hierarchy to notice him and his great work. After our coaching he recorded small successes, his impact on a project and found himself excited and confident about his next performance review…He got promoted less than 6 months later, gained exposure within the organization and most importantly has change his mindset about success: it is not about chance, it is about choice!
Keeping a list of your achievements is a great thing to do – I recommend it to everyone, no matter what your career goal is. It’s like keeping track of your savings account – you need to if you are investing the right amount to achieve your milestone in time.
