At Skills Lab Training, as we work with professionals on their next career steps, we learn that about 95% of them do not keep track of their accomplishments. Their main goal in seeking career coaching is looking for a new job, prepping for an interview or asking for a raise. Tracking your accomplishments will help you with all those things and more.
What should you track?
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Projects. If you worked on a special project solo or with a team, list it. How long did it take? What was your role? What was the outcome?
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Money you’ve saved the company. This one usually goes hand in hand with the first one. Have you added dollars to the bottom line? What things are you working on that have added value and saved the company money?
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New business development. Securing new clients or customers, upselling an existing client with new products or services. Don’t forget to track meetings and clients that didn’t lead to new businesses, but might down the road.
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Education and learning. Training classes completed, certifications or degrees that you have acquired. Think about things that were paid for privately or by the company.
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Volunteer roles. Do you volunteer? That’s the first question. Find your passion project and start participating. If your organization has a volunteer or donation matching program, you will want to ensure you are tracking your hours.
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Mentorships. Are you a mentor, mentee or both? It’s great to be involved in this type of relationship, and it is worth writing down new experiences and learnings because of this process.
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Organizations/Associations/Resource groups. Consider groups that you are affiliated with both inside and outside of your company. This type of involvement highlights that you take your professional career seriously and are a subject matter expert.
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Ad hoc meetings, programs or reporting. Sometimes a leader or manager will ask you to run a special ad hoc report or attend a special program or meeting. These again may seem insignificant at the time, but add up or lead to bigger projects in the future.
In the world of hybrid and work from home, we’ve gotten away from knowing what everyone is doing throughout the day. It’s important to stay on top of the things you are doing and prepare to call those out when you need to.
When tracking comes in handy:
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Evaluation time. You assume your boss knows everything you do. Don’t rely on them to remember all the details or know everything.
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Updating a resume and/or LinkedIn. Keeping these two things updated regularly will keep you from rushing around when a recruiter calls with a new opportunity. Tracking accomplishments will make it easy to remember important details that you want to highlight for prospective employers.
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Requesting a pay raise. Accomplishments, new learnings and education are key reasons to ask for a pay increase. When you ask for a raise, you want to be armed with information and justification.
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Self-analysis. Determine what you really like or hate about the work you are doing. When you are feeling burned out, this list of accomplishments will identify things you may be interested in pursuing.
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Developing your passion projects. Tracking your accomplishments will also point you to things you are passionate about and help you lead a more fulfilling life.
Admittedly this feels like a big ask and a lot of work. We assure you it’s not.
Tracking tips:
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First of the month. Mark your calendar for the first day of the month (or business day of the month). Spend 10 minutes reviewing the previous month’s calendar to remind yourself of deadlines, meetings etc.
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Your birthday. Update your resume and LinkedIn on your birthday. It’s a great gift to yourself.
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Use an accomplishment tracker worksheet. This is a handy guide to prompt you on the things you should be tracking. Skills Lab has developed a handy worksheet that is free to download.
Investing this small amount of time in yourself will pay dividends (literally and figuratively).
Founded by Christie Martin and Beth Pittman, Skills Lab Training offers 1:1 coaching, workshops and consulting to professionals seeking advice in career advancement or re-entry, to high school/college students making career decisions, to schools/colleges looking to enhance career education and services and to business leaders training newly promoted managers with leadership skills.
This article originally appeared in the June 2022 edition of The Work Wife.
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