Climbing the Ladder
Self-evaluations: What’s the trick to filling these things out?
It happens early every year; an annual ritual of digging through files and trying to make sense of the past year. No, not filing a tax return–filling out the self-evaluation portion of your yearly review. Here are some tips on how to best represent yourself.
Be specific
Actions speak louder than words. By the same token, words that describe specific actions speak louder than ones that speak in generalities. It’s all well and good to say that you’re a dedicated worker who works well with others and produces results, but writing that you worked 20 hours of overtime while coordinating the efforts of three different departments on a project that brought in 1,000 new customers to your company has a much greater impact.
Be prepared
In order to give the best evaluation, you will need to remember specifics of work you did up to 12 months ago. Since many people have trouble remembering what they had for breakfast this morning, this can be a seemingly impossible task, unless you prepare. This basically means that you should be working on your self-evaluation all year long. Keeping the goals set for you in your previous review in mind, mark down when you make progress toward them, using specifics.
Be honest
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses (and, no, “I work too hard” is not a weakness). Your employer knows this, and most likely knows what your weaknesses are. The first step of addressing any problem is acknowledging it. By addressing your shortcomings in an honest and forthright way, you’re showing your employer that you’ve acknowledged them and are making an effort to improve upon them.
Be proactive
Lastly, make a case for yourself. If you feel you deserve a promotion or pay raise, say so. Often employers are less likely to give either if they don’t think an employee expects them. Make it clear that you do, and if you make a strong and compelling argument for what you want, you may just get it.
How do you feel about self-evaluations? Does your company require you to fill them out?