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How To Do An End Of Year Career Review
We spend a huge part of our life in work. Many people aspire to progress in their career. While some are hugely successful, others struggle to make progress.
While many have the desire to achieve more career success, I wonder how many actually sit down and do a formal end of year review. I know many people will have a performance review of some description at work but the career review is slightly different.
What Is An End Of Year Career Review?
For me an end of year career review is a period of time that you set aside to reflect on your career over the last 12 months. During this reflection time you take stock of what you have achieved compared to what you had hoped. It’s also an opportunity to consider what you can learn from disappointments and successes.
The Benefits Of An End Of Year Career Review
If you think about it, organisations that deliver products and services to customers do this as a matter of routine. Your customer is your employer who you provide your skills, experience and expertise to in return for a salary and other benefits. The better the job you do as a supplier to your customer, in this case the employer, the more success you are going to have.
Another benefit of doing the end of year career review is that you record the highlights and therefore don’t forget about them. These highlights are what you then use to update a CV which is in effect your personal marketing document.
It also assists you in career planning. There are always going to be strengths that you want to use even more and weaknesses that you want to work on or improve. Your own career review provides the foundations for that development.
It shows that you are serious about your career. This will take a bit of time to do, require you to ask yourself some tough questions and openly and honestly reflect without judgement. On the other hand the potential return from improving your career performance and success is significant.
Key Questions To Consider When Doing Your End Of Year Career Review
What did I commit to at the start of year? This is just another way of asking what goals you set. If you did not set any goals this could be a something you could do for the year ahead.
What have I contributed? What you contribute will vary depending on the role that you do. Areas to consider include improving something, helping a colleague or a team get better, eliminating waste or inefficiency, taking the lead on a major project, implementing a new system and so on.
What have I achieved? Achievements are one of those areas that are really sparse on many CV’s. If your achievements are clearly stated your CV is going to stand out. When thinking about achievements try to be as specific as you can.
What have I learned? Learning is not just about the things you did not do so well. Often when we are thrown in at the deep end we learn about skills or attributes that we did not realise we had.
The Bottom Line: The more you take control and responsibility for your career, the greater the likelihood of success. The end of year career review could be the catalyst to you moving forward.
Duncan Brodie helps accountants and other business professionals achieve more career success. He invites you to sign up for his free audio masterclass.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.