Over the past week, I received at least 10 e-mails or phone calls from The Engineering Mastermind (TEM) members asking if I could help them prepare for their annual engineering career performance reviews. Most of the e-mails or phone calls started like this: “Anthony, I have my annual performance review tomorrow, and I was hoping I could speak to you about it.” These calls and requests inspired me to write this post to emphasize the importance that this yearly event holds for your engineering career and give some pointers for not messing it up.
Your annual performance review is a great opportunity to reflect upon your engineering career progress and maybe your one opportunity each year to present this progress to your employer. Here are five things you can do to get the most out of your annual performance review and not mess it up like many engineers do:
Prepare Ahead of Time – Most engineers, as I indicated above, wait until a day or two before to start preparing or even thinking about their annual performance reviews. If you had a big engineering project deadline on Friday, would you wait until Thursday night to work on it? No, of course not. Make your review just as important as all of your work deadlines—otherwise, you are putting your development LAST, and that is never a good thing. Start preparing one to three months before the actual review date.
Spend Time Reflecting and Writing – A few months before your review, reflect on the previous year. Make notes of all of your accomplishments as well as things you would like to improve upon. Where possible, quantify your accomplishments. For example, “Brought in $50,000 worth of engineering business to the firm.” Use these notes to either prepare a formal document that you can submit to your supervisor or to answer a pre-review questionnaire, if your supervisor gives one to you. This document should be submitted two months before your review to give your supervisor time to review, digest, and utilize the information in evaluating your performance, raise, and potential promotion. [Read more…] about Engineering Career Advice – 5 Tips for Acing Your Annual Performance Review
