<p>I also keep an “I love me” file. I update it whenever I finish projects and I include any feedback so I can reference it later.</p>
<p>I also agree with other people that your boss may well life what you write word for word to use in their evaluation of you.</p>
<p>It is also painful for me… I consider it like a game. They want to play the game, so I am going to play the game to make myself sound as amazing as possible.</p>
<p>I would really just like to write “I worked hard and did a good job” but that is insufficient.</p>
<p>The last company I worked for (am self employed now) introduced this about a year before I left, and I LOVED it. I think because I had been through so many performance reviews where I felt like my manager hadn’t even noticed the good things I had done and accomplished, and what I was most proud of. It was a chance for me to remind them of those things. Of course I tried to be honest about what I have to work on, too, but I knew what that was. But I felt like it evened the balance on the process so I wasn’t annoyed that they forgot the project I spent months on that saved the company money, or that the client loved. </p>
<p>I have my om keep a file on each person and everything good (and bad) that they do during the year goes into the file. Many employees usually forget the stuff that happened at the beginning of the review period. If done correctly I could see how it could be helpful. If it isn’t meaningful it’s a waste of time. </p>
<p>I used to keep a copy of every email that thanked me or said something positive about my work. By the end of the year I had a nice stack of emails. My self-evaluation always ended with a list of quotes from the emails.</p>
<p>jym626, there are so few of us that I don’t think it would be possible for me to decline. (Also the president of the company requested I provide feedback on one of his direct reports, so I don’t want to make a bad impression.)</p>
<p>Some of the women I have worked with did undervalue themselves. But I can think of quite a few who were the opposite and believed they were the department’s superstar. </p>
<p>Two female co-workers of mine in a new department had both come from companies where they were the top dog. I sensed that fireworks were definitely coming before the 4th of July. </p>
<p>They argued with the boss during their reviews and were eager to share this confidential info with me and everyone else. Neither acknowledged any of their own weaknesses and they would battle verbally in our department meetings. One of them eventually quit because the other one had gained the upper hand and was sleeping with the boss.</p>
<p>I had these before I started my own firm, years ago. What a waste of time…it was me, the owner and the secretary. My DIL has these now in the banking world. She forwarded hers to me and I was super impressed with her reflection and how she had responded. Her boss had to summarize for the higher supervisor and as stated upthread, the boss “lifted” large quotes directly from DIL’s self-review.</p>
<p>Say you’re poor at things that make no difference. Back when I interviewed for teaching positions, there was always the question of “what do you like most about teaching?” (easy question, because I actually loved the surliness of high schoolers) and “what do you like least about teaching?” I knew the question was coming, but I’d always pause, then say, very sincerely, “the 22-minute lunches.” I got one job because (as the department head said) I was the only one who didn’t say “students who talk back.”</p>
<p>So you can say your weakness is that you just can’t go home until you’ve met your deadlines, for example. </p>
<p>Think in terms of what my kids call “humble bragging.” </p>