How I write an engineering self-review

Regardless of the various opinions surrounding the effectiveness of year-end reviews, many companies use them to track employee performance. Since they can often be an integral factor for pay raises and promotions, it’s worth giving them some attention and effort. This post is a summary of my general approach to writing self reviews.

Take notes throughout the year

Unfortunately, if your review is coming up soon, this step won’t help very much right now. It might help for any future performance reviews, though. If you take notes on what you’ve done at regular intervals throughout the year, it becomes much easier to summarize your accomplishments on a year-end review. The single most effective step in this process for me is to write down everything I do. It’s not fun and it’s not particularly easy, but it is helpful. My summary notes form the rough draft of the text that I eventually submit into the system for my review process.

Talk with your manager regularly

Part of your manager’s job is helping you grow your career. That process should involve regular check-ins (at least monthly, but ideally more than that). Asking them for feedback, not just on what you can improve, but what you do well, is a great way to maintain a conversation about your performance throughout the year. It shouldn’t be a surprise to either of you that you’re not meeting expectations or that you’re exceeding them. If it is, there’s a lack of communication on your manager’s part that needs to be addressed.

Read the documentation

Ideally, your workplace has documentation on what an effective self-review looks like in the context of their organization. If they do, follow their framework. Use whatever template or sections your company’s review process uses. If they don’t have an outline or sections, or a well-defined process, you can read through my yearly summary document template for some ideas on how to structure your review. You can also look at the company’s internal career ladder documentation to see what the expectations are for your role, and focus on highlighting the ways that you meet and exceed those expectations.

Write the review

Focus on positive impact (on individuals, teams, departments, and the company).
Focus on yearly goals you’ve set and achieved.
Use active voice and avoid passive voice.
If you’re hesitant to brag about yourself, pretend you’re writing about a friend or colleague and advocating on their behalf.
Provide references, including examples of your work and public (or permission-granted private) compliments/accolades
A lot of the advice for resume writing (besides the recommended terseness) can be helpful here also.

Help others with their reviews

Try a group writing session with your coworkers to help each other polish your self-reviews.
Offer to provide written feedback to your coworkers and colleagues so that they can include it in their own reviews!