write a brag document

The name Julia Evans gives to keeping track of your professional accomplishments and sharing them in writing with your boss. Julia’s reasoning:

There’s this idea that, if you do great work at your job, people will (or should!) automatically recognize that work and reward you for it with promotions / increased pay. In practice, it’s often more complicated than that – some kinds of important work are more visible/memorable than others. It’s frustrating to have done something really important and later realize that you didn’t get rewarded for it just because the people making the decision didn’t understand or remember what you did.

While this can certainly help with promotions and such, Julia points out that reflecting on our professional accomplishments can also help us notice patterns in what we’re learning and where we can have the most leverage.

While in a just world (or at least with a good manager) it shouldn’t be necessary, this strategy can be especially important for underrepresented minorities who may have to overcome the implicit biases working against them in the minds of a manager or promotion panel.