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This  assessment mimics an end-of-year performance review, where you are asked to reflect on your performance over the last year

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This  assessment mimics an end-of-year performance review, where you are asked to reflect on your performance over the last year. This is a fairly common genre, and some workplaces ask you to complete them quarterly, rather than yearly. Typically, you fill out a form, your supervisor fills out a form, and then you sit down and have a meeting to talk about similarities/differences in your responses and goals for the next review period.

 

Of course, I am asking you to reflect on your work over the last six weeks, rather than the last year. This gives you practice in identifying strengths and weaknesses, and backing up those assertions with real examples--a skill that will be super useful in your future careers.

 

The format for this will be a memo (but you are encouraged to go over one page--I know, blasphemous). Your goal is to reflect on the successes and challenges that you’ve had this term. Feel free to be as narrative as you’d like, and as always, be sure to include specific examples from your time in the course. You might want to look back at your assignments and related feedback to jog your memory.

 

Past, present, future: How to structure performance review conversations

 

Recapping an entire year’s (or term’s) worth of effort can be daunting. Who can even remember what happened in January by the time December rolls around? (And in times like these, living through a worldwide pandemic…) One of the easiest ways to format your conversation is by literally addressing the past, present, and future.

 

Past

• What were your experiences, goals, and ideas at the beginning of the review period, and how have they changed?
• Where did you excel and what are some areas that could use some improvement?
  • Provide specific examples from your work! Did you do really well in the job docs unit? Was your instruction set kind of weak? What part of the public design work did you enjoy? If you do not provide specific examples, you will not be able to effectively argue your claims.
• Provide feedback to supervisors: Where were they supportive and helpful and what could be changed moving forward to make your relationship and interactions more beneficial?

 

Present

• Discuss how you currently feel in your role. Touch on things like your current workload, motivation, collaboration, and common challenges and roadblocks. (Focus on Unit 4 for this, in this context.)
• Share updates on any current work, or examples of how you have handled recent transitions.

 

Future

• Talk about goals and professional development; where do you want to go from here? What new skills do you want to learn, after the close of class, but are still related to the content we covered?
• Consider what you have learned throughout the review period and where you might be able to apply it.
  • A helpful way to think about this for our particular context is: How has this class influenced your understanding of writing in technical settings, and how can you apply that work going forward?

 

Some resources for handling annual reviews (and the meetings that typically go along with them!)

 

General tips for performing well in reviews (link)

Strategies for “crushing” your annual review (link)

Phrases you can use in written evaluations, organized by theme (link)

Template for a verbal annual review conversation (link)

More on content for annual reviews (link)