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POLL!
How many of your keep a running "BRAG BOOK"? or track your work wins and the way you contribute value? Not only can a brag book help you overcome feeling like a fraud, but having one can help you become prepared and confident for performance reviews, interviews and job searches. Would you be interested in a mini-course to build your brag book over 3 months?
Yes! I've never done this and have always been terrible at documenting things like that and selling myself.
Hey Sarah - let's connect and I'll share more. Email me at [email protected]
My very first supervisor told me to keep a “Wonderful Me” folder. That was 30 years ago. I still maintain that folder and recommend the practice to my directs.
That is awesome!!
I literally have a brag presentation deck on all the metrics I accomplished in my last role. I send it as my cover letter.
Yess! Love this
I love this idea!
I have a Blessing Book & I celebrate wins often --but a brag book as I adventure into new career sounds super aligned. Thank you for inspiring.
I know in the past I struggled so much with imposter syndrome & not feeling good enough & I am super grateful that I have overcome this.
Thus I know that this is needed in the world.
I personally am not adding any courses to my life right at this time but I fully support you & your idea! I know your offering would make a great impact! I am cheering you on!
A suggestion to enhance this idea is to create a community --where this is additional support & place to share brags with like-minded & a community that cheers each other on.
Thanks Aiah! Glad to hear imposter syndrome is something you were able to overcome and love this idea of creating a brag book. If you change your mind .. let me know! :)
I absolutely LOVE that suggestion of adding that into this community. Thank you for suggesting. I'll make something so we can implement this right away, it's so encouraging and inspiring to hear others wins and celebrate your own, something we as women do not do enough!!
I never thought about it, but good idea.
I have kept a "brag book" for years.
It once was a real binder that had printed exemplars' of my best work but is now a folder on my Onedrive. I also created processes, which I shared with direct reports, to update my weekly/monthly wins so writing our accomplishments for our annual reviews was a lot easier, and a whole lot more thorough.
And I'm pretty sure that big binder helped me land more than one job by being able to show examples of the work that I've done in the past instead of just talking about a project that I had. Of course, for some projects I had to remove logos and rewrite sections to remove proprietary information.
I'm a fan of what you call a "brag book" and I think everyone should have one - including those of us who are not designers and other creatives who create portfolios and developers who can show their code via GitHub :)
I love this Barb!!! Your binder sounds incredible. It's amazing how just documenting and tracking processes can help you show the tangible evidence of your work, and it sounds like yours is helping your direct reports be successful too.
Agree!! It can be hard for non-creatives to think about their work in a visual representation.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Are you selling a course to build a 'brag book'?
I am considering it! It would be more of a 3 month live class/ accountability/mentoring. Would you be interested in this?
I don't have a "brag book" per se, but I do keep a list of accomplishments, completed projects and extra tasks outside my PD. That way, it's easier to document on my year end review. I do a lot of small things during the year for people (like creating a data base or sending out a survey) and it's easy to forget some of them along the way. The small things really do add up over time and it shows what I'm contributing to the big picture. I'm not sure how much a course would help with this, but I'd be interested to find out if there are other techniques I could use for this.
That's awesome! And you are right, the small things are sneaky and add up in big valuable ways - we often overlook!
Essentially, that's what we would be doing together - Learning techniques, having accountability to track your work, and strategies around getting your work more visible and you comfortable with sharing and advocating for your work- which we know is key to getting your next job!
I have 1 step farther, I keep a smile file too. Emails where I was thanked or appreciated in one way or another. When I feel my cup is drained and I need a pick me up, I scroll through this smile file folder and it helps to make me full.
I love that Marla! Feeling appreciated is always inspiring and motivating.
Yes!