Start keeping track of your accomplishments today

Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month.

Today.

The number of times that I’ve asked someone for a major professional accomplishment and they’ve stumbled and given me a really poor answer is way too high for what it should be. I’ve been trying to think about people who couldn’t possibly list a major professional accomplishment and I’ve narrowed it down to a person with no professional experience not being able to answer that question.

Of course, if you haven’t had any professional accomplishments worth noting, why should I bother with you as a candidate?

That may seem harsh. And there isn’t a “but” coming after that. It is justifiably so.

So start documenting success and failures at work. Big ones, little ones, progressive gains, educational achievements, positive feedback from co-workers, negative feedback from bosses…

If you plan on looking for a job in the next five years, having a decent record of your accomplishments makes the job of selling yourself a lot easier. Whenever you look over just a few months of well documented accomplishments, it is going to be hard to not sell yourself!