“Tis the season to be jolly and for Reflection!

As we move our calendars from one year to the next, there is no better time to take a quick look back and check for yourself how you did this year.  It is a healthy exercise to look over where you began this year and where you are now.  Not in terms of just a title or your salary, but more importantly, was it a year spent wisely moving toward your long-term goals?  Did you pick up any training, or specific projects or other experience that makes you a more valuable employee?  How are you perceived in relation to other employees?  Has your relationship with your boss and his boss improved this year?

Take some “quiet time” after work and jot down what you have noticed in these different categories.

From your perspective – Have you learned more? How much better are you at your job than a year ago?  And how comfortable are you with your contribution to your company?  What progress have you have made in either learning more or handling more responsibilities?

Your boss’s perspective – Does he see you as someone he can “go to” when situations arise?  Can he count on you to step up and accept more responsibilities when needed?  Or are you just doing what’s asked of you and not much more?

Your customers (clients) perspective – Have you heard from them directly (or through your boss) that the work you have done for them was excellent?  Did you receive any letters of appreciation?  And if not, it is a great way to know where to improve your delivery to get those rave reviews.  And your boss will see it as a sincere effort to improve what is important to the customer.

Nothing does better for your security in a company than the customer telling your boss what a great job you are doing for them!  Everybody gets to take some credit for your good work!

A quality company looks for people to move up the ranks over several years, and often the people who do move up understand the short term as well as the longer-term goals of the organization.  Follow this quick exercise, and you can get an appreciation of what you have in your company as well as where you can eventually go with them!

Cindy Szajkovics is a Senior Recruiter specializing in Engineering positions within Architectural Engineering and Manufacturing and can be reached at cindy@thbulldogrecruiters.com.