Do any of you have to do a self-evaluation for work?

[kingpinMS3]

it's that time of year where I have to overcome all my feelings of self-worthlessness and make myself sound like a rockstar at work.

I genuinely hate doing this. I don't like talking about myself, at all. I'd much rather have my manager tell me where I suck and what I can do to improve myself.

 

[TedEH]

make myself sound like a rockstar

IMO, this is not the point of an evaluation. Constructive self-criticism is a legitimately valuable skill. Unless you really are a rockstar at work, you're not going to be able to improve or progress at whatever you do if you pretend there's nowhere to improve. Assuming you work at a place that values you as an employee, you both benefit from realistic evaluations.

 

[bostjan]

I have to do these as well. The first year I had to do one, I just wrote that I was overly frank and critical, but very industrious when it came to getting actual work done, then I wrote that self-evaluations defeated the crux of the purpose of employee evaluations in the first place, and that I had more important work to do. No one ever said anything about it, so I'm guessing that HR still has not gotten around to reading it yet. ...that was three and a half years ago.

 

[TedEH]

self-evaluations defeated the crux of the purpose of employee evaluations in the first place

I think it depends on the kind of work you're doing. Where I am, there's value in the self-evaluation as long as it leads to meaningful discussion and eventually a plan to improve. If the evaluation is treated as a "get x evaluation points for a raise! Or to not get fired!" then that's a very different story.

 

[Lemonbaby]

I've been doing those since 11 years now and it never gets boring.

Honestly, I don't think too much of that concept. In my current company, my self-eval is combined with the evaluation of my boss and two to four colleages who I worked with over the year. As long as you get along with people well, you'll get the usual positive feedbacks. I write the usual positive buzzwords and relate that to real projects, adding some minor points to improve on. The latter are usually picked from at least one technical subject and one soft-skill that I want to improve on. Always makes sense if your company offers trainings that can close those “educational gaps“...

 

[Mathemagician]

We do them at mid year and year end.

I use the notes app and write down every thing of even remote value i do as I do it.

Client contacts which result in inflows, sourcing new prospects, teams I’ve worked with, new internal programs I’m working on, continuing education, certifications, volunteer work, etc.

Then I throw it all into the report and give my self meets/exceeds.

Brag about yourself becaus le no one else will. And your boss does not remember a thing you did last week much less 4+ months ago, no matter how much they like you.

 

[bostjan]

Well, in my context, my boss quit some ~7 years ago and was never replaced. I work now for lots of different people in lots of different departments, and there's really no hierarchy around me, because I'm always willing to work on cool projects people bring to me, no matter who it is. I haven't yet had to say "no" to anybody, especially since these departments all use their own funding for the time and materials. Our bonuses are performance-based, and I set my own goals for those, and just hand the paperwork into HR along with all the other once-a-year stuff. Being kind of bossless has led to me being my own boss in a lot of ways, so I always give myself a raise consistent with how my department did over the course of the year, and I always evaluate my own year-end bonus as honestly as possible. So far, I haven't heard a peep about any of this from HR. But the self-evaluations were a stumbling block for me. I am pretty sure that no one is going to read it, and it all boils down to some HR employee putting a check mark in a box on a form somewhere that just says that it was done. Our evaluations have nothing to do with raises nor with bonuses, so there's no carrot and no stick backing it.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Worse.

I have to help my supervisor with other peoples'.

 

[wannabguitarist]

I've had to do two a year for the last 4 years of my career. Honestly, you get used to it and it's a time to discuss your professional "wins" for the year. If you don't have any then maybe that's something you should think about

What did you accomplish this year? What were the setbacks that may have caused delays? What did you do to overcome them? Goals for the next year? Etc. Sell yourself, it's your career.

 

[Strobe]

This is a time to sell yourself. It is not a time to be circumspect. If you have goals for the year, make your case that you hit those goals. If you have leadership behaviors or competencies as an organization, explain how you demonstrated them in the last year. It is not your job to be self critical. A lot of people hate this and either do not put a lot of effort into it, or are too circumspect. Make the default easiest option be to sign off on a glowing assessment of what you did. If your boss thinks you suck, make him work for putting it in a review. Also, if your boss thinks you suck, probably best to be looking for other opportunities.

 

[TedEH]

This is a time to sell yourself. It is not a time to be circumspect. [...] Also, if your boss thinks you suck, probably best to be looking for other opportunities.

I feel like this isn't very good general advice without knowing the context/environment it's in. I'd argue that I wouldn't want to work in the first place in a place where "evaluation time" mean trying to sell some BS version of how great you've supposedly been doing. THAT to me is a sign that maybe looking for better opportunities is a good idea. Whenever it's an option, I'd say opt for the place that wants you to be there and cares about your development, not the kind of place where you have to be dishonest and try to get ahead of everyone.

This kind of thing, to me, is the distinction between a job and a career. I've had lots of jobs. At any one of those, sure, do what you need to do. But if you've got a longer term career, and you're someone whose development is beneficial to everyone involved, you shouldn't have to sell yourself as something you're not.

 

[Demiurge]

I guess that if you've gotta do it- do it well. In a way it's a like a self-awareness test for employees. The manager/company already knows how they feel about your performance- they just want to know if you get it. If you have an opinion of your performance much higher than what they see- or if you blame other factors- they'll know that you're one to watch (and not in a good way). If you easily admit your shortcomings, they know they can ride you.

HOWEVER, it's not entirely a weapon against you- like as others have pointed-out, you need to sell your accomplishments and your added value in a realistic way, because if it shows that you care about goals, accomplishments, and improvement and all that corporatesque crap, it will elevate you in their perspective.

 

[auxioluck]

Only in end of year reviews do I have to do any kind of self-evaluation. And it's in conjunction with my boss' feedback for me as well. So basically, they'll give their evaluation, then I'll give mine and any counterpoints.

I honestly spent most of my early career despising talking myself up, because I firmly believe that humility is the centerpoint of knowledge and success. However, a few years ago I started viewing reviews and self evals as just a way to reflect and deliver the facts on what I completed the previous year. Numbers and completion dates are a great way to make yourself look good without sounding pretentious. It's not ego if it's true.

A lot of people say, "sell yourself" in this situation. I prefer to say, "Show that you're passionate about YOU."

 

[Hollowway]

Sounds like you need Hollowway’s Foolproof Plan to Get Out of Bewildering HR Assignments.

Read it, know it, live it:

Boss: Hollowway, I’m going to need you to do a self evaluation....
Me: (interrupting) Yes, and can I commend you on your empathy, and caring so much about me, and the others? It’s not every company that would care about its employees health. I think that’s awesome that you do. And, tell you what - I’m going to save you a little time here, because I actually did a self evaluation last night. Pretty sure I don’t have testicular cancer. I felt the boys a good long while, and I didn’t feel any nodules. I mean, I did feel that one blobby thing stuck to the side of each testical. Or is it testes? Anyway, it wasn’t moving, which usually means the big “C”, so I initially panicked. But, I do that every time. I remembered it’s like the tube that gets the sperms out of the testes - I’m just going to call them testes - and into the actual penis. But yeah, I gave it a good inspection. I squeezed a tad hard, and felt like I was gonna throw up for a bit, so I don’t think I missed anything. Anyway, Jimmy, again, mad props for coming up with this directive. Let me know if you need anything else. (Finger guns, walk out the door.)

 

[Strobe]

I feel like this isn't very good general advice without knowing the context/environment it's in. I'd argue that I wouldn't want to work in the first place in a place where "evaluation time" mean trying to sell some BS version of how great you've supposedly been doing. THAT to me is a sign that maybe looking for better opportunities is a good idea. Whenever it's an option, I'd say opt for the place that wants you to be there and cares about your development, not the kind of place where you have to be dishonest and try to get ahead of everyone.

This kind of thing, to me, is the distinction between a job and a career. I've had lots of jobs. At any one of those, sure, do what you need to do. But if you've got a longer term career, and you're someone whose development is beneficial to everyone involved, you shouldn't have to sell yourself as something you're not.

For context, I work for a fortune 500 company. I read people's self evaluations. I also do them for my boss. I have not had a bad review, and I have been promoted several times. Showing you are self aware is a daily thing you should demonstrate. Self evaluation time is a time to make the case that you met your goals and performed well. You are not the final say on this, your boss is going to weigh in. Consider it a negotiation on how well you did. This is both my opinion, and most of my peers who also manage people's opinion. Feel free to disagree, but it's not that I am expressing the non-career short term opinion. I manage people, this has worked well for me personally.

 

[TedEH]

Consider it a negotiation on how well you did.

I think that if the evaluation is something that leads directly into raises, then sure, there's something to be said about negotiating for raises. But that (in my opinion, of course), should only be a part of what an evaluation is. I don't think it matters if it's a fortune 500 or a little scrappy startup, this is a process that reflects the culture of the company and is going to vary regardless of the size of the company. If the culture of the company is one where evaluation time means negotiating/selling your place or value (outside of raises), then that's not a place I want to work. That's just me though- and I'm used to working in places where teams are small enough where the value of the individual is apparent from their output, or from working with them.

It's been my experience that a great way to keep talented people around is to show that you care about their development, and put an effort into supporting work-relevant developmental goals. Part of getting that process to work though requires some amount of honesty in evaluations. It's not about "you have produced x amount of work, so lets pay you y amount", it more "this is where you are, and this is where you'd like to be, how can we get you there?" I suppose this is more relevant in certain fields where unhappy employees are likely to jump ship at the first sight of greener grass.