Episode Notes

On the twenty-fifth installment of Tristan’s Tips, our special guest Tristan Layfield suggests keeping an underutilized gem – a career journal. It can be an effective tool if you struggle to update your resume/LinkedIn profile or feel like you have nothing to write when you have to do your self-assessment for your performance reviews.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristanlayfield/

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TRANSCRIPT

Tristan: Hey, Living Corporate fam. This is Tristan of Layfield Resume Consulting, and I’ve teamed up with Living Corporate to bring you all a weekly career tip. This week we’re gonna talk about an underutilized gem – a career journal. Do you struggle to update your resume or LinkedIn profile? Have you thought about negotiating your salary but wasn’t sure how you would make the case? Do you ever feel like you have nothing to write when you have to do your self-assessment for your performance reviews? Well, if you answered yes to any of those questions, you are not alone. In working with clients, one of the things I’ve realized is that it’s incredibly difficult for us to remember our accomplishments we’ve had throughout our career. During my intake calls, quite a few of my clients struggle because they’ve been in their jobs so long that the wins start to blend in with the day-to-day. One way to combat that is to keep a career journal. Each time you have a win, you write it in there. When you get pulled into projects, you write those in there and what your role was. If you’re measured against any metrics or receive stats based on your performance, write them in there too. This journal can be physical or virtual, whatever works for you. You just want to make sure that you’re documenting wins, both big and small, projects you’ve worked on, departments you’ve worked with, any goals you’ve achieved, and any other thing you think is valuable. If the journal is physical I would suggest some type of bound notebook, and if it’s virtual I would suggest keeping everything in the same file. This ensures that you’re keeping the information in one place for easy reference. Think about how all of that information will come in handy in situations where you need to sell yourself, whether that be your performance review, negotiating your salary, or even just updating your LinkedIn profile and resume. Having a career journal will make it that much easier to be your own biggest advocate in your career. This tip was brought to you by Tristan of Layfield Resume Consulting. Check us out on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @LayfieldResume, or connect with me, Tristan Layfield, on LinkedIn.

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