We’re approaching the holiday season – one of the busiest times for most marketers – not just at work but also in their personal lives. Everyone on your marketing team is likely slammed with endless responsibilities and tasks to take care of, including your superiors.
Over the past year, you’ve consistently gone above and beyond to meet expectations. And you expect your managers to praise your efforts and reward you in return. But… They don’t.
This doesn’t have anything to do with their skills as a manager or your efforts as an employee. The truth is, that most are entirely too overloaded to acknowledge every one of their employees’ achievements and track their performance under a microscope.
Sometimes, you have to be the champion for propelling your career forward by proactively building a case of your efforts and accomplishments. A way to do that is to get a checklist of all of your achievements and skills developed ready. Investing some time to get this checklist in order will make the chaos at the end of the year a bit more organized.
Not only will a checklist get you prepared for your annual performance review, but it’s also a great opportunity to update your resume and place you in a better position to receive a promotion. It can even help you get a job in the new year and will set you up to be on track for the rest of your career in the long haul.
A Marketing Recruiting Firm’s End-of-the-Year Checklist for Marketers
As the year draws to an end, it’s the optimal time to reflect on your achievements and start thinking about your career for the next year. As an experienced marketing recruiting firm, these are the key objectives we consider the most important for your end-of-the-year checklist:
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Company Priorities
Evaluate what the company’s priorities were for the year and how these affected your own priorities and responsibilities.
Did you uphold your obligations to these priorities? Document the outcomes of how you supported goals that are meaningful to your manager and the company. You want to be able to show your manager that you kept relevant corporate business objectives in mind.
Tying your efforts to company priorities will help your manager better understand how your achievements contribute to the overall goals of the business. This further increases your chances of earning a promotion.
Past and Future Goals
What goals did you or you and your manager set for this year? Did you successfully reach them? Make sure to record these down. If you failed to reach some of your goals, clearly state them and why – especially if things were out of your control.
Determining your success in meeting goals during the past year will help you set objectives you want to achieve next year. Set a goal or two that will make a big impact on your career and outline a plan to reach them. As you look forward to the new year, don’t be afraid to step outside of the box and try something new. Put a critical skill you want to develop or a class you want to take on your calendar. However, make sure that these goals are attainable and realistic in reaching.
Consider speaking to recruiters for marketing positions and asking for advice on whether you skill set aligns with what companies are looking for in candidates if you’re looking for a new job. This can help identify any gaps that are relevant to the future positions you want.
Evaluating your priorities and goals, and how you met them helps you identify the goals you want to commit for the coming year. You have a better understanding of the type of commitments you’re able to achieve so you set yourself up for success. The end of the year is a great time to add to your portfolio of skills while most professionals aren’t focused on ramping up new skills. Doing so will make you stand out, so take advantage of it!
Video by Brian Tracy
Key Accomplishments
Reflect on your accomplishments this year. This is an important way to track your successes and keep up with them. Do you have any standout achievements that show how you exceeded your goals? If you haven’t met all of your goals, take the time now to close any gaps before the year is over.
Reflecting on your achievements also allows you to give yourself some credit and is a good way to reinvigorate yourself. If you feel that you haven’t achieved as much as you should have, listing out all of your accomplishments can give you a different perspective. Don’t feel sheepish in what you claim as an accomplishment – give yourself credit for small and major wins!
Log every project you worked on this year. You’ll find that many were put on your plate unexpectedly, which are important for your manager to be aware of. Being proactive in evaluating your performance this year and all of the projects and tasks you’ve worked on will make a good impression.
KPIs
How did you meet set key performance indicators (KPIs)? KPIs are an important way to document your successes over the year. Success metrics add credibility and value to the accomplishments you claim, making it easier for the manager to understand how you added to overall business metrics.
As you document measurable achievements for each KPI, include the skills you needed to develop to achieve them. If you surpassed any KPIs, make sure to document by how much. Additionally, identify KPIs you would like to improve and work on in the coming year.
Marketing recruiting firms like seeing your accomplishments in quantifiable terms that are tangible. Documenting these metrics not only helps prepare you for your annual review but makes for a more compelling resume.
Team Contributions
Being a great marketer and employee doesn’t just depend on your individual responsibilities. Contributing to the overall success of your team and supporting others to achieve their goals is a key trait recruiters for marketing positions like to see in candidates.
This shows that you are a team player and work well with others to contribute to the overall bottom-line. Any small contribution to help a team member out adds to your reputation, and you will likely have positive feedback from others that can trickle up to your manager.
However, make sure to formally document any efforts that contributed to major team wins – big and small. Keeping track of how involved you are with your team is a good way to help your manager understand the impact you’re making beyond your own priorities.
Areas of Improvement and Development
How did you improve this year on any weaknesses you had last year? If you discussed room for improvement with your manager, evaluate how you’ve improved in those areas during your review.
Demonstrating that you made efforts to successfully strengthen your weaknesses shows your manager that you truly want to develop and progress your career.
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Conclusion
Take time at the end of this year to complete an overall review of your professional life. This means assessing your career path and all of the checkpoints listed above. Did you spend enough time on the things that matter most and that will set you up for success? These are all key points that will ready you for your end of the year review and help update your resume to show off the best of your capabilities as a marketer.
It’s quite easy to forget about all of your career accomplishments and skills you’ve gained throughout the year. Making it a habit to keep track of them on a monthly basis helps to keep yourself on track.
As an experienced marketing recruiting firm, we believe it’s entirely up to individuals to take charge and ownership of their own career growth and development. If you invest the time now to prepare yourself for new opportunities, you’ll certainly encounter great career advancement in the new year.
You can’t expect a fulfilling career to fall into your lap even if you are performing up to par. Being a great marketer means you need to step up and actively demonstrate just how much impact you’re adding to the business because no one will do it for you.