Tbh, I tried two ways to prep for salary talks and one was a total joke

So last year, I was up for my annual review and I knew I wanted a raise. My first approach was what I'd always done: I made a list of my projects and just hoped my boss would see my value. It was basically a bullet point list on a Google Doc. I went into the meeting, got nervous, and just sort of mumbled through it. He gave me a standard 3% cost of living bump and that was it. This year, I tried something different. I spent a week building a simple one-page 'brag sheet' with actual numbers. I wrote down stuff like 'led the Q3 campaign that brought in 12 new clients' and 'automated a report that saves the team about 5 hours every week'. I printed it out and brought it with me. The whole vibe was different. I sounded confident because I had the proof right there, and we ended up talking about a real promotion path. Has anyone else found that just having the hard numbers written down makes those conversations way less awkward?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan8511mo ago

That "brag sheet" idea is genius (my old list of projects was basically a sad grocery list for my own career).

finley_lopez981mo ago

Right, the sad grocery list thing is so real. I used to just dump every tiny task into mine and it looked pathetic. Actually framing it like a brag sheet makes you pick the good stuff.