Why You Need a Brag Document

If an engineer makes impact but it’s not in a brag doc, did it ever really happen?

A brag doc illustrates your accomplishments throughout your tenure at work. This is where you can keep track of all the important work you’ve done since your last promotion (or since joining).

It can be as organized or as disorganized as you want to, what’s most important is that you update it consistently.

Here are some ways to keep track of your accomplishments:

• Create a google doc and go over it with your manager on a monthly basis

  • You have to be intentional with this, mark every 4th 1:1 as a career 1:1 and do not talk about anything besides your brag doc

• Create a private slack channel with your manager and forward anything noteworthy to that channel

  • Similarly you can have messages with reactjis of you forward to that channel

• Schedule a time on your calendar every week to update the doc

I’ve seen some great engineers have their promotions delayed just because they didn’t have this data built up over the years. The earlier you start the better, so if you don’t have a doc make one today!

I’ve made a brag doc template for anyone who doesn’t know where to start. It includes an example of a project I had in my promotion packet to staff.

Happy bragging friends,

Eden