Career & Leadership › Career Growth

Performance Review

A periodic assessment of your work.

Also known as: performance appraisal, annual review

A performance review is a regular assessment of how you’ve done over a period, usually once or twice a year. It looks at what you delivered, how you worked with others, and where you’re growing. Reviews are often tied to pay and promotion, so they matter.

Prepare before the meeting. Collect the work you’re proud of, the feedback you’ve received, and the things you learned. A brag document makes this much easier, because you’re not reconstructing months of work from memory.

Impact:  Delivered the export feature (3 teams use it). Fixed the flaky login test.
Growth:  Led one design discussion. Want to lead a larger feature next half.
Ask:     Clarify what the next level expects for ownership.

Tie your examples to outcomes, and to the expectations in the career ladder at your level. Vague statements like “worked hard” don’t help your manager argue for you.

The classic mistake is saving everything for the review itself. Feedback then arrives as a surprise, and it’s hard to act on. Talk about your progress through 1:1 conversations during the year, so the review confirms what you already know.