Awesome write up on how to grow into a senior role Jordan. It’s so true that hard work + mentorship + documenting wins + feedback iteration cycles is a great promotion path.
These are the exact steps I followed for my first promotion beyond senior. They work. 👏🏼
Huge congrats to your mentee for all the hard work they put in, and their new role! 🙌🏻
Hi Jordan! Thanks for sharing this wonderful journey of your mentee. And congrats to your mentee. I would like to know if you have a template for the "brag document"? I am not sure if you've already shared it with your subscribers. Just wanted to ask. Thanks again! :)
As a mentor to my mentee, I generally recommend using the level criteria as a brag doc. That way you can see how much of the work you are doing is showing toward behaviors and work at the next level, and track that over time.
Thanks, Achille. So glad you found it valuable and great question.
I would recommend telling your manager you have a mentor if its a mentor at work. In this case, I was a mentor outside of their work when I was working at my previous company.
As the mentor, I made sure that any direction we were moving was always in alignment with the manager's expectations. In this case, we didn't need to adjust the growth plan because I think my mentee already had a good sense of the manager's expectations, but if the manager was to change that, then we would change on our end.
For example, there was one recommendation I had for how to structure bullets in the brag doc he showed to his manager. I was pushing for more conciseness and less nitty gritty detail. But after showing it, his manager said he WANTED the detail, which I thought was a bit uncommon, but it's more important to adjust to the manager than fight it in that case. If they want detail, just give it to them
I've tried different templates and journaling prompts, but for my own career and when working with my mentee we end up going more on free-form text with whatever seems relevant from the past couple of weeks.
I've picked the ideas and will experiment with them to see what sticks and what doesn't
Awesome writeup here Jordan! This insight is definitely helpful for someone who is trying to get to the next level. I also found that consistently keeping a brag doc and sharing it with my manager helps alleviate so much stress when the time comes. Plus, it does feel good to recount the stories where you delivered impact no matter how big nor small
Keeping a work log aka a brag list is a great addition when it comes time for performance reviews and promotions. It makes the difference.
It makes it easier for your manager to scream for you since he has a proven track record of your achievements.
Inspiring story, Jordan ! 🙌
100%. Exactly, Petar. Thanks so much for reading, always appreciate your feedback
Awesome write up on how to grow into a senior role Jordan. It’s so true that hard work + mentorship + documenting wins + feedback iteration cycles is a great promotion path.
These are the exact steps I followed for my first promotion beyond senior. They work. 👏🏼
Huge congrats to your mentee for all the hard work they put in, and their new role! 🙌🏻
Always so nice to hear how our stories are related, Caleb, and the similar paths we took to get to our destinations.
Thanks for your kind words. Hope you have a great rest of the weekend!
Thanks Jordan, appreciate you!
Great tips Jordan. I loved how you explained what, impact and how. Also loved the R2-D2 framework :)
Haha, thank you, Nishaz!
Hi Jordan! Thanks for sharing this wonderful journey of your mentee. And congrats to your mentee. I would like to know if you have a template for the "brag document"? I am not sure if you've already shared it with your subscribers. Just wanted to ask. Thanks again! :)
Thanks so much, Sriram and great question.
As a mentor to my mentee, I generally recommend using the level criteria as a brag doc. That way you can see how much of the work you are doing is showing toward behaviors and work at the next level, and track that over time.
There are plenty of other formats though like this one: https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/
I also say, do what works best for you
Thanks, Jordan! :)
Thank you Jordan for this article
It gives a good framework for career growth and I will try this.
Do you recommend telling your manager that you have a mentor?
What if the manager prefer a growth plan that doesn’t go in the same direction as the one you created with your mentee.
For example, the manager might want you to grow your technical skills in a domain for the team’s needs, but you are already working on another skill.
Thanks, Achille. So glad you found it valuable and great question.
I would recommend telling your manager you have a mentor if its a mentor at work. In this case, I was a mentor outside of their work when I was working at my previous company.
As the mentor, I made sure that any direction we were moving was always in alignment with the manager's expectations. In this case, we didn't need to adjust the growth plan because I think my mentee already had a good sense of the manager's expectations, but if the manager was to change that, then we would change on our end.
For example, there was one recommendation I had for how to structure bullets in the brag doc he showed to his manager. I was pushing for more conciseness and less nitty gritty detail. But after showing it, his manager said he WANTED the detail, which I thought was a bit uncommon, but it's more important to adjust to the manager than fight it in that case. If they want detail, just give it to them
Thank you Jordan for the reply.
So it is more important to align with your manager than following the initial plan.
Exactly!
Very relevant for me, Jordan! 🙌
I've tried different templates and journaling prompts, but for my own career and when working with my mentee we end up going more on free-form text with whatever seems relevant from the past couple of weeks.
I've picked the ideas and will experiment with them to see what sticks and what doesn't
That makes sense, Fran.
Agreed, it's hard to say that 1 particular format will work for everyone. Hopefully the ideas are what sticks and format can be tweaked as you go!
Let me know how it goes :)
Awesome writeup here Jordan! This insight is definitely helpful for someone who is trying to get to the next level. I also found that consistently keeping a brag doc and sharing it with my manager helps alleviate so much stress when the time comes. Plus, it does feel good to recount the stories where you delivered impact no matter how big nor small
Great advice! I love that part about leveraging a weekly brain dump in order to build a promotion packet overtime. I've never heard that before.