- Welcome to the Knowledgette webinar on documenting your accomplishments. In this webinar, I'm going to discuss the power of the pen, even though these days we're more often likely to find ourselves writing on a computer than picking up an old-fashioned pen. One of the main arguments for taking the trouble to document things is if you're concerned about getting credit for your accomplishments, which can especially be a problem for women or minorities. If you write up the accomplishment, you're much more likely to be on the record and to get credit for it. So when you do so, it's a boost to your reputation, and anytime you can create a paper trail in support of your position, it's a good idea to do so. It can also enhance your career opportunities. And for those who are stressed, it can be done anytime from anywhere, and then you can also use it to build your curriculum vitae and your resume. When should you document? The best time is as soon as possible. That's when the issues you want to document are fresh in your mind. Whether this is a milestone or an accomplishment, do it as soon as possible. This is also important if you're involved in a dispute or a problem. If there's a dispute or a problem going on, you want to do something that creates an official timestamp, even something like sending an e-mail to yourself. People have lots of excuses for not documenting things. Many people hate writing and suffer severely from writer's block. Another common complaint is that they just don't have the time, they're too busy getting their job done and don't have time to document what they've done. Others may think that their accomplishment is not significant enough. But it's better no matter how large or how small the accomplishment to write it up and go on the record as getting credit for it. And by that, I mean in terms of going on the record, it may just be internally within your employer's documents. But that's something that's very valuable, too. Other people don't wanna brag or they wanna make sure they give proper credit to others. But you can write it up and acknowledge the other people who've been involved in the effort, because other people may be loathe to document, but if you're the one who documents what's happened, you can make sure that you get credit for what you've done. Don't necessarily think that others will do it, or if they do it, that they will be as generous in recognizing your contribution to the success of a project. It's very necessary, even for those who think they have a good, stable job, that they're not working in academia where it's publish or perish, going on the record and creating a solid set of well-documented accomplishments is extremely important. Where there are barriers to publishing, an alternative to create a public documented record of your accomplishments is patents. Many companies encourage patenting. In this case, you just have to write up an initial description, and those companies often have attorneys who do all the heavy lifting, but you end up getting the credit for being the author of a patent. There are ways to overcome writing phobia. One is initially don't worry about style. This is about content, you're not writing fiction, you're not being judged on your great literary skills. Jot ideas down as fast as they come into your head. One of the nice things about computers is it's easy to cut and paste and move things around. Imagine that you're talking to a friend or a colleague and just write it down just as you would say it. You can go back and edit things later. In addressing what needs to go into the article, think about all the classic questions, who, what, why, when, where, and how. And if you address those and go through it so that someone knows the details of your work, you've done a good job of documenting. There are many forms of documentation. As I mentioned briefly before, if you're trying to establish that something happened, e-mail can be very valuable. In many different circumstances, we may be asked to produce documentation to verify our side of events, and so e-mails to yourself, to a friend, can be very valuable in showing that it was documented real-time. Another example is company reports. You can also have internal and external presentations. Getting experience doing presentations is extremely valuable. There are also manuals describing something that's been developed, but often those are anonymous, so you may not get credit for those. And then there are publications. Even if you have, as I mentioned, a stable job, you don't expect to be looking for a new job soon, and you're not an academic, having publications are a wonderful differentiator on your resume. Patents also are a very big differentiator. I mentioned earlier your curriculum vita, and this is technically course of life in Latin. I view this as sort of a repository of everything you've accomplished. It can be a supplement to a resume, but it is not a resume. My advice is to always keep it up to date. The best time to document and keep track of what you've accomplished is real-time. In hindsight, at the point when you need a resume, you may be feeling depressed, you may not remember everything, and it can be hard to accurately recall details. It's also much easier to capture things when you're feeling the thrill of accomplishment. Another very critical document for you is your resume. Frequently one page, unless you're truly an accomplished individual, is preferred. Each resume should be tailored for the job opportunity, which is another reason why you should have in effect the CV, curriculum vita as a resource from which you pick and choose your accomplishments that are best suited to promote you as an ideal candidate for the job. You should focus on your relevant experience there. It may not be what you think you've done best, but what's most relevant to that job. And whenever possible, and it's a good idea to do this and capture it real-time while you're working on your CV, is to put an economic value on your accomplishments. Remember, resume alone seldom secures a job, but it can be a powerful tool after you've caught somebody's eye in actually getting the job. Personal contact is always important. So in conclusion, you can write your way to success. You can do this with presentations, publications, and patents. And so especially if you're part of a group where you may feel that others tend to take credit for your accomplishments, that your part of being a team member is not thoroughly acknowledged, it's a good way to protect yourself and stand out in a tough job market. Thank you.