Brag document and folder — feels good only
Table of contents
In this article I explain what a “Brag document” is, how it relates to my own “Worklog document”, and how I use them both.
Many definitions
A Brag document has many names, depending on who you ask, and it can also contain a variety of content, again depending who you ask.
Julia Evans was among the first that popularized the term “Brag document”. Her post is really good, go read it too (after this one though 😅).
Others also wrote their own versions, mostly similar to Julia’s post.
- “Keeping Track of Your Accomplishments with a Brag Document” by Jeff Humble
- “An Essential Tool for Capturing Your Career Accomplishments” by Jessica Ivins
- “Why you Should Keep a Brag Document” by Andy Budd
Finally, several folks often discuss about this type of documents on social media, e.g. this Reddit post titled “Keep a Brag Document”.
A Brag document is many things, but the common definition is:
- Listing what you do over time at work, tasks, problems solved, etc.
- Making it easier to find your achievements for promotion docs, interview dicussions, etc.
- And can use it as a source of happiness and feeling of achievement.
Is this… the Worklog?
Several years ago, I wrote an article describing the “Worklog document”, my own kind of document I was keeping throughout my career.
If you read my article, and compare it with the articles referenced above, you will see a huge overlap. I didn’t know the term “Brag document” back then, but they look awfully similar.
This is why I use the term “Brag document” a bit differently than the above.
Brag document and folder
I personally use a Brag document just for the good stuff, the achievements, and the praises.
It’s not a list of things I do over time, it’s not a list of projects I delivered, and it’s not the number of oncall incidents I managed to resolve. It is complementary to my Worklog.
It has screenshots of chat messages from colleagues thanking me for something.
It has quotes from others praising my work, in chat, in announcements, in wikis, or given as part of performance review feedback.
It has awards I have won, or significant milestones in my career.
It is a document, and literally a folder of screenshots.
You can see some of these screenshots in my 1:1 Tech Interviews page, with colleagues praising my article about software engineering interviews and asking if they could use it themselves.
A quote from my last performance review feedback can be found also in my article “Ownership - High agency - Manager of One” (go read it and find out which one 😎).
Conclusion
This Brag folder and document is literally the place where you can go and just feel nothing but good about yourself, your work, and your achievements.
Everyone should keep a Brag document, regardless of level or industry, from Juniors to Distinguished Engineers, to doctors, to teachers.
All people forget. Colleagues and managers, and even you, will forget what you did in the past. This is your way of persisting the great things you do forever.
Trust me, your future self will thank your current self for doing this.
Do good work, and keep updating your Brag document and folder. 🥳