Performance Review & Self-Assessment

How to write self-reviews, brag docs, and impact statements in English (用英文写自评、brag doc、impact 总结)

Why Self-Promotion Matters (为什么自我推销重要)

Asian/Chinese culture trains us to be modest. In Western companies, modesty during performance reviews costs you raises and promotions. Your manager cannot remember everything you did. If you don't tell the story of your impact, no one will.

亚洲/中文文化训练我们谦虚。在西方公司，绩效评估时谦虚会让你失去加薪和晋升。你的经理记不住你做的所有事。如果你不讲述你的影响，没人会替你讲。

The principle 原则: Self-promotion is not bragging — it's information transfer. Your manager needs the facts to advocate for you.

自我推销不是吹牛——是信息传递。你的经理需要事实来为你争取。

The Brag Doc (brag doc / 自吹文档)

A running document where you record your wins as they happen. Update weekly or biweekly — by review time it writes itself.

一个持续更新的文档，事情发生时就记录你的成就。每周或每两周更新——评估时它自己就写好了。

Brag doc structure (brag doc 结构)

## 2026 H1

### Shipped
- [Date] Launched feature X to all users — drove 12% increase in retention
- [Date] Migrated service Y to new infra — cut p99 latency 40%

### Led / Drove
- [Date] Owned design and rollout of new caching layer (3 engineers)
- [Date] Drove cross-team alignment on auth migration

### Improved
- [Date] Reduced CI time from 22 → 8 min, saving the team ~10 hrs/week
- [Date] Mentored 2 new hires through onboarding

### Recognition
- [Date] "Excellent" feedback from PM Sarah on launch comms
- [Date] Shoutout from VP at all-hands

### Things I learned / Stretch
- [Date] First time leading an incident response — handled X

STAR / SBI Format for Bullet Points (要点的 STAR / SBI 格式)

STAR (situation, task, action, result)

For each accomplishment, capture:

Situation: context
Task: what needed to happen
Action: what you did
Result: measurable outcome

Strong vs. weak bullets (强 vs. 弱要点)

❌ "Worked on the auth system." — 太弱：动词被动，无影响。 ✅ "Led the redesign of the auth system, reducing login failures by 35% and unblocking the mobile launch." — 强：动词主动 + 影响 + 战略价值。

❌ "Helped with code reviews." — 弱。 ✅ "Reviewed 80+ PRs across 3 teams, caught 4 production-impacting bugs before merge, and authored a code review guide now used in onboarding." — 强。

Strong Action Verbs (强动词)

Use these to start bullets. They show ownership and impact.

用这些动词开头。它们显示担责和影响。

Category	Verbs
Leadership	Led, drove, owned, spearheaded, championed, orchestrated
Building	Built, designed, architected, launched, shipped, delivered
Improvement	Reduced, accelerated, optimized, streamlined, eliminated, scaled
Influence	Influenced, aligned, partnered with, advocated for, convinced
Mentorship	Mentored, coached, onboarded, guided, unblocked
Problem-solving	Resolved, debugged, root-caused, mitigated, recovered

Avoid weak verbs: helped, assisted, worked on, was part of, contributed to.

避免弱动词：helped, assisted, worked on, was part of, contributed to。

Quantifying Impact (量化影响)

Numbers are the universal language of impact. Find them.

数字是影响的通用语言。找出来。

Without numbers (没数字)	With numbers (有数字)
"Made the API faster."	"Cut p95 latency from 800ms → 120ms."
"Reduced bugs."	"Reduced incidents by 60% quarter-over-quarter."
"Improved test coverage."	"Raised test coverage from 45% → 78% in the payments module."
"Mentored juniors."	"Onboarded 3 new hires; all 3 shipped first PR within 5 days."
"Saved time."	"Eliminated 6 hrs/week of manual work for the on-call rotation."

When you don't have numbers (没有数字时)

"Unblocked the launch by..." — 通过……让发布得以推进。
"Enabled the team to..." — 让团队能够……
"Was the only person on the team who could X — now 3 others can." — 之前只有我能做 X——现在另外 3 人也能。
Customer/peer quotes — "Sarah called this 'the best onboarding she's seen.'"

Self-Assessment Sections (自评常见板块)

Most companies' self-review templates ask similar questions. Here's how to answer.

大多数公司的自评模板问类似的问题。下面是回答方式。

"What were your biggest accomplishments?" (最大的成就)

Pick 3-5. For each: what you did, the impact, why it mattered to the company.

挑 3-5 个。每个写：你做了什么、影响、对公司的意义。

1. Led the migration of [service] to [new platform]
   - Cut infra cost by $X/year
   - Improved p99 latency by 40%
   - Enabled team to ship feature Y, which had been blocked for 2 quarters

"What could you have done better?" (你哪里可以做得更好)

Be honest but strategic. Pick something:

Real (not fake humility)
Already improving (show growth)
Not a critical weakness for your role

诚实但有策略。挑一个：

真实（不要假谦虚）
已在改善（显示成长）
不是你岗位的关键弱点

"I underinvested in cross-team communication early in the project — 
I was heads-down building, but should have surfaced the timeline risk 
to dependent teams a month earlier. Since then, I've started a 
biweekly sync with the API and mobile teams, which has prevented 
two similar surprises."

"Goals for next period" (下一阶段目标)

Tie goals to business outcomes and your growth, not just tasks.

把目标和业务成果及你的成长绑定，不只是任务。

❌ "Finish the migration." — 任务，弱。 ✅ "Lead the auth migration to completion (Q3), and grow into a tech lead role by mentoring 2 ICs and owning a cross-team initiative." — 任务 + 成长。

Talking About Your Work in Reviews (评估对话中谈自己的工作)

Opening (开场)

"Looking back, the wins I'm most proud of are..." — 回头看，我最自豪的成就是……
"Three things stand out for me from the past six months..." — 过去半年有三件事我觉得突出……

Quantifying without bragging (量化但不显得吹嘘)

"The result was X — happy to walk through how we got there." — 结果是 X——可以详细讲讲怎么做到的。
"What I'm proud of isn't just shipping — it's that the team can now do X without me." — 我自豪的不是发布——是团队没我也能做 X。

Owning impact without it being all you (担责但不抢功)

"Working with [teammate], we shipped X. My piece was Y." — 和 [队友] 一起发布了 X。我的部分是 Y。
"I led the technical design; [PM] drove the rollout." — 我主导技术设计；[PM] 推动落地。

Asking for feedback (请求反馈)

"What's one thing I should do more of?" — 我应该多做哪一件事？
"What's one thing I should stop doing?" — 我应该停止做哪一件事？
"Where do you see my biggest growth area?" — 你看我最大的成长空间在哪？
"If I want to get to [next level], what's the gap?" — 如果我想到 [下一级]，差距在哪？

Talking About Promotion (谈晋升)

Direct ask (直接表达)

"I want to put my name in for promotion this cycle. Can we talk about whether I'm ready?" — 我想这个 cycle 申请晋升。能聊聊我是否够格吗？
"What would it take for me to be promoted to [level]?" — 我要晋升到 [级别] 需要什么？
"Help me understand the gap between where I am and [next level]." — 帮我理解我现在和 [下一级] 的差距。

When you're already operating at the next level (已经在做下一级的活)

"I've been operating at the [next level] scope for the last [N months]. I'd like to make that official." — 过去 [N 个月] 我一直在做 [下一级] 的范围。希望正式化。
"Here are 3 examples of [next-level] impact this year — I want to talk about promotion." — 今年有 3 个 [下一级] 影响的例子——我想谈晋升。

Receiving Critical Feedback (接受批评性反馈)

Don't get defensive (不要防御)

"Tell me more — I want to understand." — 跟我多说说——我想理解。
"That's hard to hear, but I want to take it in." — 这听着难受，但我想消化。
"Can you give me a specific example?" — 能给我一个具体例子吗？
"What would 'better' look like to you?" — 在你看来"更好"是什么样？

Don't agree on the spot if you disagree (有异议不要当场附和)

"I want to sit with this and come back with a real response." — 我想消化一下，再回来好好回应。
"Can I think about that and follow up tomorrow?" — 能想一下明天再聊吗？

Acknowledge then act (承认然后行动)

"Got it. Here's what I'll do differently starting now..." — 收到。从现在起我会这样改……

Phrases to Avoid (要避免的表达)

❌ Avoid (避免)	Why (原因)	✅ Better (更好)
"I just helped with..."	"just" 削弱了你	"I led..." or "I drove..."
"It was a team effort." (when asked about your contribution)	不回答问题，丢功劳	"The team shipped X. My role was Y, and I'm proud of Z."
"I'm not sure I deserve..."	自我贬低	"Here's the case for why I'm ready."
"I was lucky."	把成就归于运气	"I'm proud of how I navigated X."
"My English isn't great so..."	不该是绩效话题	(don't bring it up)

Update brag doc weekly — Memory fades fast. Capture wins fresh. 每周更新。
Numbers, names, dates — Specifics are credible; generalities aren't. 数字、人名、日期。
Tie work to company priorities — Show your impact mattered to the business. 把工作和公司优先级挂钩。
Don't sandbag your goals — Aspirational beats sandbagging for promotion. 别故意定低目标。
Ask "what would change your mind?" — When told you're not ready: get specifics, not vibes. 问"什么能让你改变看法"。