How to prepare for your annual performance review

In the US it is usually called an annual review or performance appraisal. In the UK it is often just the appraisal. The shape is the same: you and your manager look back at the year, agree how it went and set up the next one. Often it also feeds pay and promotion decisions, even when nobody says so.

Go month by month. Check your calendar, sent email, finished tickets, shipped work and any praise you received. For each item write one line: what the situation was, what you did, what changed and where the proof is. That is the CAIP Framework, and it stops the review turning into a summary of the last month.

Goal:
What I delivered against it:
Impact (numbers or before and after):
Proof:
What I would do differently:

Lead with your strongest three to five results. Be specific and use "I". Include one honest area to grow; managers trust self-assessments that are not all praise. More wording ideas are on the self-evaluation examples page.

Let your manager speak first, then walk through your evidence rather than reading it out. If their view differs from yours, ask what would have changed their rating and write it down. Close by agreeing two or three goals for next year that are specific enough to be measured.

If pay is decided at review time, say what you want clearly and tie it to evidence of increased scope or results, not to cost of living alone. The raise request and promotion case pages cover how to build that argument. UK readers can use the appraisal preparation page.

Starting the night before. Listing duties instead of results. Forgetting the first half of the year. Saying "we" throughout. Arriving without a clear ask.

The review is only hard because the year has to be reconstructed. Keeping a brag document, or talking to Look At You Go for 90 seconds a week, means the evidence is already there next time.