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Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

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Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#11

Post by teeray »

orev wrote: post #8
glacials wrote: post #7

My company had just started doing performance reviews, as they had been growing a lot (generic small startup with unlimited vacation and all that) and it was That Time. So this was a quarterly performance review, but was my first after having worked there 1-2 years. The system had six levels resembling standard deviations in a normal distribution, so ~2% at the extreme high and extreme low. In parallel, you pick one…

If a company has an “unlimited” vacation policy, it’s totally off-limits to bring that up against you in a review. They could say that you didn’t get X work done or something, but with that kind of vacation policy — it’s what they specifically signed up for.

Just another data point to show that when you hear "unlimited vacation" you should think about it the same way as when you hear your cell phone company say "unlimited data"

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#12

Post by musicale »

It was a complete and utter waste of time, as has been every other performance review I have ever been a part of.

Performance reviews from bosses are almost always useless and do more harm than good. The only possible exception I've seen might be in research settings where supervisors sometimes work closely with you and may actually be qualified to evaluate your work. But in that case, usually they are already giving you feedback during the process and a formal performance review is just a checkbox item to satisfy their own supervisor or funding organization.

Moreover it is generally impossible to have a fair and honest discussion with someone who can fire you or influence your pay.

Actual feedback on your work from skilled technical people on your team and actual users is generally far more useful than a performance review and can be gathered at any time.

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#13

Post by rapfaria »

pskiba wrote: post #5

Somehow I ended up getting a perfect score in every category, which in my company is not typical and I was given pretty much no feedback. I'm confident my manager was scolded for the score he gave me by his boss or hr. Ever since he's given me the most middle of the road scores . The only take away I've gotten from this experience is that performance reviews in my company are more political then actually reflective o…

This really gets me:

  I was given pretty much no feedback
This is exactly what happened to me a few years back. I was so eager for that review since we had all our KPIs recorded and I knew I had a perfect record, and all I heard was something along the lines "I have nothing bad to say". In that review, my manager said my results would warrant at least an A, and a promotion would probably be on the way. Probably.

A few weeks later I received a letter with my C rating, and I left the company a few months later.

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#15

Post by ereyes01 »

My first performance review came 6 months after I started at IBM. I was basically told that I did everything perfectly but I still got what amounted to a middling "satisfactory" rating. My manager told me that I will get a better score next year if I change nothing about my performance, and the "satisfactory" rating was due to company policy and my not having worked there a full year yet. I later learned that managers have a budget of how many good/medium/bad ratings they can hand out, and the choice of who gets what is 100% arbitrary and up to the manager. Big company politics I guess . I proceeded to have many much better years after that, fortunately.

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#16

Post by draklor40 »

My manager set no goals. I received an email in Feb (appraisal was April-March following year) that I did Ok but have to do better to get more money or be promoted. No goals again next year. Same feedback. Forced my manager to set goals for the following year. Managers changed. Had to start over. Left my jobs. If a company says that there are no fixed goals or no fixed vacation days, run. Run and dont look back.

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#17

Post by tspike »

My first performance review as an employee was good. I had a manager that cared about his employees and understood their strengths and weaknesses. I was challenged on some key shortcomings but got enough positive feedback and reward to keep me motivated. He had good visibility into what I was doing and what its impact (or lack thereof) was.

My first performance review that I gave as a manager was terrible. My employee was twice my age, and I'd managed him for 2 months. He came into the room and his first words were "Yeah. I think in my entire career, this kind of thing has only been useful once."

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#18

Post by mikekchar »

rapfaria wrote: post #13
pskiba wrote: post #5

Somehow I ended up getting a perfect score in every category, which in my company is not typical and I was given pretty much no feedback. I'm confident my manager was scolded for the score he gave me by his boss or hr. Ever since he's given me the most middle of the road scores . The only take away I've gotten from this experience is that performance reviews in my company are more political then actually reflective o…

This really gets me: I was given pretty much no feedback This is exactly what happened to me a few years back. I was so eager for that review since we had all our KPIs recorded and I knew I had a perfect record, and all I heard was something along the lines "I have nothing bad to say". In that review, my manager said my results would warrant at least an A, and a promotion would probably be on the way. Probably. A few…

I once had an interesting review: "Ordinarily if someone had given me this list of accomplishments I would give them I very good review. But I just don't like you". Sometimes reviews serve you well in ways you don't expect ;-) Especially when you are at the start of your career, you don't always twig that the place you are working in is completely dysfunctional.

Re: Ask HN: How was your first performance review?

#19

Post by xnyan »

At first confusing, then enlightening. When I was hired, I was told many things about the values of the company, how much they wanted people to think about doing things differently and create innovation even if it was not directly profitable, how much they value diverse contributions and thought, and most importantly, how it's not all about the bottom line here.

I was praised in my 1 year performance review to no end and given great feedback by my manager about new initiatives I had worked on or projects I had done. When I got my official paper copy of the review, it had a score that equaled C- because my estimated revenue contribution was ~5% below my role's average and that was essentially the only thing that mattered for performance evaluation score and bonus/promotion opportunities.

Knowing this, I focused much more on making money the next year and got a much better grade. I left the company shortly after that and I'm still mad they were not just honest with me at the start. I would have taken another job if I knew that was what the deal was, which I suspect is why they lied.

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