Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How an Employee Got Promoted by Writing a Career Journal
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this product manager I want to talk about today — let's call her Priya. She was a mid-level PM at a mid-sized SaaS company, around four hundred employees. Solid performer, but she wasn't the loudest voice in the room. Luna: I feel like I know that person. Competent, maybe even excellent, but somehow invisible when promotion time comes around. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the problem she ran into. After her first year, she got a 'meets expectations' review — technically fine, but no raise, no title bump. Her manager said she was doing good work but couldn't point to a clear arc of growth. Luna: Ouch. That's the classic 'you're solid but not promotable' message. Which is often code for 'you haven't told me your story.' Lucas: Right. So Priya decided to do something about it. She started a career journal. Not a diary of her feelings — a structured document where she logged one entry per week. Three columns: accomplishments, lessons learned, and next steps. Luna: Three columns. I like that. Simple enough to actually do. Lucas: That's the key. Each entry took her maybe fifteen minutes. Under accomplishments, she'd list one or two concrete things she'd done that week — shipped a feature, resolved a customer escalation, got positive feedback from a stakeholder. Under lessons learned, she'd note something she'd do differently next time. Under next steps, she'd flag one thing she wanted to learn or tackle the following week. Luna: So it's not just a brag sheet. It's a learning log with forward motion. That's smart. Lucas: Exactly. She did this for eighteen months. By the time her next performance review came around, she had a document with over seventy weekly entries. She didn't go in empty-handed. She took the journal, summarised it into a one-page narrative, and handed it to her manager. Luna: And what did the manager say? Lucas: Her manager was surprised — in a good way. He said, 'I didn't realise you'd done all this.' Because her work was distributed across multiple projects, and he just hadn't connected the dots. The journal gave him the big picture. She got promoted to senior PM three weeks later. Luna: That's a great outcome. But I wonder — does this only work if you have a manager who's willing to read it? Some managers just don't engage. Lucas: Fair point. But I'd argue the journal works even with a disengaged manager, because it forces you to build your own narrative. If your manager won't read it, you can still use it to prepare for conversations, to practice articulating your value. Priya's case was ideal, but the tool itself is useful regardless. Luna: I buy that. And I think there's a second benefit — the journal builds self-awareness. When you write down your lessons learned every week, you start noticing patterns. Maybe you're great at launching new features but terrible at following up on bugs. That's valuable intel. Lucas: Yeah. And it helps you become more deliberate about your growth. If you see three weeks of 'next steps' all pointing to the same skill gap, you know it's time to act. Priya actually used her journal to identify that she needed to improve her data analysis skills, so she signed up for a SQL course — and she made sure to document that in her journal too. Luna: So the journal becomes a record of not just what you did, but how you grew. That's a powerful promotion argument. 'I identified a gap, I closed it, here's the result.' Lucas: Exactly. And honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We keep this show ad-free, and listener support is what makes that possible. Luna: It's a small gesture that goes a long way. And we really appreciate it. Lucas: Alright, back to Priya. The other thing she did was use her journal to prepare for skip-level meetings. She'd review her entries from the past month and pick two or three highlights to mention. That way she wasn't scrambling for talking points. Luna: That's a pro move. Skip-level meetings can be awkward if you don't have a plan. The journal gives you a cheat sheet. Lucas: Exactly. And it's not just for reviews or meetings. She also used it to build her case for a raise mid-cycle. When her company announced a restructuring, she had a ready-made summary of her impact. She walked into her manager's office and said, 'Here's what I've delivered this year. I think I deserve a level bump.' Luna: And did she get it? Lucas: She did. Not right away — it took two more months — but the journal gave her the confidence to ask. And the data to back it up. Luna: I think the risk here is that journaling can feel like a chore. How do you keep it going for eighteen months? Lucas: Priya kept it simple. She set a recurring calendar reminder for Friday afternoon, fifteen minutes. And she didn't overthink it. Some weeks her accomplishments were just 'dealt with a tricky customer request' or 'helped teammate with a bug.' Not every week had to be a home run. Luna: That's realistic. It's about consistency, not perfection. And I think that's the message — this isn't a heavy lift. It's a habit. Lucas: Exactly. And the payoff is that when promotion time comes, you're not trying to remember what you did six months ago. It's all there, in your own words. Luna: So for someone listening right now who thinks, 'I should try this' — what's the first step? Lucas: Open a Google Doc or a Notion page. Create three columns: accomplishments, lessons learned, next steps. Set a recurring reminder. And just write one entry this Friday. Don't worry about making it perfect. Just start.