- Grads Today
- Posts
- New grads - make your mark with your first performance review
New grads - make your mark with your first performance review
Aaron Neena Baid
November 19, 2025
“If we shield ourselves from all feedback, we stop growing." – Brené Brown
Table of Contents
Understanding Your Performance Review: What It Is and Why It Matters
Starting your first job is exciting — and your performance review is one of the most valuable parts of your early career journey. It’s not just a meeting about how you’ve done; it’s a conversation about how you can grow, improve, and succeed in your role. Performance reviews must be seen as an opportunity to have a great conversation about your future goals and aspirations. Most importantly, you must think about, how your organisation will help you achieve those goals. So go in prepared.
What Is a Performance Review?
A performance review (sometimes called an appraisal or check-in) is a structured conversation between you and your manager. It usually happens once or twice a year and focuses on:
What you’ve achieved: projects completed, results delivered, or problems solved.
How you’ve developed: new skills learned, challenges faced, and lessons gained.
Your goals for the future: what you’d like to achieve next and how your manager can support you.
It’s an opportunity to pause, reflect, and ensure you’re on the right track — both for your role and your career aspirations.
Why It’s Important
Performance reviews are important because they:
Give you feedback – helping you understand what’s going well and where you can improve.
Recognise your achievements – ensuring your contributions are seen and valued.
Shape your development plan – guiding you toward training, mentoring, or stretch projects.
Support your progression – strong reviews often lead to pay reviews, promotions, or added responsibility.
For example, Maya, a graduate analyst, used her review to discuss how she wanted to develop stronger presentation skills. Her manager arranged for her to co-present at a client meeting. Within a few months, she felt more confident and became known for her clear, professional communication.
How It Helps You Succeed
Approaching your performance review positively can accelerate your growth:
Prepare by listing your key achievements and lessons learned.
Be open to constructive feedback — it’s meant to help you improve, not criticise.
Set goals that are specific, measurable, and aligned with your team’s objectives.
For example, Tom, a marketing graduate, set a goal to improve his data analysis skills. With his manager’s support, he took a short course, which helped him produce stronger campaign insights and led to an early promotion.
What good looks like
Own your own performance
Gather your feedback
Gather examples of the great work you have done
Consider what is key to your future growth goals
Think about those around you that can help
Cheeky meme of the week
