AIBU to ask how you fill in your appraisal form....

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....without sounding like a prat.

Have recently changed jobs and am facing my first personal appraisal. I have been staring at a blank page for hours and have no idea how to demonstrate my technical skills without sounding like a blow hard.

Please tell me everyone wants to cringe when they do this!!

Not really - we have a meeting with the manager and agree on what goes into the appraisal.
I then elaborate a bit and submit.
Job done!

We do ours by laying out the jobs we do.
Usually 4 or 5 things.
Then what was expected and what we did to meet those expectations.
What are they wanting from you?
Appraisals should always involve your manager to some degree.

We have a spreadsheet to fill out which goes to the big bosses who then fill out the same thing from their point of view and then we meet to dissect it.

We have to talk about all the standard stuff:

Technical skills
Client relationships
Financial management
Business development
Leadership and teamwork
Contribution overall

Literally have no clue how to approach it

I think you have to forget about being modest and really blow your own trumpet because no other bugger is going to! Yes it’s cringey but you have to list the good things you’ve done. It should be fairly easy in a new job as you can talk about all the new things you’ve learned, any gaps you’ve identified and how you’ve filled them etc

My immediate thoughts are to complete it in a similar way to a skill-set CV. Essentially it is the same thing, you're selling you effectively (in the hope of promotion, salary increase or against demotion or redundancy).

So rather than, for example, expert in Microsoft applications I would put something to the effect of "utilises a range of bespoke and COTS (commercial off the shelf) applications including introducing new procedures to improve efficiency within X dept, for example did X and achieved a £20,000 saving overall". I hope that makes sense!

I think my problem is I’m sort of happy enough and I guess competent enough to just be doing my job without too much thought about it.

I think you’re right though, you have to abandon your modesty

be a prat.
big yourself up.
you need to otherwise you will stand out for the wrong reasons when promotions/redundancies are discussed.

I do appraisals for my staff and I keep evidence of good work above and beyond job spec.
I don’t bring up deficiencies as they are dealt with when they occur in the course of normal working hours, unless it is a consistent failing despite intervention.

Staff and I discuss, have meeting and submit to HR.

All very NHS!

I'm doing mine now. It's such a waste of time. It bears no relation to the actual job!!

give examples.

"I have increased my number of clients from 4 to 20."
"I give excellent support, quote from email received from A.Non of ACME Trading 'thank you for your support during recent installation, we were done with 5 days to spare and couldn't have done it without you'"
"although not my direct responsibility I spotted an error in X which enabled it to be rectified prior to delivery"
etc.

It’s cringey but you have to big yourself up, if you don’t no one else will. Men do this without thinking about it but it’s taken me time and practice (and a great mentor) to get there.

I write a list of everything that’s been achieved in the last year then go through and write what I did to make it happen e.g. implementing regulate reviews, analysing reports and conducting trend review to proactively identify issues, provide leadership etc. Use lots of words like lead, communicate, facilitate, support, escalate...

My experience is that appraisal processes even in well-meaning and well run companies generally incentivise exaggeration and padding ...

it's all very un-English, isn't it? Like those little paragraphs at the top of CVs these days, summing up how fabulous you are in 2 sentences.

Hate it.

I just feel like I’m going to then go infront of a panel of my bosses and be mortified.

horrors!

Examples of what you've done. Definitely the best way of avoiding sounding like you're bragging and also the best way of illustrating your input in an objective way. Bullet points or mind map on scrap paper then organise these into your appraisal form.

Provided I haven’t massively failed my objectives that year, I big myself up as much as possible. No one else is going to do it!

I know it can feel a bit unnatural sometimes but if you have a payrise at stake and need to prove how great you are to get it I think you just need to go for it! As others have said by breaking down positive achievements and why they had an impact due to your input is the best way to go. Only you, your manager and maybe HR will read it so don't feel embarrassed.

Mine has nothing to do with my pay levels, prospect of redundancy or promotion.

I write factually about things I did, gained or achieved since last appraisal, and what strategy (resources, allowances) I need for CPD (only thing my appraisal can change).

I am a total Billy Bullshitter in Appraisals as it's a totally bullshit idea/system anyway.