It's fun to dream about retirement, especially what you'll do the first

month.  Going nowhere except where you feel like going -- in the middle of

the day.  Starting another career. Hangout with your spouse and your

grandkids. Great fun!

But, until you decide to give your retirement notice, you still have to

follow the rules.  Very soon, if you work for the Department of

Defense (DoD) -- and if you are in a pay band -- then this means you

have to write your NSPS Self-Assessment.

Here are some incentives for writing your NSPS Self-Assessment and how it

relates to your retirement.

Incentive # 1:  Build Your Bio

Think about the Self-Assessment as your short bio with your best ideas,

projects and performances for the year. Pretend that this short bio will get you

recognition and possibly make a difference before you leave the position into

retirement.  Likely some of the things you did this year

did make a difference.  These accomplishments can contribute

to your speaker's biography, consulting bio, contracting bio, or

your second career resume (if you choose to work full or part time

after retiring from the federal government).

Incentive # 2:  It's a Rule and You Have to Do

It 

For NSPS, you have to write it down. And it has to be written in an

organized, structured way. The supervisor gave you three objectives -- or

you wrote three objectives.   You have to write two or

three things that you did to meet the mission under each of those

objectives.

Incentive # 3:  Money.  Your Shares Could Apply

Toward Salary (and Eventually Your Monthly Retirement Check)

Now, this is important because your pay pool share will be attributed to both

a bonus and salary (probably).  Every extra dollar you earn will be good

for the monthly retirement numbers (the amount of your retirement annuity

is partly based on your high-three average salary, which is usually most

people's last three years of employment) 

Getting Started

So, to get started, find your Interim Assessment and see if it includes all

of your best accomplishments for the year -- and since March of last year.

Look through your calendar and emails to get reminders about projects,

customers and problems you solved this year that would fall under those Job

Objectives.

Start a "Top Ten List of Accomplishments".  Check out which

of them are the most impressive and begin to write more details of

these.

Think about your mission.  Consider how each accomplishment

met the mission and if it helped somebody.  Did it save time? 

Money?  Did it improve services?.  .

Keep working on it.   Your supervisor still has to write their

own assessment of your performance. The better you write about your performance,

the better the supervisor will concur and hopefully elaborate.

Go for a 3, and Strive for a 5

If you pay attention to the Performance Indicators and Contributing Factors,

you could try to make sure your accomplishments meet the Level 3 or Level 5

benchmarks. Strive for the best. Spend time on each accomplishment.

See Samples of Self-Assessment and Keywords

The publication, href="http://www.myfederalretirement.com/public/282.cfm">Writing Your NSPS

Self-Assessment, could help you with your document. You can order a

print book or download an e-Book with samples and instruction and insight into

the NSPS Self-Assessment.  For more information on the book, href="http://www.myfederalretirement.com/public/282.cfm">go here. 

About the Author

Kathryn K. Troutman, founder and president of the color=#0b2860>The Resume Place, Inc.,

is an internationally recognized book publisher and trainer for both

federal human resource specialists and federal employees. She is the pioneering

designer of the "Federal Resume" based on her flagship book, the Federal

Resume Guidebook.