Should achievements be measured in money?
If you've ever written a resume for an IT job, you've probably heard the advice: write not about processes (what you did), but about achievements (what you did and what results you achieved). At the same time, achievements should be measurable, written according to a certain formula and contain “strong” verbs.
Sounds logical, but in practice, many questions arise. What achievements can be described? What to do if it seems that there are none? What to do as a developer who cannot directly measure their contribution to the business? What verbs and metrics are best to use?
In this article, I will break down these questions to help you present your experience on your resume and stand out from other candidates. Regardless of your role in IT – developer, product manager, QA engineer or specialist in another field – it is important for you to correctly describe your professional achievements in order to get the offer of your dreams.
Why is describing achievements difficult?
Describing your accomplishments can be difficult, and the reasons for this are not only due to objective difficulties. Often, we simply do not know how to correctly determine what exactly is an achievement and what is simply the performance of routine tasks. It can also be difficult to evaluate your contribution to the overall success of the team.
Sometimes we tend to measure everything only in money, forgetting about other, no less important indicators. It can be difficult to believe in the significance of our own successes, especially if they seem insignificant to us. And finally, we may simply not know how to correctly formulate our achievement so that it sounds convincing and bright.
Remember, achievements are not measured only in money!
These are also achievements:
Optimized development costs by 10%
Optimized the code, which allowed the server load to be reduced by 15%.
Launched a caching service, which increased page loading speed by 30%
Wrote 1000 test cases, which allowed us to speed up testing functionality by 50%
Raised rating in Google Play from 4 to 4.5
For example, many focus on processes (“I developed a new payment processing module”) instead of specific results (“I increased the app's rating in the AppStore from 3.5 to 4.5 by adding a new payment method for international users”).
It is important to remember that the achievement should be significant for you first and foremost. If you think that code optimization that accelerated the application by 20% is your cool achievement, then present it as such, arguing and confidently talking about it. Explain what technical difficulties you overcame and what impact it had on users.
What are the key principles for describing achievements?
Focus on specific results, not processes
Use measurable indicators (numbers, percentages)
Whenever possible, tie achievements to the company's business goals, but don't get hung up on that alone; money isn't the only possible achievement.
Use clear language for people without deep expertise in your work (e.g. recruiters)
Be honest and don't invent your achievements
Describe 3-5 specific accomplishments for each position on your resume. This is the optimal number to show your contribution without overloading your resume.
It is important that your achievements are written in clear language and are easy to read. Ask a friend or colleague to read your resume and tell you if everything is clear to them. You can even use ChatGPT to check the grammar. Important! Do not ask ChatGPT to formulate your achievements. The language of the neural network is very easy for recruiters to recognize.
Here are some examples of well-articulated achievements.
For the developer: “Optimized the data processing algorithm, speeding up the system by 40% and reducing resource consumption by 25%”
For a product manager: “Increased conversion from registration to purchase by 15% by optimizing the user path, reducing the number of steps from 5 to 4”
For a QA engineer: “Developed and implemented automated tests, covering 90% of critical scenarios and reducing testing time by 75%”
How to improve the description of achievements?
1. To formulate achievements, use the XYZ formula, where:
X – achievement
Y – metric (percentages, pieces, money, etc.)
Z is the process by which you achieved X
I have reached X [достижение] by Y% [метрика] with Z [процесс] (I achieved X [achievement] by Y% [metrics, data] using Z [process])
I did Z [процесс]which resulted in X at Y% [достижение] (I did Z [process]which resulted in X by Y% [achievement])
Example: “Developed a mobile app for a restaurant chain that received 100,000 downloads in the first month after release and increased online orders by 30%”
2. Tailor your achievements to the specific job opening (if the company is looking for a developer with experience in creating recommendation algorithms, put this achievement of yours at the very top)
3. Update your list of achievements regularly (for example, every six months). To do this, I recommend writing down what you did at work every day. Then review these achievements once a week and choose the top 3. And at the end of the month, review all the achievements for the weeks and choose the top 3. As a result, after six months you will have 18 achievements, and after a year 32, which you might have forgotten about. From these achievements, choose the very top 3 that you will place on your resume.
It is important for a recruiter to see the scale of your achievements to understand whether you are a good fit in terms of level and experience. Therefore, always indicate the time frame in which you achieved the result and other important details. For example, instead of “attracted new users” write “attracted 50,000 new users in 6 months, increasing the base by 25%”.
How do I describe my achievements if I changed my profession?
1. Highlight the skills that are applicable to the new role
2. Focus on results relevant to the desired position
3. Explain how your previous experience will help in the new role.
Example: If you're moving from marketing to product management, focus on achievements related to analyzing user needs and launching new products. For example: “Conducted target audience research and developed a strategy for launching a new product, which resulted in 10,000 users in the first month.”
Conclusion
Writing a good summary of your accomplishments is a skill that can and should be developed. Key points to remember:
Use specific, measurable metrics (what you did)
Determine exactly YOUR contribution to the project, do not “stretch out” financial indicators if you did not influence them
Highlight those achievements that are relevant to a specific vacancy
Update your list of achievements regularly
Be prepared to detail each accomplishment in the interview (so be careful if you embellish anything)
Don't be afraid to ask for feedback from colleagues and mentors about your work and your resume.
Remember that even a small amount of experience can be presented in a favorable light if it is described correctly. Your achievements are your professional capital, and the ability to present it correctly can be a decisive factor in building a career.
This article can be used as a practical guide when writing a resume. I recommend saving it and referring to it whenever you update your resume or prepare for an interview.
About me:
My name is Anna Naumova, I am a career coach in the USA and Principal Product Manager at Oxygen, ex-PM at Apple, Zello, VK, mentor at Women in Tech, immigrant and ambassador of the Russian-speaking IT community. I have been living in the USA for 8 years in Austin, Texas. I help smart people find work and move to the States.
