I’ve Reviewed Over 100 CVs

Most of Them Made The Same Mistake

They tried to tell me everything they did instead of the one thing that mattered:

What happened because they did it.

Here's what I mean.

Most CVs read like job descriptions: "Developed REST APIs, maintained MySQL databases, wrote unit tests, participated in code reviews, and used Docker for deployments."

It's a list of technologies. Tasks. Responsibilities.

But here's what's missing: So what?

What happened to system performance because you optimized those APIs? How much faster did queries run after you redesigned that database? What problems got solved because of the code you wrote?

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Think about this.

When you need a plumber, you don't want someone who "does plumbing, electrical work, painting, landscaping, and general home maintenance."

You want someone who fixes pipes. Really well. With proof they've solved exactly your type of problem before.

The best CVs I've seen focus on one clear narrative built on specific impact.

Not "I have experience in Python, JavaScript, AWS, Docker, React, Node.js, and PostgreSQL."

But "I build systems that scale" with three examples of exactly how much load you handled or latency you reduced.

Not "I'm proficient in machine learning, data analysis, API development, database optimization, and cloud deployment."

But "I reduced model inference time from 2 seconds to 300ms, enabling real-time predictions for 10 million daily users."

One story. Proven with results.

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This is hard because it requires two kinds of sacrifice.

First, you have to leave out the irrelevant stuff. The internship that doesn't fit. The side project that's impressive but unrelated. The skill that everyone else has too.

Second, you have to think harder about what actually changed because of your work. Activities are easy to remember. Impact requires you to connect your work to real outcomes.

And yes, this is messy. Not every job has clear metrics. Not every project moves the needle in obvious ways.

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But here's what most people miss: the person reading your CV doesn't care about your journey or your job duties.

They care about their problem.

They don't want to hire someone with the most comprehensive experience. They want to hire someone who can solve their specific challenge and prove it.

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Now, you might be thinking: "But I work on enterprise software. I grind through backlogs, fix bugs, add features. How do I measure that impact?"

Fair point.

Maybe you can't say "increased revenue by 40%." But even then, you probably have some story of impact.

Did that bug fix prevent customer support tickets? Did the feature you built get adopted by users? Did your code review catch issues that would have caused downtime?

Sometimes impact isn't dramatic. Sometimes it's preventing bad things from happening.

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And yes, there's a risk here.

When everyone starts optimizing for impact metrics, some people will inflate their numbers. Make up achievements. Turn small wins into big victories.

But here's the thing: good interviewers can spot fake impact in about five minutes.

They ask follow-up questions. They dig into details. They want to understand not just what happened, but how you made it happen.

You can fake a number. You can't fake deep understanding of the problem you supposedly solved.

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We think if we list everything we did, we’ll seem more valuable. More experienced. More hireable.

But the opposite happens.

When we try to show everything, we show nothing that matters.

It’s not about how much we’ve done.
It’s about what got better because we did it.

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