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I need to do this for job hunting purposes. What's my greatest accomplishment, they will ask. I'm not sure how to answer that. I don't have much stand out stuff

I need to do this for job hunting purposes. What's my greatest accomplishment, they will ask. I'm not sure how to answer that. I don't have much stand out stuff, at least not career wise. Should I mention a cool coding project I worked on for a job? That seems somewhat underwhelming as a "greatest" accomplishment. Any advice on this front?

afarrell 11y ago
They don't want you to find the global maximum of impressiveness. They want you to tell a story of how you solved a problem so that they can tell themselves a story of how you'll solve a problem in their business and thereby cut costs or (preferably) increase revenue.
timruffles 11y ago
Yes, mention the cool coding project! We're mostly average[1], most companies/jobs are average, and most employers should and do value our average accomplishments[2]! If you enthusiastically and knowledgeably describe a cool coding project you'll be winning vs most people I've interviewed. If you're going for CTO of SpaceX, yes, you'll need some overwhelming accomplishments. If you're going for developer role 437 at SpaceX, less so :) [1] when compared to peers, e.g the people going for the same jobs as you [2] and will definitely prefer a nice 'average' person, to an obnoxious 'genius'
gk1 11y ago
As sibling commenters already noted, the accomplishment you tell of doesn't need to be groundbreaking. I'll take it further: It doesn't even need to be your _biggest_ accomplishment! For example, you can choose to talk about _the first_ time you did something, say, lead a small project from start to finish with some result X. Then you explain why you're so proud of that accomplishment: Because previously you only worked on projects led by others, or only took over existing projects, etc, but this was the first time you managed a project from planning all the way through release and support. That means it was the first time you faced challenges such as X, Y, and Z, and you overcame them by doing this and that... And although you've led many other bigger and more interesting projects since then, this one small project made you a better leader and better engineer, and that's why you consider it one of your greatest personal accomplishments. --- Notice how in an answer like this you get to throw in all sorts of things that hiring managers love: Challenges you've faced, how you overcame them, how you approach problems, leadership experience, how you think, etc. And by the way, the great thing about "greatest" is that it's relative, so there's no wrong answer. Some times it's better to tell of a smaller accomplishment if there's a better story that goes along with it.

afarrell 11y ago

They don't want you to find the global maximum of impressiveness. They want you to tell a story of how you solved a problem so that they can tell themselves a story of how you'll solve a problem in their business and thereby cut costs or (preferably) increase revenue.

timruffles 11y ago

Yes, mention the cool coding project! We're mostly average[1], most companies/jobs are average, and most employers should and do value our average accomplishments[2]! If you enthusiastically and knowledgeably describe a cool coding project you'll be winning vs most people I've interviewed. If you're going for CTO of SpaceX, yes, you'll need some overwhelming accomplishments. If you're going for developer role 437 at SpaceX, less so :) [1] when compared to peers, e.g the people going for the same jobs as you [2] and will definitely prefer a nice 'average' person, to an obnoxious 'genius'

gk1 11y ago

As sibling commenters already noted, the accomplishment you tell of doesn't need to be groundbreaking. I'll take it further: It doesn't even need to be your _biggest_ accomplishment! For example, you can choose to talk about _the first_ time you did something, say, lead a small project from start to finish with some result X. Then you explain why you're so proud of that accomplishment: Because previously you only worked on projects led by others, or only took over existing projects, etc, but this was the first time you managed a project from planning all the way through release and support. That means it was the first time you faced challenges such as X, Y, and Z, and you overcame them by doing this and that... And although you've led many other bigger and more interesting projects since then, this one small project made you a better leader and better engineer, and that's why you consider it one of your greatest personal accomplishments. --- Notice how in an answer like this you get to throw in all sorts of things that hiring managers love: Challenges you've faced, how you overcame them, how you approach problems, leadership experience, how you think, etc. And by the way, the great thing about "greatest" is that it's relative, so there's no wrong answer. Some times it's better to tell of a smaller accomplishment if there's a better story that goes along with it.