3 ms·

I am not from the states but my IT career involved working on teams with US clients and also working in the US for a few years. I find it very hard to say "I d

I am not from the states but my IT career involved working on teams with US clients and also working in the US for a few years. I find it very hard to say "I did X" for anything except for personal projects that I did myself from start to finish. In typical work projects even the best of ideas always need to be bought by rest of the team and also executed collaboratively by the team. I would be dishonest if I were to say "I delivered this project on time/under budget" even if I did play significant part in keeping the project healthy and on track.

surgical_fire 3y ago
> I find it very hard to say "I did X" for anything except for personal projects that I did myself from start to finish. I come from a culture that has a similar approach, where taking sole credit for team efforts is typically viewed negatively. Took me a few years to get the hang of lying on interviews and taking sole credit for team efforts. And ironically, it only dawned on me when I became an interviewer myself. That's when I realized everyone lies on interviews. Especially interviewers. When everyone is playing the same game, it's a fair ground.
- mewpmewp2 3y ago
  You don't have to lie to talk in "I" form. You don't have to take the sole credit. Just be clear about what your influence was on the project. Not everyone lies on the interviews. I have absolutely never lied, and I can still use the "I" form. I usually make proportions of my involvements clear. For example if I start and architect/design the project, I will say so and then I will say I successfully onboarded others to the project and guided them successfully to achieve X results. If I didn't start it, I will describe it like "I worked on the project X, with 3 other people. My responsibilities were A, B and C. etc".
  - phkahler 3y ago
    >> Just be clear about what your influence was on the project. God, stop being grandiose and talking about the project and deliveries. Did you implement a specific feature? Squash a a bug? Find a solution to a specific problem? If you didn't do any of those - specifically by yourself (or mostly so) I don't want you. Those are the key deliverables of a software developer.
- andrewingram 3y ago
  Reminds me of the thing where apparently every guy adds two inches to their height on dating profiles, whereas I deducted an inch because of poor posture. Apparently I was born with no guile (probably an exaggeration), which means in a world where nearly everyone tells what they consider to be harmless little lies, I’m actively damaging my own career prospects. I think everyone has their own definition of deception, and mine is the act of allowing (by making no attempt at intervention) someone to go away believing something you yourself know to be false. Which seems to be quite a strict one from what I’ve seen.
mewpmewp2 3y ago
If you had the idea and you convinced others of the idea, that is a good story in of itself, because it highlights both very important skills, ability to brainstorm solutions and ability to persuade and sell others on this solution. So you say: "I had this idea A to solve problem B, but not everyone was initially onboard, so I had to do C to convince others. I was able to convince everyone and I led the project to fruition with D results. If you were in a leading role, it will be more impressive the more people and the higher levels you had to convince or lead.

surgical_fire 3y ago

> I find it very hard to say "I did X" for anything except for personal projects that I did myself from start to finish. I come from a culture that has a similar approach, where taking sole credit for team efforts is typically viewed negatively. Took me a few years to get the hang of lying on interviews and taking sole credit for team efforts. And ironically, it only dawned on me when I became an interviewer myself. That's when I realized everyone lies on interviews. Especially interviewers. When everyone is playing the same game, it's a fair ground.

mewpmewp2 3y ago
You don't have to lie to talk in "I" form. You don't have to take the sole credit. Just be clear about what your influence was on the project. Not everyone lies on the interviews. I have absolutely never lied, and I can still use the "I" form. I usually make proportions of my involvements clear. For example if I start and architect/design the project, I will say so and then I will say I successfully onboarded others to the project and guided them successfully to achieve X results. If I didn't start it, I will describe it like "I worked on the project X, with 3 other people. My responsibilities were A, B and C. etc".
- phkahler 3y ago
  >> Just be clear about what your influence was on the project. God, stop being grandiose and talking about the project and deliveries. Did you implement a specific feature? Squash a a bug? Find a solution to a specific problem? If you didn't do any of those - specifically by yourself (or mostly so) I don't want you. Those are the key deliverables of a software developer.
andrewingram 3y ago
Reminds me of the thing where apparently every guy adds two inches to their height on dating profiles, whereas I deducted an inch because of poor posture. Apparently I was born with no guile (probably an exaggeration), which means in a world where nearly everyone tells what they consider to be harmless little lies, I’m actively damaging my own career prospects. I think everyone has their own definition of deception, and mine is the act of allowing (by making no attempt at intervention) someone to go away believing something you yourself know to be false. Which seems to be quite a strict one from what I’ve seen.

mewpmewp2 3y ago

If you had the idea and you convinced others of the idea, that is a good story in of itself, because it highlights both very important skills, ability to brainstorm solutions and ability to persuade and sell others on this solution. So you say: "I had this idea A to solve problem B, but not everyone was initially onboard, so I had to do C to convince others. I was able to convince everyone and I led the project to fruition with D results. If you were in a leading role, it will be more impressive the more people and the higher levels you had to convince or lead.