
Ask HN: Is it tacky to include app revenue on a resume? - caspercrf
I have one line that says I have 8 apps published with over 500k combined downloads, would it be tacky to include that they have made $1x,xxx amount in revenue?  The revenue is not super impressive number, but it&#x27;s not insignificant either.  Should I save that info for an interview and only if they ask?
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gregsadetsky
What position are you interviewing for?

If it's heavier on the engineer side, letting the number of downloads speak
for itself (as an indicator of your apps' success and indirectly of your
quality as an app developer) could be enough.

If interviewing for a PM / management position, revenue could be a useful
indicator that you managed both the development and some aspects of marketing
/ bizdev. It might also be interesting to break down revenue per month/year,
if you want to show growth patterns. This is something that could become a
good talking point during the interview ("I've learned that my apps do better
in X markets during Y times of the year, which is super interesting
because...")

Also depends on the company (big? small? nonprofit? etc.), what they value
(their "culture"), etc.

(Congrats on your apps' success by the way) :-)

~~~
caspercrf
It would be for a senior QA/test/automation engineer position. I don't have an
impressive GitHub account and I wanted to show that I have an interest in
writing code outside of work.

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fwdpropaganda
Absolutely not tacky (congratulations btw).

But let me share the situation I'm in. For the past 2+ years I had a hustle
making me roughly $10k/month. Initially I was including that in my CV.

After talking with a few recruiters I would hear the skepticism in their voice
(for example "so why do you want to do this now?" when applying for a junior
position on a consulting company).

You see, after leaving the academia I had a short job and then started to
hustle on my own, meaning I have almost no "experience", because apparently in
the corporate world "self-employed" is a euphemism for unemployed. So most
employers don't want to take a chance with such kind of person, and the ones
that considered it realized they couldn't afford me because of the figure I
had on my CV. This is even after I explained that I was happy with a regular
junior role.

So now I removed that, which just makes me unexperienced and unemployable.

~~~
itamarst
You might be able to use that to both get a job _and_ get a higher salary.

1\. Have CV explain the _skills_ you got out of it, without mentioning how
much money you make.

2\. Once you have an offer in hand, you can then use your income as a
bargaining chip to get them to raise the offer.

You want to share different information at different parts of the job search
process, basically.

Happy to look at your resume (or anyone else reading this) and make
suggestions; email me at itamar@codewithoutrules.com.

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ecesena
Personally, I'd recommend against (and sorry for being the black sheep here).

I think it really takes smart people with good experience to read absolute
numbers, and you don't want to risk a rejection for that.

I'd recommend to just write about your % growth and call out that you're
making revenue. Keep the details for in person interview, where you can see
how the person reacts, and adjust what you say.

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runjake
My 2 cents, which is about all this comment is worth:

When I see "over 500k combined downloads", I think "Wow!".

When I then read "$1x,xxx", I think "$1x,xxx? Why so little?".

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Meph504
As other have said, depends on the position you are being hired for. If its
technical, your app downloads, and revenue mean nothing. There are we too many
factors that contribute to your downloads (or lack thereof.)

I don't mean to sound harsh, and any success with an app is tough to do, but
from a resume standpoint, .025 dollar an app in revenue, isn't something that
would rank as impressive, considering development time, you've probably lost
money on them?

Instead of the focus being about money and downloads, you might want to
consider talking about the knowledge and technology used to develop the apps,
or talk about the process you used to decide on building the app, or how you
identified the need for in the market for your application.

There is a lot of good resume information you can pull from the work you've
done, but the money isn't impressive, and isn't a talking point that is likely
to sway many people who will be interviewing you.

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yitchelle
If you do, I would recommend framing it to suit the position you are shooting
for.

For example, I would say something like. "My apps generated $1x,xxx over a
period of 6 months. I handled the marketing as well as the development of it.
Now I am also doing technical support for it." It shows planning, grit and
careful consideration.

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DoreenMichele
A few thoughts:

Ask yourself how relevant the revenue figure is to the position. If it is not
relevant, just use downloads as a metric for.

Be careful to frame this as past revenue, not ongoing income. Talking about it
like it is ongoing income veers into conflict of interest territory where they
may feel they can offer you less salary because you won't starve or where they
may hesitate to hire you because you have side income and might walk at will.
These are not insubstantial concerns.

If you do choose to mention it, be very, very low key about it. Keep it brief,
to the point and not something that turns into a rubber necking train wreck of
a detail on your resume.

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AndrewStephens
It depends a bit on the position but an interviewer/HR might look suspiciously
at an applicant who essentially had a second paying source of income, unless
it is insignificant.

If it were me I would certainly mention the apps I had published but would
downplay how much money they make you.

On the other hand, if you are going for a product management role for similar
apps, then that experience will certainly be valuable to a company.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
OK, I keep hearing variations of this argument and it's always speculation.
Come up with some actual instances of this happening, please.

There seems to be a belief among a certain set of the HN population that
assumes managers/HR are basically looking for indentured servants instead of
employees and it irritates the hell out of me. I've brought up my side
businesses/consulting to prospective employers and the only thing they care
about is that there isn't a conflict of interest, e.g., overlapping
industries.

I don't know _anyone_ who has ever interviewed a technical employee that would
consider someone who had written financially successful apps as a negative.
We're far too worried about accidentally hiring someone who can't program
their way out of a paper bag.

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muzani
I put mine in. A lot of people put "startup CEO" as a resume item now. It's
hard to tell who released 12 apps with 50 downloads each vs whose apps are
actually solving a real problem.

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Grazester
-Developed a suite of applications that generated 100 millions dollars with a user base of 500K?

I dont see why not.

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thomasthomas
Put it in and be proud. Its an achievement, that's what resumes are for.

