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's not insignificant either. Should I save that info for an interview and only if they ask?

[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.

[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 [e-mail].

[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.

[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?".

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Grazester]

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

I dont see why not.

[thomasthomas]

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