Don't Confuse Internal and External Accomplishments
What are the biggest accomplishments in your career?
It’s a trick question because there are two kinds of accomplishments, external and internal. Internal accomplishments are those that makes us proud. My biggest two are the virtual machine I built in college, and my former startup Futurecam. I built what I wanted to use as a user, as a photography enthusiast.
I look at these photos even today with joy. These high points of our career propel us for many years afterward. We didn’t get into this field just to make money or to appear accomplished to others.
On the other hand, external accomplishments are what you highlight on your website, what you share with someone considering working with you, or even in your intro. For example, as part of my intro, I might say, “I contributed to a multi-million dollar outcome for one of my clients.” External accomplishments are about what’s in it for them, the listener or reader. They don’t care that I love photography, or that I’m proud of what I achieved in Futurecam. As another example, the multi-million dollar outcome I delivered to a client was for a founder who’d cheat and step on people to get ahead, and the feeling of “Am I helping this asshole succeed?” tinged the happiness I derived from it.
Sometimes, people confuse the two. When you’re asked in an interview, “Tell me about one of your accomplishments”, they talk about what gave them joy. But you should instead talk about how you benefited your client (or employer) a lot, because then the interviewer will feel that if he hires you, you’re likely to deliver a lot for them, too. So don’t mistake your internal accomplishments for external and share them in a work context.
It’s possible to make the make the opposite mistake, too: I’ve made it, discounting internal achievements for external, till my mentor pointed it out.
Think about your external accomplishments and highlight them on your website, LinkedIn or CV. And reflect on your internal accomplishments and re-live the joy they brought you.