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Pretty straightforward: I contracted for one year with a team and during that time I established a quality assurance framework that has been scaling up for several months. Now my contract is up and I'm changing jobs (I would have stayed but am moving to a new city and going back to school part time), and they're replacing me with two full-time people to take on the QA work. People tell me that demonstrates how essential I was to the team, but I have two questions:

  1. Is it appropriate to include that fact on my resumé?
  2. If so, is there a tactful way to say it that sounds matter-of-fact and not boastful?
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    Nothing wrong with boasting a bit, cv is all about putting yourself in the best possible light, you're selling a product. Essential to the team but not renewed contract doesn't fit in quite so well though.
    – Kilisi ♦
    Jul 22, 2018 at 2:58
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    It sounds kind of weird actually. There are different reasons a person may be replaced by multiple, including the reason that they need two people is that you left things in such a mess or poorly documented that they NEED two. Or, it could be some reason like they made a hire for other reasons and need a place to park that person before transitioning to another role . Many reasons. If you were to say to me that you must be good because you were replaced by X people, I would feel you were arrogant but also naive.
    – Chan-Ho Suh
    Jul 22, 2018 at 4:11
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    @Chan-HoSuh that should be in an answer ;)
    – Erik
    Jul 22, 2018 at 6:15
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    I've been told I do the work of two people... Laurel and Hardy.
    – Laconic Droid
    Jul 23, 2018 at 1:48
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    @LaconicDroid, I've been told I do the work of three people... Larry, Moe and Curly. Between the five of us, we'd make quite a team.
    – cdkMoose
    Jul 23, 2018 at 14:54

3 Answers 3

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Absolutely put this on your resume but not in the way that you have worded it.

You are not being "replaced by two people" but rather your former company is impressed with the framework you helped establish and have showed their approval by investing in additional resources to help grow the process. This does indeed show your work as valuable and therefore worthy of inclusion on your resume.

I would word this something like the following:

  • Led effort to establish quality assurance framework [name of software] within development lifecycle. As of departure, company had invested two additional FTEs to grow this system.
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6

It is an odd thing to put on CV, and I wouldn't do it.

Not because it's inapropriate (is it?), but because you cannot be sure of the reason for such change. It feels completely normal that you need two people to replace someone who was establishing something because now they not only need to learn the thing you made, but also continue to provide the service you were providing.

In other words: being essential to one company isn't really a value to another.

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  • Fully disagree. Being essential to a former company is the whole point of creating resume or CV in the first place. You are trying to sell yourself. Why wouldn't you indicate that your former company found your contribution worthy of additional investment?
    – user48276
    Jul 22, 2018 at 18:52
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    @Dank Well, think about the alternative... someone works for a few months on a project, and the company discards the results. Having the company continue to use something that was built over a space of months is the expected result.
    – DaveG
    Jul 23, 2018 at 2:36
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Do not put it on your resume.

As a hiring manager, adding to your resume that you were replaced by 2 people doesn't tell me that you were did the work of 2 people. It tells me that you have don't have something else better to put on your resume instead of that statement.

In my years of doing resume reviews, I have NEVER seen anyone write this and the idea of it is very off-putting to where I would likely reject your resume. Instead, tell me what you accomplished for the company and what impact you had in the time you were there.

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  • What do you think of DanK's answer / phrasing?
    – data princess
    Jul 23, 2018 at 1:37
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    The challenge here is that you developed a framework which is by definition designed to be used by multiple people. Are these FTEs continuing the development of the framework that you did or are they using your framework?
    – jcmack
    Jul 23, 2018 at 22:10

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