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Last year I wrote and sold a software product to a small financial consulting group A, which now runs on their servers.

They recently resold it, without any technical tailoring, to a major multinational banking service B. No particular license was issued by me on what I sold to A. Instead, lots of regulation and contracts were established between A and B. However, my name (as a private developer) appears in the Credits section of the referred A's website.

Can I mention on my updated CV that a product of mine was resold to B and is actively being used?

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  • That's fine, as long as you can substantiate your claim. Given that your name is in the "Credits" section, that's probably all the substantiation you need - If your name is "Joe Rodriguez", then you are the "Joe Rodriguez" who wrote the software and sold it to A, as opposed to all the other "Joe Rodriguez" on the planet :)
    – Vietnhi Phuvan
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 10:00
  • Perhaps you should consider sending the CV with their name on it to THEM - if they paid a bunch of money for the product, and they're a big bank, they might want the guy who wrote it to manage it for them. Just a thought!
    – corsiKa
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 22:29

4 Answers 4

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I agree with Matiss that there's no problem mentioning such an accomplishment on your resume. However, whether you can refer to B by name on your resume could be an issue. You may want to list them as something more generic, like your "major international banking service" if you think either company might object to you putting this on paper or, presumably, on LinkedIn.

Note that absent an NDA there is no ethical issue in mentioning them by name, but you may still wish to avoid antagonizing either company if you know they'd see this as an issue. It's usually not an issue to then mention the company by name when it's brought up in an interview.

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  • It is quite the opposite - if a OP made something, and it is used by some company X, OP has every right to say something along the lines "worked on project that and that, used by company X. How the company got to use it usually is not important and nobody really cares. I am saying that from a perspective of employer.
    – Matiss
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 11:09
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    @Matiss Yes, I said as much in my answer, but there are plenty of unreasonable employers out there that for whatever reason do not want their company name associated with a single developer. They might request that their name is not mentioned on the OP's online profile. Absent an NDA they have no way to enforce their demand but it's up to the OP to decide if preserving his relationship with the companies outweighs the value that the name adds to his resume. The OP is best placed to decide if either company might consider this a problem, in which case he may want to avoid the situation.
    – Lilienthal ♦
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 11:51
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    I believe OP is speaking not of his employer, but of his (sort of) customer.
    – Matiss
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 12:04
  • True, my comment should have referenced "unreasonably companies" but the semantics are not that relevant.
    – Lilienthal ♦
    Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 12:24
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It does not make much difference, whether it was tailored or not - it is still software you made and the act of making it is undeniable. Except if you have a non disclosure agreement with the A, it is okay to indicate yourself as an author of that software, even if it's something you sold or did for a company as an employee.

Its a pretty common practice actually, and unless you have explicit agreement that says otherwise, you can claim to have participated in/authored whatever project you have participated in/authored.

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I think it’s fine so long as you make the distinction that Company B bought the product, and that Company B is not a direct client of yours.

You don’t want some one reading your C.V. to ring Company B and ask them if they’ve heard of you, as they’re most likely going to say no. Whereas if they ring them up and ask, “Do you use Product X?” they’ll more likely to say yes.

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Not only do you have every right to take credit for your work, it would be unethical and abusive for a past employer (or, in this case, customer) to try to prevent you from doing so. In fact, based on your description of events you may have been cheated out of royalties. Just as any number of rock stars and writers have learned, PLEASE DON'T give away resale rights to your work for nothing. Show your existing contract to a lawyer--it's money well spent.

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