A few weeks ago, I had a job interview where one of the first questions completely threw me off.
They didn’t ask about my stack or walk me through my latest project. They just said:
“Forget your CV: who’s Sim beyond the resume?”
At first glance, it sounds like a standard question. People often ask what you do in your spare time, or what interests you outside of work. It’s a way to get a bit of context, to understand the person behind the role.
But the way this was phrased hit different.
It wasn’t about hobbies. It wasn’t about fun facts. It was about identity. Who are you when there’s no bullet point to back it up?
Am I Who My CV Says I Am?
It made me pause. Not because I didn’t have an answer, but because I wasn’t sure if the version of me on my CV is me, or if it ever really could be.
A resume is a snapshot. It captures roles, dates, titles, but not momentum. Not evolution. It says what you’ve done, not how you’ve changed. And for someone like me, who’s been doing this for over a decade, that list of roles doesn’t feel like who I am anymore. At most, it shows patterns: that I’ve chased growth, taken on harder challenges, never settled for comfort. But even that’s only part of the story.
And the truth is, for a long time, my story was my resume. I poured everything into professional development: studying, shipping, learning more, levelling up. Every bit of spare energy went into becoming “better” at my job. That became my identity. There wasn’t much space for anything else.
Then life happened. Specifically, fatherhood.
And with it came perspective.
More Than the Work
Becoming a parent didn’t just teach me balance. It taught me that work — as much as I love it — is just one slice of the pie. I realised I had lost sight of all the things that make me me outside of a Git commit or a project launch. That in the pursuit of becoming the “ideal candidate,” I had stopped nurturing the person behind the screen.
These days, I still love being a developer. Still love the logic, the problem-solving, the structure. But I also love writing, art, cooking, running, football, a beer with friends, a quiet walk by the sea. I love being present with my kids, or lost in a book, or talking about wine, or doing absolutely nothing.
I’m not just my job. I’m not just my stack. I’m a sum of things that don’t fit neatly in a LinkedIn header.
Does That Matter?
To some hiring managers, maybe not. But I think it should.
Especially in remote teams, where chemistry and connection are harder to build, who you hire matters just as much as what they know. Culture isn’t a list of values on a slide deck. It’s people. It’s energy. It’s trust. And trust doesn’t come from just ticking skills off a checklist.
That’s why I believe questions like the one I was asked matter. Because hiring someone is never just about filling a gap on a board. It’s about choosing a person you’ll share wins and losses with. A person you’ll build something with.
So I hope I gave a good answer that day. I hope the version of me that came through was more than just bullet points and project links.
Because I am more than my resume.
I just need to keep reminding myself of that.