Hey Reader,

Have you ever seen a situation where 2 engineers have identical experience but one consistently gets way better offers than the other?

I have. In fact, I’ve been on both sides of it.

Before 2023, I had watched engineers with less experience get interviews I couldn’t land.

No difference in skills, but LinkedIn profiles.

Then I grew my LinkedIn from 5K to 160K+ followers in 2 years.

I stopped writing like a resume and started positioning for impact.

Within months, recruiters with better offers started reaching out.

The thing is, your LinkedIn profile is more of a marketing copy than a resume.

And engineers here are marketing themselves as ₹18L candidates when they’re worth ₹30L.

There’s so much opportunity here to stand out if done right.

Here’s how you can get started:

Quick question before we continue:

The Problem: Resume Language vs Positioning Language

What most profiles look like:

Headline: “Software Engineer at TCS”

About: “Experienced software engineer with 4 years in backend development. Skilled in Java, Spring Boot, microservices.”

Experience: “Developed REST APIs for payment module using Spring Boot and MySQL.”

What recruiters see: Generic. Forgettable. Next.

What top-earner profiles look like:

Headline: “Backend Engineer | Payment Systems | Reduced API failures 60% | TCS”

About (short version): “I build payment systems that don’t break during sale days. At TCS, I re-architected retry logic, cutting failed transactions from 5% to 0.8% - ₹2Cr+ in recovered revenue.”

Experience: “Re-architected payment retry logic using circuit breakers → Reduced failures 5% to 0.8% (₹2Cr+ revenue impact annually).”

What recruiters see: This person operates at scale. Impact-driven. Shortlisted.

A simple difference: Resume language describes tasks. Positioning language shows outcomes.

“But Isn’t This Faking It?”

This is the big fear I hear: “I don’t want to sound fake or exaggerate.”

Let me be clear: There’s a difference between positioning and lying.

Lying: “Built system serving 10M users” (when your module had 10K)

Positioning: “Built authentication module for platform serving 10M users” (you built a part of something big - own it)

Here’s the perspective most engineers miss:

You’re not faking expertise but translating your work into a language recruiters understand.

Recruiters don’t care that you “worked on microservices.” They care that you “reduced latency 60% for 100K daily users.”

Same work. Different framing.

The test: Can you back it up in an interview?

If yes → it’s positioning.

If no → it’s lying.

When you write “Reduced API failures from 5% to 0.8%,” you better know how you measured it, what you built, and what the before/after looked like.

Then all you’re doing is showing your real impact clearly.

The 3-Part Framework

Part 1: Fix Your Headline (5 minutes)

Bad headlines:

• “Software Engineer at TCS”
• “Backend Developer”
• “Full Stack EngineerJavaSpring Boot”

Why they fail: No differentiation.

Headline formula that makes you unique:

[Role] | [Domain/Specialty] | [Biggest Impact] | [Credibility Signal]

Examples:

3 YOE: "Backend Engineer | Payment Systems | Improved API reliability to 99.9% | TCS"

5 YOE: "Senior Backend Engineer | E-commerce | Built APIs handling 100K orders/day | Flipkart."

7+ YOE: "Staff Engineer | Distributed Systems | Led platform serving 5M users | Ex-Google"

Your action: Pick the one impact number you’re most proud of. Put it in your headline.

Part 2: Rewrite Your About Section (10 minutes)

Good "About section" structure:

Part 1: What you actually do (specific)

Part 2: Your biggest impact (with numbers)

Part 3: Previous credibility

Part 4: Core strengths

Part 5: Indirect point of credibility

Example:

The key shift: Start with impact, not credentials.

Part 3: Transform Your Top 3 Experience Bullets (15 minutes)

The formula:

[Problem/Context] → [Your specific action] → [Measurable outcome + business impact]

Before/After examples:

Before: “Developed REST APIs for payment processing.”

After: “Built payment retry system → Reduced failed transactions 5% to 0.8% (₹2Cr+ recovered revenue annually)”

-

Before: “Worked on microservices for order management.”

After: “Built order processing microservices handling 50K daily orders → Reduced placement latency from 2s to 400ms, improving conversion 12%.”

-

Before: “Optimized database queries.”

After: “Rewrote 15 critical queries + added indexes → Cut page load from 3.5s to 800ms for 200K daily users”

The pattern: Always include scale (users, transactions, revenue) and percentage improvement.

The Math

Same engineer. Two positioning approaches.

Approach A (resume language):

• Positioned for: ₹18-22L roles
• Recruiter messages: 2-3/month
• Mostly: Service companies, small startups

Approach B (positioning language):

• Positioned for: ₹28-35L roles
• Recruiter messages: 15+/month
• Mix of: Product companies, unicorns, FAANG

Gap: ₹10-12L annually.

Not from new skills. From better positioning of existing skills.

Your 30-Minute Action Plan

1.Minute 0-5: Fix headline

• Write: [Role][Domain][One big impact number]

2.Minute 5-15: Rewrite the About section

• Line 1: “I build [specific thing]”
• Lines 2-3: Your biggest impact with numbers
• Line 4: Previous company/credibility
• Line 5-7: Core strengths
• Line 8: Indirect point of credibility

3.Minute 15-30: Rewrite the top 3 experience bullets

• Pick your 3 most impactful projects
• For each: [Problem] → [Action] → [Outcome with numbers]

In 4 weeks:

Track recruiter messages. Compare to the previous 4 weeks.

If a 2x increase → positioning is working.

If no change → your numbers might be too vague.

Add more specificity.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Being too humble

❌ “Contributed to team effort to reduce latency.”

✅ “Reduced API latency 60% by implementing Redis caching + query optimization.”

Mistake 2: Listing technologies instead of impact

❌ “Used Java, Spring Boot, MySQL, Redis, Kafka…”

✅ “Built payment system using Spring Boot + Redis → Handled 1M transactions/day at 99.9% uptime.”

Mistake 3: Vague numbers

❌ “Improved performance significantly.”

✅ “Reduced API response time from 800ms to 120ms (85% improvement)”

Conclusion

You’re not lying or exaggerating.

You’re finally showing the business impact of your technical work.

Most engineers hide that impact behind generic job descriptions. There are many, if you can trust me. So don’t be them.

Don’t question yourself, “Am I good enough to position myself this way?”

But do think, “Can I back this up in an interview?”

If yes, you’re positioning rightfully.

Start this week. Fix your headline first.

Just a few mins of deep thinking every now and then for better positioning = Years of better opportunities.

-Abhishek
The Guided Growth

P.S. - This is a good place to start, but long-term positioning as you progress through the levels comes from documenting and sharing your work in public. So, reply if you want me to go deeper - I’ll write a letter on it if enough people ask.