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Work Unit Schema

Work Units are the atomic unit of career data. Each represents a single accomplishment with full context.

Schema

# Required fields
id: string # Unique identifier (wu-YYYY-MM-DD-slug)
title: string # Achievement headline

# Optional fields
position_id: string # Reference to positions.yaml
par: # Problem-Action-Result structure
problem: string # Challenge or context
actions: string[] # What you did (list)
result: string # Measurable outcome
skills_demonstrated: string[] # Technologies and competencies
tags: string[] # Categorization tags
quantified_impact: string # Key metric (e.g., "80% faster")
evidence: # Supporting evidence
links: string[] # URLs to artifacts
artifacts: string[] # File paths

Example

# work-units/wu-2024-01-15-deployment-automation.yaml
id: wu-2024-01-15-deployment-automation
position_id: pos-techcorp-senior-engineer
title: Reduced deployment time by 80%

par:
problem: >
Manual deployments took 4 hours and caused frequent
production outages due to human error.
actions:
- Designed CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions and ArgoCD
- Implemented blue-green deployment strategy
- Added automated rollback on health check failure
- Created deployment runbooks for team
result: >
Deployments now take 48 minutes with zero-downtime releases.
Reduced deployment-related incidents from 5/month to 0.

skills_demonstrated:
- CI/CD
- GitHub Actions
- ArgoCD
- Kubernetes
- DevOps

tags:
- infrastructure
- automation
- devops
- reliability

quantified_impact: "80% reduction in deployment time"

evidence:
links:
- https://github.com/company/repo/pull/123
artifacts:
- screenshots/deployment-metrics.png

ID Format

Work Unit IDs follow the pattern: wu-{YYYY-MM-DD}-{slug}

  • Date: When the achievement occurred
  • Slug: Short kebab-case description

Examples:

  • wu-2024-01-15-deployment-automation
  • wu-2023-08-05-security-audit
  • wu-2022-11-20-team-leadership

PAR Structure

The Problem-Action-Result framework ensures each Work Unit tells a complete story:

Problem

The challenge, context, or opportunity. Establishes why this work mattered.

Good: "Manual deployments took 4 hours and caused frequent outages" Bad: "We needed a CI/CD pipeline"

Actions

What you specifically did. Use strong action verbs and be specific.

Good: "Designed CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions" Bad: "Worked on deployment automation"

Result

The measurable outcome. Include metrics whenever possible.

Good: "Deployments now take 48 minutes with zero-downtime releases" Bad: "Improved deployment process"

Archetypes

Use archetypes to start with a template:

resume new work-unit --archetype incident
resume new work-unit --archetype greenfield
resume new work-unit --archetype leadership
ArchetypeBest For
incidentCrisis response, debugging
greenfieldNew projects, from-scratch work
leadershipTeam management, mentoring
optimizationPerformance improvements
migrationSystem upgrades, platform changes