Having just hired two senior programmers (admittedly for a small "software company"), I couldn't possibly agree more with this: "To me, however, a programmer is who I'm looking for, while a resume full of revenue increases and cost reductions sounds like an 'anomalously high-cost parasite who types some mumbo-jumbo into Excel and PowerPoint'."
Resumes full of marketing-speak go onto the discard pile very quickly. I want to hear about your skills, and I want to see that you can present them effectively (which is your first opportunity to demonstrate your intelligence and aesthetics). People who claim to be programmers but talk about revenue growth and such in their resumes are always the types who want to talk to you about how they "have tons of great ideas, [they] just need a team to implement them!" Well great, then start your own company. I'm certainly looking for smart people with ideas, but we already have a product and work that needs to be done. We're not here to provide a team to implement our new hire's hand-wavey built-for-adsense get rich quick site or whatever.
Whew. OK, veered a bit into hyperbole there, but it demonstrates the visceral sort of mental response that kind of resume can provoke...
Edit: Given other comments that agree with focusing on costs and revenues, maybe the take-away is that you should really have two separate copies of your resume, and do your best to find out whether a programmer or non-programmer will be reading it before choosing which one to send. Because it seems like the reactions are essentially polar opposites. Which honestly I find surprising. I would expect that what sounds like mumbo-jumbo to one intelligent person would largely sound like mumbo-jumbo to another intelligent person, regardless of specific discipline - even if those disciplines are as different as marketing and programming. Perhaps I just haven't ever received a good resume that focused on financials.
If I'm hiring someone for my team, I need to see skill. Or smarts.
If we're hiring an outside consultant, it's always for technical knowledge that we don't have. Again we need to see skill.
If we need to hire another team lead, it's usually because we have no one to promote from within (either due to experience or lack of volunteers), and again we need to see skill.
I don't hire for marketing, but I'd hope that they also want to see results and could care less if you've programmed before. Indeed it's likely irrelevant.
something to consider, though: your job may not be the best opportunity for this hypothetical candidate we're musing about. for pure programming skill, there is no well-defined "value" for the business, which means you simply want to hire the best programmer for the least cost. in many markets today this is about $200k for an entry level programmer (employer costs). why pay more than that?
the point of marketing mumbo-jumbo is that it frames the value of the individual. if a candidate is capable of making you $10 million extra dollars, why not pay them $1m? you'd be a fool not to!
Erm... because that $10M is a conjecture, while the $1M is a cost paid upfront with complete certainty? Or do you want to pay in equity? Also - because someone else is willing to do the same job for less? I'm not sure that "framing my value" will help me when someone is willing to do the same for less money.
Resumes full of marketing-speak go onto the discard pile very quickly. I want to hear about your skills, and I want to see that you can present them effectively (which is your first opportunity to demonstrate your intelligence and aesthetics). People who claim to be programmers but talk about revenue growth and such in their resumes are always the types who want to talk to you about how they "have tons of great ideas, [they] just need a team to implement them!" Well great, then start your own company. I'm certainly looking for smart people with ideas, but we already have a product and work that needs to be done. We're not here to provide a team to implement our new hire's hand-wavey built-for-adsense get rich quick site or whatever.
Whew. OK, veered a bit into hyperbole there, but it demonstrates the visceral sort of mental response that kind of resume can provoke...
Edit: Given other comments that agree with focusing on costs and revenues, maybe the take-away is that you should really have two separate copies of your resume, and do your best to find out whether a programmer or non-programmer will be reading it before choosing which one to send. Because it seems like the reactions are essentially polar opposites. Which honestly I find surprising. I would expect that what sounds like mumbo-jumbo to one intelligent person would largely sound like mumbo-jumbo to another intelligent person, regardless of specific discipline - even if those disciplines are as different as marketing and programming. Perhaps I just haven't ever received a good resume that focused on financials.