I am not much adept on the whole achievements philosophy, but there is one that is good for me personally. While playing a game, I am keen on exploring possibilities and places but it is usual to miss some interesting, daring, simply cool or otherwise secret stuff. So, achievements come in handy in these cases when I don't find or do this awesome stuff by myself. Achievements act as a simple guidelines in these cases. Thus, expanding my overall experience in the game.

But I don't look specifically for achievements when buying a game. It's never a factor that may influence my decision. If they exist - nice surprise. If they don't - can't be sad for something that does not exist.

someone should add all their steam achievements to their c.v. i'm curious as to what employers would say.

Hahaha that would be a funny conversation.

"So, uh... Mr XxXPussySlayer69XxX, I see you mentioned in your CV that you have 500 steam achievements... according to one of our interns that is, and I quote, 'a punk bitch score' "
"That's not what his mom said last night"
"Fair enough, you're hired"

Nope. I still absolutely loathe achievements. I never perfected a single game on consoles, knowing that it was futile to do so as some games with a multiplayer portion make it impossible to obtain all the achievements if the community is not as active any longer. After moving to PC gaming, I perfected eight games on Steam, forcing myself to do so to satisfy my inner completionist, but I hated it so very much. Some achievements have incredibly ridiculous requirements, making the whole task too arduous to actually be enjoyable. The very fact that Galaxy allows you to turn that wretched, pointless feature off is a blessing for my soul. I can enjoy gaming again! You see, ignoring achievements is not an option. Turning them off entirely is the right way to go. Out of sight, out of mind. Thank you, GOG, for making achievements truly optional with Galaxy. Shame on the rest of the gaming industry for forcing them upon me.

I don't really care about achievements either way. There might be a game here and there where I go a bit out of my way to get some of them, if it's not too annoying, but most of the time they're just not of any interest to me. They don't bother me either, though.

Embarrassing story about achievements so you all can laugh at me.

So, years ago I got an Xbox 360 as my PC was starting to age and I wasn't in the mood/money to upgrade it. The bundle I got included "Kung Fu Panda" and "Lego Indiana Jones". As an older gamer I had no interest in either... OK I ADMIT IT! I liked Lego Indiana Jones and even got a few more of them... but Kung Fu Panda? No interest.

However... there were these things called "Achievements". I noticed that they gave "points". I have no idea how, but I got into my mind that these "points" could be redeemed to purchase content or other games online. So... I got every achievement in both of these kiddie games. Not long after I realized the points meant literally nothing.

I may have been a Kung Fu Panda that day but I was also a sad panda.

I think achievements aren't a bad things "per-se": they can add a lot of fun and challenge to the game.

But unfortunately they are often used only to oblige user to grind like hell to earn them or to tie them to things that are incredibly boring to do like collectibles, online compartment or something similar...