Leonardo da Vinci Wrote an Awesome Resume

April 17, 2015

Need help with your resume? Why not go to the master--Leonardo da Vinci? Yes, that Leonardo. Not only did he rule the Renaissance art community, he was also one heck of an engineer--and was more than willing to tell people that. Read on for all the details.

Seems our boy Leo could—and did—do everything better than anybody else, even write a resume. 

Seems while I was obsessing away about the end of the Civil War and the sinking of the Titanic, I missed the fact that April 15 was also Leonardo’s birthday. My only excuse is that in the rush to get my taxes in the mail by midnight, it totally slipped my mind. Yeah. That was the reason.

We interrupt this blog post to remind you to fill out Control’s 2015 salary survey. Depending on the survey results, you may want to clip and save Leonardo’s resume formula.

Anyway, a frequent warning to resume writers is not to undersell yourself. That at least wasn’t Leonardo’s problem. After listing his military and engineering experience, including the ability to build bridges, siege machines, tunnels, tanks, guns, mortars, catapults and trebuchets, he explains to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, “In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another...and I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.”

The trick, I guess, is to carry that kind of confidence into your next job interview.

Take a look at the resume and its exegesis from job search and recruiting blogger, Marc Cenedella.