Learn from da Vinci’s Resume

Leonardo da Vinci: author of the first known resume

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci is considered the creator of the first known resume? In 1482, at the age of 30, da Vinci needed work, so he wrote to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, listing eleven reasons Sforza would benefit from his various skills. He mentioned his painting skills only in passing. Da Vinci, instead, shared how his capabilities would specifically help Sforza in times of war and peace, including:

• bridge construction

• trench-building

• explosives

• machinery

• armory

• architecture

• sculpture (here, painting received a slight mention)

Sforza would later become da Vinci’s patron and commissioner of The Last Supper.

I love the way the letter closes:

And, if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency, to whom I commit myself with the utmost humility.

Take a lesson from da Vinci’s resume. Your resume should signal the value you will bring to the new person, not simply be an archive of what you’ve done for others. Do the work to position yourself. A coach can help.