The First Resume in History
In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci, while looking for work, wrote a letter to the warlike Duke Ludovico Sforza – the regent of the underage ruler of Milan, in which, instead of offering himself as a painter — which he actually was, he presented himself as someone entirely different. His letter, centuries later, will be called one of the first, or even the first, documented resumes.
And here it must be said that almost none of what Leonardo promised at that time
he actually knew how to do. He never served as a military engineer, never directed a siege, never built any of those machines. The formidable arsenal listed in the letter existed only on paper and in the author's mind. Moreover — part of the ideas was not entirely his own. Many of Leonardo's military projects he drew from the Italian edition of the treatise by Roberto Valturio, De re militari — a manual on warfare that he knew well and kept in his library.
Calling this an outright lie would be not entirely fair: Leonardo indeed possessed a brilliant engineering mind, and much of what he conceived was ahead of his time. But in the letter he presented a concept as experience, a drawing as a finished machine, and someone else's idea as his own competence. He sold not a résumé that did not exist, but confidence that he could handle potential tasks.
The calculation paid off: Leonardo obtained a position at the Milanese court. And he stayed there for a long time — almost twenty years, until the fall of the Sforzas at the end of the 15th century.
His letter can be called an early example of personal branding: Leonardo built a professional image not around who he was, but around what his “boss” needed.
The years Leonardo spent in Milan entered history not for the machines that he used to entice the ruler. The fearsome catapults and armored wagons remained only on paper. However, while in the service of the Sforzas, Leonardo painted the “Last Supper” — one of the most famous paintings in history. He was invited to work as a military engineer, and he immortalized himself by placing at the very end of the letter the things that truly defined him.
