What Marissa Mayer’s Resume Misses.

There is the whole list of things!

1. Lack of a Professional Profile.

Mayer doesn’t link to any professional profile such as a LinkedIn page or a personal website. The only page she refers to is her personal blog where she talks about her own impressions of her work and shares stories from her personal life.

In real-world situations, such information would not tell much to the recruiter as it does not give a clear overview of your professional history or skills. It is a type of content that famous people can place on their resumes to warm up their public image rather than to demonstrate what they can do, professionally.

2. Selective Choice of Achievements.

She skipped all the projects she completed or was actively involved in Google. Mayer was one of the driving horses of the company for 13 years and contributed to almost all the flagship products and services, yet, she only mentioned her list of positions.

In reality, the building blocks of your career are not your positions — these are your projects. Most companies give their employers pompous position titles today. You can become a director of the department even in a small startup where you will be working with one person under you. Position titles don’t mean anything anymore and don’t reflect your career advancement.

Moreover, many employees today change jobs chasing after better salaries and mercilessly drop their projects halfway—which poses a huge challenge to employers. It is not the best career development strategy.

The recruiter and the hiring manager want to know that you are not a quitter and that you have a long list of successfully completed projects behind your belt. If you seek more career options, you should focus on completing projects and proudly communicate them to your potential employers.

3. Lacking the List of Top Professional Skills.

Mayer can afford to skip her professional skills from her resume as her fame and her Wikipedia page both talk in her name. She doesn’t need to talk about her skills and values, as she made billions for Google. For any hiring manager out there, these credentials are good enough.

In real-world situations, however, recruiters search for the list of hard and soft skills to figure out how you perceive yourself as a professional.

Today, companies receive so many resumes per position that the documents are often prescreened with automated software. If your resume doesn’t contain keywords that are sought, you can forget about getting invited to the interview.

4. Lack of the Mission Statement.

Mayer introduces herself as a “Business Woman and Proud Geek.” In real-world stations, this is not enough. What is your mission as a professional? It could be a statement like this:

“Fifteen years of a professional career as a leader and a manager in sales. Experienced in building cross-cultural teams, developing projects from scratch to launch, and coaching junior staff. An adaptable professional with a proven sales record, able to work under pressure and in changing markets.”

The Spurious Elements in Marissa Mayer’s Resume.

And now, let’s talk a little bit about the elements of this famous resume that are absolutely unnecessary and will likely do more harm than good in your job application process.

1. The Photo.

Mayer lives and works in the US, and in this job market, placing a photo on your resume is not even acceptable. She can do it because she is a public figure and wherever she applies, the hiring manager will know her face.

For “regular people,” or “mortals,” the rules are different. You need to adjust to the local standards, and in many countries, showing your face in a resume will lead to an instant elimination.

2. The Figure Showing Marissa’s Day.

In practice, nobody cares how much time you spend with your children or whether or not you are into cupcakes. Your private life shouldn’t even be a matter of discussion in the job interview in the first place.

The fact that Mayer puts this figure here, is an example of humble bragging. The meaning is: “I am so successful yet I still have time for everything important in life. I won my life.” To sum up, if you place such a figure in your resume, it won’t make any good impression at all.

3. Typos.

Hard to believe but this succinct and professionally looking resume contains typos, such as “Pale Alto” instead of “Palo Alto” or double space in the phrase “hard times at Yahoo!” Details of course, but for a person who works as a President of Yahoo! and whose net worth is about $600 million, it is still surprising that the formatting of a resume is not perfect.

Summary: Is Marissa Mayer’s Resume Just Bad?

No, it isn’t bad at all! The point is: this resume serves well to a famous person. She earned her status through taking risks and hard work. Now, she occupies a unique position in the job market where she can afford to ignore the conventional recruitment process and dictate her own terms.

However, whatever works for Marissa Mayer, won’t work for mere mortals. You need to take it into account while applying for jobs and working on your professional development strategy.

Remember that it doesn’t matter all that much how your resume looks — the content is what matters, and you need to show the recruiter that you, as a professional who works on your own career path, are tailor-made for the position. And, you need to be yourself not Marissa Mayer.

How To Start Writing a CV From Scratch?

Now, knowing the dos and don’ts of writing a compelling CV, do you still have hard time with starting the CV-writing process? Well, you have at least three good options.

1. Free CV Template.

Dozens of websites offer open access to free CV templates, including Canva, Resume.io, or Office Templates. You can get virtually any design you imagine for free!

2. Using a Bot.

Using free-access bots such as ChatGPT by OpenAI can effectively help you structure your CV. You can start by using a simple prompt such as “create a template for a CV” or “create a template for a CV in software engineering.” Then, ask the bot follow-up questions to expand on any of the proposed sections depending on your needs.

Of course, you can also merge the two strategies given above: use one of the free designs available online, add sections suggested by the bot, and fill the final template with your personal information. 

3. Scraping Your LinkedIn Profile.

Are you short on time? If your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and complete, you can use it to create a fast draft of your resume by saving your LinkedIn profile to a PDF. To learn more on how to create a compelling LinkedIn profile, please find our article “10 Steps to Create an Effective LinkedIn Profile.”

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Remember, however, that a well-written CV is only the beginning and not the end of all activities aimed at achieving success during the interview. The next step is to prepare for the inteview to which a recruiter will invite you, and the next step is to conduct this inteview with a positive result.

We have devoted several articles and a book to these issues, which we recommend to you: “7 Magic Spells: How To Enchant the Recruiter at the Job Interview“, “Before a Job Interview: How To Conduct an Informational Interview“, “Don’t Get Trapped! Red Flags in the Recruitment Process“, “Don’t Blow Job Interviews! Red Flags In Recruiters’ Eyes” and the book “How to Navigate in the Job Market and Shine in the Job Interviewss” by Natalia Bielczyk. 

Do you also have doubts how your motivational letter should be written? To learn more on how to write your job application documents like a pro, please also check out our article “How To Write a Compelling Motivational Letter?” Good luck!