Over the years, Bozoma Saint John has ascended the ranks at Pepsi, Uber, Apple Music and Endeavor, ultimately landing in the C-suite as head of marketing at Netflix (before leaving in March 2022). But, as she writes in her new memoir, The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival, she did so without an actual résumé.
The book, a chunk of which centers on the heartbreak and lessons of losing her beloved husband Peter to cancer, details how after his death, Saint John was unable to access her résumé that was stored his computer as he was responsible for managing and polishing it. That suddenly became an issue when she was in the running for a top job at Beats (now Apple Music).
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“Over the next couple of weeks there was a flurry of phone calls, culminating with a chat with Dre and Jimmy. The conversations went well, and I felt confident that they were going to make me an offer. Then, Judy, the company’s human resources person, called to ask if I could send my résumé,” Saint John writes as she details what happened next. “You’d think I could just get on Microsoft Word, find a template, and type up all the professional things I’d done. But I was frozen. In the midst of my trauma over Peter’s death, a hiccup that I once could have easily resolved became an obstacle that seemed impossible to overcome. I didn’t know what to do. I was too embarrassed to tell my friends that I didn’t know how to put together a basic CV. But I was worried that failing to deliver a résumé could be a deal breaker. I’d been mad at God, not speaking to him, but I needed him now. I sat in front of Peter’s laptop, closed my eyes, and prayed. I need this change, I said. I want this job. Please make this whole résumé mess go away.”
Saint John emailed Judy and asked if a short bio would suffice as she did not have a résumé. Judy agreed by responding, “They want you so badly, they won’t care either way.” Saint John continues: “And that was it. A few days later, I was offered the position. Since then, no other employer has ever asked me for a résumé, not Apple when it purchased Beats; not Uber, the unicorn tech company; not the international talent agency Endeavor, where I became chief marketing officers; not Netflix, where I became the first and only Black person in the C-suite. God removed the obstacle, not for a moment, but permanently.”
The Urgent Life is out now from Penguin imprint Viking.
This story first appeared in the March 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
