Through the years, Bozoma Saint John has ascended the ranks at Pepsi, Uber, Apple Music and Endeavor, in the end touchdown within the C-suite as head of promoting at Netflix (earlier than leaving in March 2022). However, as she writes in her new memoir, The Pressing Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival, she did so with out an precise résumé.
Bozoma Saint John poses with The Pressing Life throughout an occasion and dialogue at Spring Studios in New York on Feb. 13, 2023.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Photos
The guide, a piece of which facilities on the heartbreak and classes of shedding her beloved husband Peter to most cancers, particulars how after his loss of life, Saint John was unable to entry her resume that was saved his laptop as he was chargeable for managing and sharpening it. That all of the sudden grew to become a problem when she was within the operating for a prime job at Beats (now Apple Music).
“Over the subsequent couple of weeks there was a flurry of telephone calls, culminating with a chat with Dre and Jimmy. The conversations went effectively, and I felt assured that they have been going to make me a suggestion. Then, Judy, the corporate’s human sources particular person, referred to as to ask if I may ship my resume,” Saint John writes as she particulars what occurred subsequent. “You’d assume I may simply get on Microsoft Phrase, discover a template, and kind up all of the skilled issues I’d executed. However I used to be frozen. Within the midst of my trauma over Peter’s loss of life, a hiccup that I as soon as may have simply resolved grew to become an impediment that appeared not possible to beat. I didn’t know what to do. I used to be too embarrassed to inform my pals that I didn’t know learn how to put collectively a fundamental CV. However I used to be fearful that failing to ship a resume might be a deal breaker. I’d been mad at God, not talking to him, however I wanted him now. I sat in entrance of Peter’s laptop computer, closed my eyes, and prayed. I want this modification, I stated. I need this job. Please make this entire resume mess go away.”
Saint John emailed Judy and requested if a brief bio would suffice as she didn’t have a resume. Judy agreed by responding, “They need you so badly, they received’t care both means.” Saint John continues: “And that was it. A number of days later, I used to be supplied the place. Since then, no different employer has ever requested me for a resume, not Apple when it bought Beats; not Uber, the unicorn tech firm; not the worldwide expertise company Endeavor, the place I grew to become chief advertising and marketing officers; not Netflix, the place I grew to become the primary and solely Black particular person within the C-suite. God eliminated the impediment, not for a second, however completely.”
The Urgent Life is out now from Penguin imprint Viking.
This story first appeared within the March 1 challenge of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click here to subscribe.
