On Thursday, word came that David Eun will leave his job as president of AOL Media and Studios.
TechCrunch posted the resignation memo Eun sent to staffers. It contains examples of what goes into a good resume. Here are some excerpts, with the lessons they carry.
“I am extremely proud of all that you have accomplished this year. Recent days have given me an opportunity to reflect on just how far we’ve come, and the progress is striking.”
Lavish praise on your team and co-workers. Amateurs suck up all the credit. Professionals spread it around, knowing that the credit will reflect on them. Praising your team in a resume allows you to highlight accomplishments without making your resume be all about you, which is awkward for some and artificial for most.
“We rolled-out Project Devil with Sales and Eng colleagues in the Fall and are on our way of rolling it across every Town. We grew to over 40 mobile apps, working closely with our Mobile applications group, including the recent addition of AOL.com and Engadget for iPad at CES.”
A good resume, like a good story, does not simply tell, it shows. Here, Eun shows how he has collaborated across divisions in a variety of ways. Sure, we expect presidents to do that. But we also treasure it in employees who break out of silos and establish working relationships across the company.
Join some cross-departmental teams, or start one, and show — don’t tell — about the results you accomplished together.
“Video: Through organic growth (+200% y/y) and the 5min acquisition, we have scaled the Comscore rankings from #11 in September to #5 in January. We now generate more UVs than Facebook, Hulu, Microsoft, Fox, and CBS. Since September 2010, AOL Video UVs have grown 62% and videos viewed grew 49% while the overall video market declined on both metrics.”
Eun uses numbers to show his results. They are impressive. Journalists, who traditionally resist metrics like these because we justifiably fear the rise of production quotas, can and should measure our success. Some measures for journalists:
- Deadline performance
- Appearances at the top of the home page or on the printed front page
- Reader engagement, as measured by comments
- Low numbers of corrections
- High Web page traffic
Journalists’ work can be measured and we should keep track of it ourselves as a yardstick for self improvement.
So, in his memo, Eun showed how he works with others, he demonstrated success and he quantified his results. I don’t think he will need a resume to get his next job, but if he does, it’s half-written.
One last smart thing that Eun did. He closed his e-mail with, “Go AOL!” Leaving without burning the bridge — Eun had left AOL once before — is another good example.
Coming Tuesday: A chat with Global Interactives Editor Paul Cheung of the Associated Press, 3 p.m. ET.
Questions about careers? E-mail Joe for an answer.
