Endeavouring to apply for a marketing job at GQ, Mehta created a 20 page resume that resembles a magazine. With visually appealing pictures, layouts, designs and fonts, the inner pages of the resume look exactly like a magazine spread.
Sumukh Mehta, a 21-year-old fresh business graduate from Jain University, Bangalore is all excited to join GQ, the world’s most coveted men’s magazine at its London office, for a six month internship. Endeavouring to apply for a marketing job at GQ, Mehta created a 20 page resume that resembles a magazine. With visually appealing pictures, layouts, designs and fonts, the inner pages of the resume look exactly like a magazine spread and carry the entire information about his education, work experience, skills etc.
While the editor of GQ India, Che Kurrien, shared the cover of Mehta’s resume on his Instagram account, the Managing Director, Mark Russell personally wrote to him after receiving his resume. In an overwhelming response through his mail he stated, “Thank you very much for sending your wonderful application to work at GQ. My editor Dylan Jones was very impressed”. The mail accepted his job application and without a formal interview provided him the choice to work with any of the departments in GQ among ‘features and news writing, design or pictures’.
A marketing enthusiast and a GQ fan, Mehta has his bags packed to begin his internship in London by September or October soon after his visa gets approved. It was the visa that was a challenge in applying for GQ London which inspired him to create the unique resume.
Mehta said, “GQ has been there on my mind from a very long time. But when I checked the Conde Nast publication portal, it said that people who do not have work visa or resident visa could not apply for a job role. Now this was a challenge I took up and thought that if I send a normal resume to the company, I’m sure it’ll end up in the bin. So I thought of portraying myself as a model, on the cover page and making a resume magazine which showcases my resume in a creative way. After all, whatever I had done till now for the past four years was going to be used! It took me 3 weeks to make the whole resume which included graphic design, photoshoot and the content for the resume”.
“I got the whole resume printed exactly like the Original British GQ, trying my best that the quality of the page matches the original GQ (which I know I couldn’t)” he added.
Mehta shared that he couriered the resume to three GQ offices and got a call from the publisher of GQ India asking if that was a college project, two days after Kurrien posted his resume on Instagram.
He said, “My main focus was to get a call from London office and it took three weeks for the British GQ to respond as I had addressed it to Mr. Dylan Jones and he had been travelling”. It was sometime in the midst of his final semester that he received the mail from the Managing Editor of GQ British stating that he had managed to impress the Editor-in-Chief and if he wanted to take up a six month paid internship or a work placement experience.
In a conversation with HRKatha, Mehta said, “GQ will provide me an international exposure and would help expand my network across the globe”. Mehta an all-rounder, who enjoys music and dance and is passionate about his fitness regime, has already interned at the likes of Viber, Dell and Vogue. He has also created 160 infographic resumes for MBA graduates through his start-up ‘Your Pitchh’. Post this internship as well, he plans to start a venture of his own, for which he is currently seeking investments.
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Hats off to HR Katha to bring this article to the notice of its Readers. Amazing and fantastic. It was so inspiring. The manner in which he prepared the Resume Magazine is extraordinarily innovative at a time when most of the employers/recruiters/resume writers think that one or two page resume is enough or else it will end up in the dustbin. He proved that it is only an assumption that a resume of more than 2 pages would not attract the attention. This is how one should innovate. It is not that everyone should prepare 20 page resume to get a job. One should tap & touch the areas and build up the content so as to suit and cater to the organization’s requirements. Once again thanks to HR Katha for this wonderful item.
“Thumps Up” to HR Katha and Mehta. Really, this can be truly said innovative. It is exemplary in a way that teaches how to create differentiation even on such a matter related to Internship. So many, Management grads dream for internship as well as placement. But, they can not think “out-of-the-box” which Sumukh Mehta has. This can be a good inspirational story for budding management grads to create space in a competitive environ. This is a good case study.