Make Your Resume Great Again: How World Leaders Rose to the Top

Author: Zenresume Editorial Team
Updated on March 05, 2021

What do you consider the highest rung on the career ladder? CEO? Director? Proprietor? How about world leader?

Looking at how some of the world’s current leaders climbed to the top invites a mixture of emotions, depending on who you’re looking at. Some are inspiring, some are surprising, but all are different. For many, the path to one of the most powerful positions a person can hold was neither straight nor smooth. Some cases make you question how they even got there.

Which is exactly what we did.

Taking a deep dive into the timelines of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel, we set out to discover how the backgrounds of leaders in some of the world’s most influential countries compare.

Attention to detail

It’s clear to see these four leaders have had wildly different paths. To provide further background, we’re going to unpack their timelines in more detail to further understand how they got to where they are today.

Donald Trump

From his multiple bankruptcies and legal cases to his successful TV show and winning the Presidency –Trump’s track record has been a tumultuous ride to the top.

After college, he decided to go into the family business, taking over his father’s company at 24. His portfolio continued to grow, developing Trump Towers at 36, the Mar-a-Lago estate at 39 and landing a book deal at 41. From there, things went downhill, accruing hefty personal debt, several casinos going bust and reporting millions of dollars’ worth of losses. After a stint as host of The Apprentice at 57 and being awarded a Walk of Fame star at 60, his profile came crashing back down due to loss of sales and fraud. Despite claiming Mexicans are “bringing drugs, bringing crime” into America while announcing his bid, he was elected President of the United States, winning against Hilary Clinton.

Boris Johnson

Beginning his career in journalism, Boris has made his way through the political ranks despite his debatable actions. At times, he’s used racist and homophobic language and has been known to be elitist, dishonest and lazy, but some find him entertaining, humorous and untraditional, painting him as a controversial figure.

After a promising start, Boris was fired merely a year after starting his graduate role at The Times after inventing a quote from a famous historian in an article. That same year, he landed a job at The Telegraph, only to be later accused of fake journalism. Despite this, the promotions kept coming, becoming an editor and columnist in 1994. In 1995, a phone recording emerged of him agreeing to provide the address of a journalist for the purpose of intimidation.

His first attempt at entering the House of Commons was a failure, but after bolstering his profile through political TV appearances and an editorial position at The Spectator, he won a seat in 2001. That year, chinks in his character continued to surface, as he was described as "ineffably duplicitous" by his boss after promising not to enter Parliament during his editorship. Within a year of being appointed vice-chairman and shadow arts minister of the Conservative Party, Johnson was dismissed after lying about an affair with a Spectator colleague.

After being re-elected to Parliament, he was then dismissed from The Spectator, taking his total dismissals to three. From there, his political career developed, despite another claim of an affair with a different journalist and later personal prosecutions after lying about the UK's spending on European Union membership.

After winning the Conservative Leadership race following Theresa May’s resignation, he was elected as UK Prime Minister in 2019.

Vladimir Putin

An immediate look at Putin’s timeline shows a steady stream of successes, from his stint in the KGB, to his nigh-on 20-year presidency. During his reign, he has helped the Russian economy grow, lifted the country out of social and political issues, restored links between republics after the economic collapse following the fall of the Soviet Union and introduced support for underrepresented businesses in Russia, such as farming, science and manufacturing.

While some see him as a strong leader, many are wary, accusing him of jailing political opponents, restricting press freedom as well as persecuting and even assassinating political activists. He was also accused of electoral fraud and vote-rigging, causing tens of thousands of people to protest against him and question whether Russia can have a free and fair election.

In recent years, there’s been some controversy around Putin’s involvement with the 2016 US presidential election, where he was accused of leading an interference program in support of Donald Trump. These allegations have contributed to dampening people’s faith in his leadership and caused doubts around how he handles deals with world affairs.

Angela Merkel

Looking at her educational background, Angela’s entrance into the political world seems arbitrary. After graduating from Karl Marx University with a degree in physics, she went on to study at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin before being awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry. It was in the aftermath of the 1989 revolutions that she joined the Democratic Awakening as a spokesperson and subsequently the Christian Democratic Union party. From here, her promotions were steady, landing the promotion to Minister for the Environment, Conservation and Reactor Safety just five years after her foray into politics. In 2000, she became the first female leader of a German party, as well as first non-Catholic to lead the CDU. A further five years later, she went on to become the first woman, first East German and the youngest person to hold the office of Chancellor. Her achievements continued, as she was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom – the foremost US civilian decoration – in 2011. Most recently, she won her fourth term as Chancellor with little effort.

Past experience

Think these four people are anomalies in the rise to political power?

Think again.

Assessing leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern, we found that the popular careers of politicians prior to their inaugural roles are incredibly diverse. Yes, the majority came from governmental backgrounds (28%), but legal (20%), media (16%) and education (16%) jobs also featured. This proves that not only is there not just one perceived path to a certain type of job but that you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone when paving the road to your version of success.