If you’re tired of hearing about “The Da Vinci Code,” maybe you’d like a look at the da Vinci resume. After all, we all need to hunt for a job now and then, so why not take a few pointers from a genius on how to showcase our own qualifications?

Unlike the novel, the da Vinci resume is a fact. It is a job application that Leonardo submitted to Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan, in 1482. Ludovico was looking primarily for a military and civil engineer -- preferably one who could make himself useful by decorating the palace in his free time

Back then, Italy was a patchwork of warring city-states, of which Milan was one of the largest and most powerful. As a native of Florence, Leonardo was a foreigner as far as the Milanese were concerned. So, naturally, Ludovico Sforza is going to be skeptical, and even a little suspicious, of Leonardo’s application.

But Leonardo knows how to get a foot in the door. He writes:

“Most Illustrious Lord:

“Having now sufficiently seen and considered the proofs of all those who count themselves masters and inventors in the instruments of war, and finding that their invention and use does not differ in any respect from those in common practice, I am emboldened … to put myself in communication with your Excellency, in order to acquaint you with my secrets.”

Leonardo is shrewdly dangling his “secrets” in front of Ludovico as bait. If you were Ludovico, would you keep reading?

Then the applicant gets down to business:

“I can,” writes Leonardo, “construct bridges which are very light and strong and very portable with which to pursue and defeat an enemy … I can also make a kind of cannon, which is light and easy of transport, with which to hurl small stones like hail … I can noiselessly construct to any prescribed point subterranean passages - either straight or winding - passing if necessary under trenches or a river … I can make armored wagons carrying artillery, which can break through the most serried ranks of the enemy …”

But of course, even in Renaissance Italy, rulers are not always at war.

So Leonardo continues: “In time of peace, I believe I can give you as complete satisfaction as anyone else in the construction of buildings, both public and private, and in conducting water from one place to another.”

Hmmmm. Does this man have anything else to offer that sets his application apart from those of other job seekers?

He does indeed. Leonardo knows that Ludovico wants to erect a gigantic statute of a horse as a monument to his family. So he adds: “I can execute sculpture in bronze, marble or clay. Also, in painting, I can do as much as anyone, whoever he may be.”

So far, so good. But talk is cheap. So Leonardo clinches his application by offering to demonstrate his talents:

“If any of the aforesaid things should seem impossible or impractical to anyone, I offer myself as ready to make a trial of them in your park or in whatever place shall please your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with all possible humility."

Needless to say, Leonardo - with his hard-headed, results-oriented approach and his focus on his potential employer’s needs - got the job. If we can learn from his example, we can give our own employment prospects a very big boost.