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The Success Journey: Mark Zuckerberg's Pre-Facebook Resume

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The Success Journey: Mark Zuckerberg's...
Pub: 8/26/2015
Upd: 10/21/2024
3 min read

Ever wondered what Mark Zuckerberg’s resume looks like? Was he as remarkable before founding Facebook?

Have you wondered what, exactly, does it take to go from being a student at a university to one of the world’s youngest billionaires and CEO superstars? Well, we definitely have – so for this reason, we bring you the story of Mark Zuckerberg, all in the format of a sassy resume!

 

Mark’s fascinating life story starts in 1984 in White Plains, New York. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired a software developer to tutor him privately. Zuckerberg took a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while still in high school. His father was a work-at-home dentist, so to help his dad out, in 1996, Mark Zuckerberg built a software program called “ZuckNet” that allowed all the computers between the house and the dental office to communicate with each other. This program is now considered a “primitive” version of AOL’s Instant Messenger, which came out the following year.

During his time in college, he’s done a number of controversial things. He made an app called Facemash, a social website letting users decide who was “hot” or “not.” The website, even though it was considered to be unethical and sexist by the university, went viral quite fast. Some consider it to be the predecessor of Tinder, one of the most popular dating apps out there. He also made a coursematch website, allowing students to know what classes they’re taking and to form study groups.

So it’s evident that Mark Zuckerberg’s resume was impressive enough, even before founding Facebook – But get this, he wasn’t some IT prodigy. He was more of an entrepreneur and less of a developer. It’s a pretty less-known fact that he actually majored in psychology at Harvard, not computer science. On the website TopCoder, you can see Zuckerberg’s rankings in terms of programming, which was not all that high. So if there’s anything to take away from all this, it’s that you don’t have to be the most academic person out there, or have 200 years of work experience to be successful – what counts is your persistence in making dreams into reality.


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References:
Richard Feloni – Business Insider / Joel Brown – Addicted2Success / Alyson Shontell – Sfgate / Larry Kim – Inc / Brandon Griggs – CNNAseem Gauav – Indiatvnews / Charles Arthur – The Guardian / Andrew Pulver – The Guardian / Jemima Kiss – The Guardian / Jose Antonio Vargas – NewyorkerMarilynn McLachlan – Nzherald / Anna Vital – FundersAndFounders / Joshua Barrie – Business Insider / Rebecca Borison – Business Insider / Ned Smith – BusinessnewsdailyPriya Florence Shah – BlogBrandz / Ekaterina Walter – Inc  / Jack Linshi – Time  / Julie Bort – Business Insider / Eli Langer – CNBC /Ashkan Karbasfrooshan – Techcrunch / Jolie O’Dell – Venture Beat / Rebecca Greenfield – The Wire / Peter Economy – Inc / Alyssa Newcomb – Abcnews / Jennifer Booton – Marketwatch / Adrian Granzella Larssen – The Muse / Katherine Moon – The Muse / Seth Fiegerman – Mashable / Christine Ekickson – Mashable / Hayley Tsukayama – Washingtonpost / Max Knoblauch – Mashable / Steve Kux – Lifehack / Billy Gallagher – Techcrunch / Maya Kosoff – Business Insider / Sarah Frier – Bloomberg / Amar Toor – The Verge / Rich McCormick – The Verge / James Vincent – The Verge / Benjamin Popper – The Verge / Jena McGregor – Washington Post / Kim Shandrow – Entrepreneur / Geoff Weiss – Entrepreneur / Kevin Daum – Inc / Tom Tauli – Forbes / Eric Jackson – Forbes / Karissa Bell – Mashable / Brian Koerber – Mashable / Samantha Murphy Kelly – Mashable / Laura Montini – Inc

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Volen Vulkov
Volen Vulkov is a resume expert and the co-founder of Enhancv. He has written more than 500 resume guides and deep-dive articles on how to create your resume and cover letter, that inspire job applicants to make a resume to be proud of. His work has been featured in Forbes, Zendesk, HubSpot, and Business Insider, and cited by top universities and educational institutions, like Thunderbird School of Management, Rochester University, University of Miami, and Udemy. Volen applies his deep knowledge and practical experience to write about career changes, development, and how to stand out in the job application process.
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