My Resume is Complicated
How the heck do you tell your life story in two pages or less?
My resume is complicated!
I worked for a long time in senior roles including marketing, acquisitions, and business development (amongst other things), at what is now the billion-dollar global anime behemoth, Crunchyroll, but I wasn't exactly their employee and most people working there would be hard-pressed to remember me.
Between January 2018 to May 2021, I was the Managing Director of the UK-based anime distributor, Manga Entertainment, which re-branded as Funimation UKIE in 2019. This was following the successful acquisition by Sony in 2021. Funimation along with the various international anime businesses Sony now owned including Manga, Wakanim, and Madman Anime were all rolled into what is now known as Crunchyroll, Llc in March 2022.
How did I find myself managing the UK’s largest anime label during the exact time one of the largest entertainment and media organizations on earth was consolidating its ownership of the global distribution of Japanese animation? I never intended to “rise to the top”. I never fancied myself as “MD Material”. Not only am I an “Accidental Otaku”, but I am also an accidental executive.
How do you explain so much history? How do you articulate all of your background information? How do you describe the various slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, that is for most of us, our work experience from high school to today?
How do you express all of this information in 140 characters or less on a 2-page resume?
Ancient History!
Then there is the other challenge, which is wrapping up your work experience history. It’s not so difficult when you’re a newly minted graduate or apprentice, but try being concise when you’ve been doing this work thing for thirty years or more. What do you include? What do you exclude? The best advice I have received is to “Keep it simple and focus on the best parts”.
I find that having "anime" and "MD" in my resume doesn't exactly open doors in the UK job market, which is where I have always been based. That on its own is an interesting story, and perhaps that’s the story I should focus on. I worked at Manga Entertainment from January 2005 until May 2021 rising up the ranks from Marketing Executive to Director of Acquisitions & Marketing, to COO and eventually MD.
How do I explain how I got there in 140 characters or less on a 2-page resume?
For the record. It is not a good story…
In 2015, when Manga went private I received a big promotion and a very specific mission to accomplish. I loved my role as COO at Manga Entertainment, LTD. I'd worked hard to get to that position, dedicating hundreds of hours in unpaid overtime, thousands of miles of travel, endless meetings, presentations, pitches, and debriefs. I loved every minute of it. I was tasked with finding a new owner for the company. I initiated talks with US-based mega-disti, Funimation during the summer of 2017, which led to Manga's sale to Sony Pictures in April 2019.
I inherited the MD role. I didn't ask for it, nor did I want it. My "promotion" came about under the worst possible circumstances, and it is something I've avoided talking about publicly. This is the first time I have written about it.
Colin Lomax was the MD of Manga Entertainment and Anchor Bay Films for the UK and Republic of Ireland (“UKIE”). He ran the business from July 2006 until he passed away suddenly on December 28th, 2017. It was during the Christmas holidays and it is the most traumatic experience I have ever had in my professional life. Colin was not just my boss. He was my ally, my mentor, and my friend. He was family. We were deep into our due diligence process with Sony, I had impatient shareholders, a grieving family, and a distraught team. I needed to step up. It was difficult, but I prevailed, and I did my best. I never got a chance to process what had happened to my friend, or the impact it had on me.
How do I write about that in 140 characters or less on a 2-page resume?
I worry that my extensive and varied experience is a red flag for employers. How do I convey the context of my career to an algorithmic recruitment portal? How do I communicate to a potential employer that I am still learning, and that I want to earn my place within their organization? I don’t believe I am owed anything, and I believe that it is sometimes necessary to take what might feel like a backward step in terms of pay and status, to get yourself back on the career ladder.
Now, more than ever, I believe this is the reality for many entertainment and media professionals, and in all honesty I see moves like this as more of a sideways step than a setback. Leave your ego at the door, and flex your listening muscles coz you’re going to need them.
I am sharing all of this because I see so many wonderful people I know on LinkedIn with “open to work” status, and I want you to know that I see you, and I feel you. The film, television, animation, and video game production industry is going through a period of profound change. I have never seen so many talented people thrown into joblessness at the same time before. The “disruption” in these industries is seismic. Jobs that were needed yesterday are no longer needed today. A lot of roles we have invested decades into are now extinct and they won’t be coming back.
Job-seeking and client acquisition (If you're a consultant or freelancer) is more difficult now than it has been for a long time. Nothing is coming easy to me these days, and despite my peppy constitution, I feel anxious and worried about "what's next?" for me. I know that you are likely experiencing similar feelings. That's OK. Keep persisting. Keep prevailing. Better days are ahead.
Your resume is your story, so tell it as best you can.
A shorter version of this article first appeared on my JeromeMaz Anime LinkedIn page in February 2025.