A letter in which Steve Jobs, notorious co-founder and former CEO of Apple, asks for a job, joined a online auction starting on February 24. Given the information contained in the job application to be auctioned, including its date, it is very likely that it dates back to when Jobs dropped out of college. The document is from 1973 and has been auctioned before, in 2018, when it raised more than $175.
A little context
The year 1973 is significant in Jobs' life because it was part of the years leading up to the founding of Apple, in 1976. Furthermore, it was precisely the year in which he dropped out of Reed College after just one semester. After that, however, Jobs would continue to attend university courses, but as an auditor and no longer as a student.
One of the courses he continued to attend during this period, in fact, was calligraphy. According to Jobs himself, in a speech at Stanford University, the course offered the necessary tools for the first Mac had the typography and variety of fonts that it had. In his words: “If I hadn’t dropped out of college, I would never have taken that calligraphy course, and computers might not have the beautiful typography that they do.”
Employment questionnaire responses
Returning to the letter that goes to auction, Jobs' answers can certainly be considered curious. In the address field, for example, Jobs put the name of the university he studied at and nothing else. The ironic, somewhat humorous tone of another of his answers is striking. When asked whether or not he had access to some form of transportation, the answer given was "it is possible, but unlikely."
However, the truly remarkable part of the document is in its final section, where he describes his ability to work with computers and calculators, as well as with design and technology. In the section on interests, Jobs states his interest in electronics and engineering technology and design. Jobs' emphasis on wanting to work in design and technology in some way is clear.
In the year following the job application, Jobs gets a technical position at Atari. It was there that he first met and worked with Steve Wozniak, the other co-founder of Apple, which was created shortly afterwards. We do not know if its entry into Atari was caused by this auction document, which runs until March 24, but its historical importance is undeniable.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. 9to5Mac
Image: Waseef (iStock)
